For the past four days Bernard Mencke from the Gemeente Assen, Capital of the Province of Drenthe in Holland, has been performing a quick-scan of how the Government works. This process entails analyzing the business processes within Government and making recommendations on how the Government can run more efficiently through its current constitutional changes.
During his visit, he had twenty-three interviews, many with Department Heads of the Island Government. During the interviews he spoke with people about their tasks and duties, and how they are related to the entire Government organization. Mencke stated that the people he interviewed were proud of their work and were willing to share information openly.
Another issue that he pointed out was that the position of Island Secretary needs more clarification. Currently it is unclear what the position of the Island Secretary entails and what to expect from that office. In Holland the Island Secretary is considered the General Director of all Departments.
It was noted during his initial scan of that Saba has many departments with only a couple people working in them. An idea will be presented to possibly combine departments and instead of having approximately twenty departments, they could try to bring it down to around five. Mencke told GIS that, "It is remarkable how Saba has such a diverse set of tasks. I have a deep respect for how Sabans are able to juggle this list of tasks, which are often done by much larger organizations within Holland"
Friday morning Mencke met with the Executive Council to give a verbal presentation and remarks on his findings. The meeting went well with many questions and considerations for the future. A short term action plan was drawn up and the idea of having an Implementation Manager to assist in the changes to work full-time was brought up. Mencke further stated that, "If the Government is to exist and grow into a first world functioning organization, then transitions like these are to be expected".
Source: Saba Government Information Services – gis@sabagov.com