Avoiding job losses in public sector

Government is doing all it can to avert job losses in the public sector. However, this sector must become much more competitive and efficient, if it is to aid in the country’s economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and in efforts to compete on the global stage.

Governor of the Central Bank of Barbados, Cleviston Haynes suggested the above this week, as he fielded questions from members of the press, after he delivered the Central Bank of Barbados’s review of Barbados’ economic performance for the first six months of 2020 and gave an outlook for the remainder of the year.

“As far as I am aware, the Government is doing all in its power not to have job losses in the public sector. This has been publicly discussed before. The whole effort for example around the BOSS (Barbados Optional Savings Scheme) initiative, is one designed not to have loss of jobs in the public sector, because we’ve had such a large loss of jobs in the private sector, that you don’t want now to have a large loss of jobs in the public sector and then the society just goes into a vicious circle. So one does not anticipate losses in the public
sector,” Haynes pointed out.

He however noted, “What we want to do from a public sector perspective, is to improve our ability to provide services to the private sector itself, because we need to ensure that the economy is more competitive as we go forward and that really is the focus of the public sector.

“I don’t think the issue of job losses is where we are focused. The objective is, how can we get our public sector to enhance its productivity and efficiency, such that it will feed into private sector activity, because we need over time to become a more competitive economy.

Clearly, what has happened with this crisis, is that it has set us back. It has changed the whole economic landscape, both from a domestic perspective, but also globally. We’re going to have to change how we do things and therefore, we have to make sure that as we go forward, our public sector plays a role of helping to enhance the competitiveness, that will allow us to compete on the global stage,” the Central Bank Governor asserted. (RSM)