Six Make History

Six Public Servants made history yesterday by becoming the first ever public servants to receive awards of the Public Service Commission under the PSC theme “Striving For Excellence in the Public Service”.

The six recipients are; Janelle Johnson, Senior Administrative Officer in the Corporate Services Unit Ministry of Finance and Economic Management; Levu Antfalo Boaz, Weather Forecaster in the Department of Vanuatu Meteorology and Geo-Hazard in the Ministry of Climate Change and Adaptation (received on his behalf by Director David Gibson), Camillia Garae, Geologist, in the Department of Geology, Mines and Water Resources under the Ministry of Lands, Mines and Natural Resources; Solip Nato, Civil Engineer responsible for planning and supervision of yearly programs for work and projects prioritized by the Government of Vanuatu and in accordance with the PWD Provincial, Corporate and Business Plan and the development and supervision of the PWD and Donors Funded infrastructure work in Malampa Province; Julie Rereman, Senior Labour Officer, assisting in implementing the marketing of employment services and labour mobility programs, and Lionel Kaluat, Commissioner of Labour, under the Ministry of Internal Affairs, who was instrumental in the Regional Seasonal Workers Scheme in New Zealand and the similar scheme in Australia as well as Acting on numerous occasions in the capacity of Director Generals in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. He received double recognitions in yesterday’s Public Service Commission’s first ever awards.

Each awardee also receives Vt100,000 along with the Certificate of Award in three different categories; Ministries Exceptional Award, Inspirational Award and the Public Service Commission Excellence Award (Officer of the Year).

Prime Minister Charlot Salwai, who is responsible for Public Service matters, was the Guest Speaker at the PSC Awards Ceremony yesterday.

He took the opportunity to congratulate the awardees and expressed his appreciation for the initiative taken by the current Public Service Commission to implement the decision which first emerged in 2007 and again later in 2014 but shelved until the present PSC under the Chairmanship of Martin Mahe and Commission he leads got down to implement the long awaited policy into reality with first fruition yesterday.

“We are today witnessing an important event and a milestone in the implementation of one of the PSC Human Resource policy to strengthen Performance outcome of all public servants.

“This is a legal requirement under the Public Service Act and Section 4 (j) of the Act states that the Public Service Commission must focus on achieving management performances, with expected results,” said PM Salwai.

“I was pleased to find out that in September 2007, the then Prime Minister, Ham Lini Vanuaroroa, already launched the performance management policy of the PSC except for the implementation part of it which did not eventuate.

“But 29th July 2014, the then Prime Minister Sato Kilman, launched a revised Performance Management System and Implementation process to start in January 2015.

“Following this, the PSC saw the need to strengthen the effectiveness of the program and so invited a Human Resource Consultant to run a Performance Management and Monitoring program to assist the Directors. Today as Minister responsible for the Public Service, I wish emphasize the need for a strong commitment and support for the full implementation of the Performance Management System which is an important Human Resource policy towards improving productivity and service delivery to the citizens of the nation of Vanuatu,” Prime Minister Salwai said.

He went on to emphasize the importance of building and sustain the culture of compliance, conformance and performance across the public service of Vanuatu. He said he believes strongly that this initiative will result in the public servants being more organized, productive and achieving the results expected from them.

He pointed out that based on performance evaluation of 2015, the Prime Minister expressed his appreciation to the Public Service Commission, all Director Generals, Directors and Human Resource Officers and the Public Servants who gave all their support that resulted in the completion of the performance management process by the end of 2015.

In his remarks during the ceremony, the Chairman of the Public Service Commission Martin Mahe, said only six Ministries completed the requirements under the selection criteria with submissions of the nominees for the awards within the given time frame, thus only six public servants under thoseministries received the awards yesterday.

He added that in 2017, the Public Service Commission will ensure all 13 Government Ministries will be part of the PSC Awards with many public servants who will be nominated and to receive one of the three Awards under the Public Service Awards Scheme.

Refreshments were served at the end of the PSC First Ever Awards presentation yesterday morning.