Govt departments told: ‘We will have to work more, for less’

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 Thursday, April 23, 2020 - 09:53

* From Chief Secretary's statement in press conference yesterday:

In early March, all Government departments and entities were required to prepare contingency plans to handle the COVID-19 pandemic, taking into account updates to the civil contingencies legislation and recommendations from our Director of Public Health.

The majority of government counters were closed to the public, although critical ones are still open, and in order to delay the potential spread of the virus, Departmental Heads have had to reduce crowd gatherings in public areas and rotate officers using a ‘Team A and Team B’ system, whereby team members would work from home. Some departments have had the capability to operate exclusively from home, using online systems.

More than 5,000 public servants have been affected by the contingency plans and the response from the majority has been exceptional.

REVIEWING

As we manage the situation, we are reviewing the operational status of departments and will be making some announcements in due course about the re-opening of offices and counters.

Perhaps the greatest burden in the situation thus far has fallen to the three Human Resources Managers (and their teams) within the Public

Service: Collin at Civil Service HR, Michael at Public Service HR and Lesley at GHA HR; managing 6,000 government employees, with around 400 redeployments in total throughout Gibraltar and currently 200 actively supporting front-line COVID-19 activities, such as the Nightingale Hospital at Europa Point, supporting our COVID-19 volunteers, manning helplines etc.

Keeping the entire public service informed, motivated, ready to ramp up activity whilst managing burnout, is difficult. Everything from catering to transportation has been handled by the HR teams, ensuring that the necessary resources are in place at any given date.

The Public Service administration’s work continues, perhaps not so much in the limelight, but the situation is being monitored and reviewed on a daily basis. The flipside of such an extreme circumstance that is the global pandemic is that it allows the Chief Secretary the opportunity to see the systems and the people tested to extremes, bringing out where things need to change and what has been resilient.

There are definitely significant changes needed to improve the public services in Gibraltar.

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23-04-2020 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR