Top Civil Servants for 2019/20 Awarded

Acting Director for the Jamaica Information Service’s (JIS) Research, Print and Production Division, Celia Lindsay, is one three persons selected as 2019/20 Civil Servant of the Year.

She copped the award after topping the field of entrants in the category of Management.

The other winners are: Customer Service Manager at the Administrator General’s Department, Sophia Levy, who topped the field in the Middle Management category; and Administrative Assistant with the Jamaica Defence Force Coast Guard, Candice Daley, who won the Technical Support category.

Each awardee received a plaque, citations, a cash prize of $200,000 along with a $150,000 allocation for a joint community project, courtesy of this year’s main sponsor, First Heritage Cooperative Credit Union Limited (FHC).

The presentations were made during Friday’s (November 15) Civil Servant of the Year awards ceremony at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in New Kingston.

The event was organized by the Civil Service Week Steering Committee in the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service. Keynote speaker was Portfolio Minister, Dr. the Hon, Nigel Clarke.

Ms. Lindsay, whose career spans some 20 years, described her selection as unexpected but humbling.

“I started out as a writer at the JIS. I moved on to King’s House [also] as writer, and [returned] to the JIS as Manager for the Research and Publications Department,” she said.

Ms. Lindsay indicated that she has always strived for excellence and endeavours to have the right approach to doing work that will benefit the nation.

“I always try to get what needs to be done… done, while maintaining the respect of [and for] my colleagues and staying focused on what has to be done,” she said.

Ms. Lindsay was also selected based on the extent to which she was adjudged to have positively influenced the lives of the persons with whom she interacts outside of work.

“I work with a range of persons through counselling and I [try to] make a difference to the quality of life they have by helping them to identify challenges, and also develop strategies that will improve on their current situation towards [attaining] change and a better quality of life,” she informed.

Ms. Lindsay advised that she is in the process of planning activities for her tenure as Civil Servant of the Year, and expressed the hope that these will positively impact other public sector groups across the island.

Dr. Clarke, in his address, congratulated the awardees while underscoring the importance of their roles.

“Your actions can lead to how people see government as an entity. Your role is important role… [as] without it, we don’t have a State,” he said.

Dr. Clarke said the Administration remains focused on further strengthening the public sector through the recruitment of people who are technically proficient and sharp, “because that is what it takes if we want Jamaica to achieve higher levels of greatness”.

“To get this requires action on the part of civil servants… but it also requires action on the part of Government. One of the things that I support is investing in our civil service so that we can continuously improve the effectiveness of our service delivery,” he added.

The partnership between FHC and the CSW Steering Committee has facilitated a revamping of the annual awards with an increase in the number of Civil Servant of the Year awardees to three, up from one for the previous 15 stagings.

FHC Chief Executive Officer, Roxann Linton, underscored the significance of this undertaking and the overall collaboration.

“We [FHC] saw it fit to increase our involvement this year, because of the important role civil servants play in the development of our nation. In fact, civil servants make up a large percentage of our membership at FHC. We salute them all and think it imperative that we acknowledge outstanding efforts in three areas [Technical Support, Middle Management and Management], which we consider to be prudent to society,” she said.