Dedicated Public Servant Hails Executive Agency Model, Wants More Established

Head of the Executive Agencies Monitoring Unit at the Ministry of Finance and Planning, Owen McKnight, says that the Executive Agency model has been very successful and expresses the desire for more to be established.

“I believe that Executive Agencies, as a model, are very successful, even if it is from the point that performance targets, in general, are met by these agencies. For all the agencies I have seen so far, there has been significant transformation in terms of the business processes and in terms of the attitude,” he states.

Mr. McKnight, who has given over 17 years of service to the public sector, was speaking in a recent interview with JIS News.

Executive Agencies were created by Government to substantially improve the efficiency and effectiveness of service provided in the public sector by delegating greater financial and human resource management responsibilities to a Chief Executive Officer whose actions are governed by a Performance Agreement.

The first such agencies were created in 1999, and to date, 10 Government agencies have been granted Executive Agency status.

Since 1997, Mr. McKnight has been in charge of the unit that has responsibility for monitoring the financial performance of Executive Agencies to ensure that proper standards and procedures are being followed.

The dedicated civil servant tells JIS News that he came into the job “by chance”.

He recalls that he had applied for the post of Principal Financial Officer that had opened up at the Ministry, but was unsuccessful.

“I was called a little later on and informed that they were undertaking a project relating to the transformation of public bodies, Executive Agencies in particular, and they were actually thinking of engaging my services to lead that unit. As it happened, I was offered the position after about six months waiting,” he says.

He tells JIS News that while his primary responsibilities relate to Executive Agencies, the nature of his job is broad-based.

“One of the critical aspects of my job is really to facilitate the development of these agencies and… I also have the responsibility to be that liaison person between the Ministry, the agencies, and other stakeholders like Cabinet Office,” he states.

He also mentions that he is responsible for ensuring that the framework under which Executive Agencies work is current.

“There are a lot of legislation being passed in terms of accounting standards and auditing standards. These are constantly undergoing changes so therefore, part of my responsibility is to ensure that all those changes are incorporated into the documents that actually govern the operation of Executive Agencies,” he states.

Mr. McKnight says the highlight of his job is seeing the transformation of entities probably not considered to be performance-oriented into highly performing agencies.

He says that while there are challenges, the job is very rewarding.

“A lot of times there are things you may want to do and you are not able to do it because of resource challenges. But you can’t just sit down and say that the resources are lacking and therefore, you are not going to do anything. You need to do something and at the end of the day, I have to ensure that my manager is satisfied with my performance,” he states.

The dedicated public servant is also encouraging graduates from the tertiary level to do a stint in Government.

He says that having worked for a time in the private sector, he is aware that there is the common belief and perception that the private sector is superior in terms of processes. “It’s not really so,” Mr. McKnight states.

“I think the only thing that is lacking in Government is really the resources to carry on your job. There are persons, who work long hours, which goes against the belief of the public in general, who believe all civil servants are lazy and don’t do any work. But there are so many persons, who work these odd hours that you would be surprised,” he says.

Meanwhile, Accounting and Operating Systems Analyst at the Ministry of Finance and Planning, Michael Martell, who has known Mr. McKnight for more than a decade, describes him as someone, who has very high standards and is very goal-oriented.

“He is conscientious in what he does, he is highly knowledgeable in a lot of areas in addition to his current responsibilities, and he is a very resourceful person,” Mr. Martell states.

Mr. McKnight is a graduate of the College of Arts, Science and Technology, now the University of Technology Jamaica, the University of the West Indies and Barry University, where he did his Master of Business Administration degree.