Order Removes Vacant Posts at PICA

One hundred vacant posts are to be removed from the Passport, Immigration and Citizenship Agency (PICA).

These are among 138 posts that were abolished across Ministries, Agencies and Departments, as stipulated in the Civil Service Establishment (General) Order, 2016.

The Order, which effects changes to the Civil Service Establishment (General) Order, 2015, was approved by the House of Representatives on Tuesday (January 24).

Minister of Finance and Planning, Hon. Audley Shaw, who presented the Order, said it also reflects other changes in posts such as reclassification and new posts created; retitling and the upgrading of posts, and the effective dates for these changes.

He noted that major changes to be effected in the Order include the modernisation of the Accountant General’s Department to strengthen public financial management, in keeping with the thrust to improve efficiency in the public sector and to meet International Monetary Fund (IMF) conditionalities.

Other changes are: amendment to the Judicature Resident Magistrate’s Act, which enacts the renaming of the Senior Resident Magistrate to Senior Judge of the Parish Court; and renaming the Resident Magistrate to Judge of the Parish Court.

It also shows the revision of salaries for the 2015 to 2017 contract period, consequent on the Heads of Agreement signed between the Government and the Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions (JCTU).

The Order also repeals the Office of the Trustee in Bankruptcy and establishes the Office of the Supervisor of Insolvency and Office of the Government Trustee.