TIU Seeks To Improve Areas That Impact Citizens Directly

The Transformation Implementation Unit (TIU) within the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service is looking at the Unit’s ‘efficiency projects’ to see how they can improve areas that will impact citizens directly.

“Based on the findings of [recent] research commissioned by the Unit, I think that we need to recalibrate areas of the project that deal with the efficient delivery of service,” Executive Director of the (TIU), Maria Thompson Walters, said, while speaking at a recent JIS ‘Think Tank’.

“When you look at the response from our citizens and the general public, what they are interested in is services that impact them,” she pointed out.

Mrs. Thompson Walters said that as it stands now, most of the transformation projects, especially the large projects being undertaken, “are really internal projects trying to get the public sector in shape, becoming a transformed organization”.

She said that the TIU will be trying to accommodate the transformation of the sector, while ensuring the users of the public-sector services have an improved experience.

“I understand the imperative to do two things at the same time, but we can’t lose our focus on building the foundation. We don’t expect the world to stand still while we catch up,” she argued.

In addition to this, the Executive Director said that the research was also aimed at understanding how public officers, as all stakeholders and interest groups, see public-sector transformation.

She said it was found that there is very strong support for the transformation of the public sector, “which is heartening to see, as the general public also seeing the imperative tells us that we are actually doing something right, that we’re hitting some of the right notes”.

“Over 80 per cent of persons who were surveyed believe that transformation of the public service is imperative for the future of the country,” Mrs. Thompson Walters noted.

Additionally, she said that citizens have a very high expectation of the outcomes of public-sector transformation.

“We cannot forget that they expect that things will improve for them, with them being able to access all government services with efficiency, and receiving good service from all government agencies,” she added.