Recent pay increase is a strategy to retain civil servants – PM

The Ministry of Civil Service is not immune to labour mobility and demand from developed economies, particularly in Australia and New Zealand and the ongoing loss of skills has led to a large number of vacancies in most specialised government agencies.

Prime Minister and Minister for Civil Service, Sitiveni Rabuka highlighted this while giving his ministerial statement on improving productivity across the Civil Service with increased salary adjustments in the budget.

Rabuka says the recent salary increase is a strategic employee retention measure as well, aimed at retaining our most talented and experienced civil servants.

He says labour mobility affects service delivery and in some instances, leads to existing staff carrying extra workloads to fill the gap due to increased migration.

The Prime Minister says the government also introduced an internship and graduate trainee program to enable graduating students from various tertiary institutions to join the civil service as an employer of choice.

Rabuka says the civil service is a key arm of the government machinery and is essential for effectively delivering government services and programs in the budget.

The Prime Minister says by creating a supportive and engaging work environment, they aim to ensure that increased salary investments translate directly into improved service delivery. Independent MP Faiyaz Koya agrees that many young civil servants have migrated but the government also has capable workers who have not achieved their full potential because too much is expected from them.

Koya says monetary rewards should not only be the source of that particular incentive, deriving satisfaction from knowing that the services to the general public are a much higher reward.

He also asked what measurement methods we have in place to check on productivity.

Koya says the government is engaged in a digital transformation and successive governments have faced huge problems in terms of productivity.

He says this is not due to the civil servants, it's also due to our inability to get ourselves a proper digital platform.

The Independent MP further says the Ministry of Lands is not connected to the Registrar of Titles and not even connected to the Fiji Roads Authority to upgrade their system.

He says he understands that this won't happen overnight and it would be insane to call the civil service to raise their level of performance if the government does not provide that particular support.