GOVERNMENT IS MOVING to make the way it spends nearly $800 million annually on goods and services more open as part of a strategy to build trust in the public sector.

To this end, the Ministry of the Civil Service, through its Training Administration Division, will shortly launch training in procurement management for technocrats and public sector managers who are responsible for tendering and contract management.

Word of this came yesterday from Minister of the Civil Service Rawle Eastmond as he delivered the feature address at the opening of a two-day conference on reinventing government in the Caribbean at Grand Barbados Resort.

He noted a growing global trend of citizens not trusting their governments with a dissatisfaction rate of 65 per cent in Western Europe, 73 per cent in Eastern and Central Europe and 60 per cent in North America.

"Although I am not aware of any statistics for the Caribbean in this matter," he added, "I would not be too surprised if we, in this region, were to some extent mirroring this worldwide trend."

The minister said there was hardly any area of the socio-economic landscape that was not affected by Government's operations, with services and goods valued at $783.4 million or 14 per cent of all goods and services produced – the third highest sector of the economy.

About 21 per cent of the labour force was employed by Government, making it the largest single employer and the second highest sectoral contributor to employment.

"Public trust is central to receiving the support for the creation and implementation of public policies," Eastmond said.

"In other words, in an atmosphere of distrust and public cynicism about our governing institutions, it will be hard to enlist the support and compliance of citizens for policies enunciated by the government of the day. I go further – in a democracy, unless there is some trust in governmental institutions, the society as a whole cannot work."

Eastmond felt that for public trust to strive, there must first be sound public service ethics in place.

"There must be a common core of values around which we as a society can agree and subscribe to and which can function as standards that guide public servants both elected and administrative in their daily operations," he said.

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