Government will have a significant shift in its “modus operandi” and standards of service delivery in the next four years. These are the comments of Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama, Prime Minister as he announced today Government’s plan to prepare an Outsourcing Policy for the whole of civil service as part of its reform agenda.

Commodore Bainimarama said that it is essential to have clear policy guidelines in place on the outsourcing of certain functions currently performed in civil service as Government remains steadfast in its reform agenda, including the streamlining of a number of business processes and practices to achieve efficiency and effectiveness in service delivery.

“Such a policy will also contribute to Government’s ongoing efforts in reducing its operating expenditure, make available more resources for essential capital expenditure and overall encourage private investment for growth in jobs and income. We have already begun this process through the outsourcing of road maintenance works earlier this month to a Malaysian company and are expecting good results from this decision.”

Commodore Bainimarama said that Government is conscious of the fact that outsourcing could lead to job losses in the civil service. He however emphasized that Government will explore options on how best affected employees could participate in opportunities arising from outsourced contracts. He said this is why he has requested the Public Service Commission to conduct wide ranging consultations across the civil service in the development of the comprehensive policy on outsourcing.

Such a policy inter-alia will articulate the priority areas for outsourcing, implications on staffing, procedures for outsourcing, coordinating agency, supervisory controls and safeguard mechanisms, monitoring of expected outcomes and maintenance of accountability etc.

Commodore Bainimarama said the Outsourcing Policy will be considered and approved by Cabinet before its effective implementation within this year.

Date: 16/06/2010