fp Turks and Caicos

The Turks and Caicos Islands interim government is now seeking to hire 10-15 deputy secretaries to work under new permanent secretaries in five new ministries. The application deadline is Jan. 15.

The Dec. 20 job announcement is another major step in the ongoing reform of the government’s civil service of more than 2,000 employees. Nine current ministries will be reduced to five with new permanent secretaries for each.

However, neither the organization of the new ministries nor their new leaders have been revealed.

A short list of permanent secretary candidates is scheduled to be interviewed Jan. 4-6, with the final selections expected before the end of January. They will then help select their new deputies, with two or three for each new ministry.

Preferred candidates for permanent secretaries were Turks and Caicos Islanders or TCI British Overseas Territories passport holders, but others were also allowed. Candidates for deputies need to be islanders “or demonstrate strong and permanent links with the islands,” according to the job announcement.

Just as for permanent secretaries, previous government experience is not required for deputies. The positions are open to any civil servant, including unsuccessful permanent secretary candidates.

Deputies will be paid an annual salary of $68,000, minus the 10-percent pay cut all civil servants have been under since April 2010. The only regular expense or allowance will be one weekly round trip from Providenciales to Grand Turk, where most will work. “No other benefits or allowances or vehicles etc. will be made available,” the job requirements state.

When government is returned to elected officials, the new ministries will report directly to elected ministers. Until then, they will report to the governor through the chief executive.

Deputies will be supporting ministers in a political setting, but they must “remain politically neutral and all times and guard against and be successful from being influenced in any way by any and all political or other partisan pressure or opinion,” the job requirements state.

Led by the governor, the interim government decided to reduce the number of government ministries so that permanent secretaries could assume a more strategic role. With a bigger senior management team of more autonomous deputies, they will be better positioned to tackle the big policy issues, according to the government.

Also up for reorganization are the country’s 37 statutory boards, whose membership was renewed again Dec. 1 for three months. They will continue to be renewed periodically until the structures of the five new ministries under the new permanent secretaries are agreed.