P.S.U. holds annual meeting on Saturday

This weekend the Public Service Union will be holding its annual general meeting. The gathering of the eighty-year old organisation will be held under the theme “Committed to Providing Quality Public Services” and will feature a keynote address by the President of the Caribbean Congress of Labour, Lincoln Lewis. According to P.S.U. President, Margaret Ventura, the theme reflects what is needed in the public service, not only in Belize, but throughout the region. Both Ventura and Lewis stopped by News 5 to talk about the AGM

Margaret Ventura, President, P.S.U.

“Every year we try and focus on a theme that is reflective of a need and is reflective of the times that we are in, in the public service. And our international affiliate, Public Services International is also promoting quality public services as one of its five areas of focus. And we thought that the state of the Belize public service at this point in time, can do with some improvement in the quality of service that we provide. That is not to say that we are not providing good services, but it can be improved, there’s always room for improvement.”

Lincoln Lewis, Pres., Caribbean Congress of Labour

“Basically if you observe throughout the region what has been taking place, the whole question of talking about optimising performance within the public service throughout the region, and there are many proponents we were talking about, like the multinational financial institutions, the private sector doing public service jobs. My address would focus, to some extent, on the question of negating that notion, that the private sector can do public service jobs. The whole question of corporatising and the link in the public service, I’ll be dealing also with that notion that people feel that it is the right thing to be done. I’ll be dealing with it in the context of the global market place.”

On Friday Lewis will also host a workshop for public officers. That meeting will discuss issues such as the CARICOM Single Market and Economy, governance, democracy and the role of public officers. Meanwhile, Ventura says over the next year the P.S.U. has committed itself to increase membership by at least fifty persons per month.

The meeting officially opens Friday night at the P.S.U. headquarters in Belmopan.