A Consultant who was hired by the former New National Party (NNP) government of Dr. Keith Mitchell to look into the functioning of the Government Information Service (GIS) has painted a gloomy picture of its operations.
THE NEW TODAY understands that the Consultant met with the then Information Minister, Emmalin Pierre who also held the portfolio of Minister of Education to discuss relevant issues involving GIS.
In one of the sessions with the senior government minister held at an office on the upper floor of her ministry, Minister Pierre was accompanied by another person.
A source close to the Consultant said he discovered that too many of the workers at GIS had adopted a laissez-faire attitude to the job and often gave the impression that they wished the day’s work had come to an end and to leave the premises.
“By the time 10 o’clock to 11 o’clock some of them disappear – who on their computer surfing, who downloading music, who ain’t have nothing to do, who just playing the a….,” he quoted the consultant as saying.
According to the source, the Consultant said he detected that the first thing that staffers at GIS showed an interest in was getting the Wifi password to gain access to the internet to spend long hours on it.
He also said that some GIS staffers came to work when they wanted to and some were waiting for up to two and three days before they sent in a sick leave.
The source spoke of the Consultant discovering an atmosphere of laziness among GIS staffers.
“…There are a few months in the year where if you don’t have conferences taking place that a government minister is involved in to go and cover or you don’t have something out in the field there, man just sitting down there – some of them disappearing when you look for them,” he said.
The Consultant is said to have taken issue with recent statements made by both the Public Workers Union (PWU) and the Media Workers Association of Grenada (MWAG) that GIS staffers are hard working.
He said the work ethics at GIS “is sickening” and concluded that of the estimated 20 workers on staff, it is only 12 who fall into the category of being good employees.
“Between 7 and 8 have to go – I don’t know if they (the new NDC government) will put them in different ministries,” he added.
The source said the Consultant identified two workers in particular at GIS who are nothing but “upsetters” and “basically instigate confusion every day.”
He spoke of these employees as “insolent, bordering on insubordination in certain aspects especially when they speak to their superiors – and that’s a known fact.”
The source stated that the Consultant was contracted by the government to look at technical aspects in relation to GIS but he did make observations on a number of things happening there, especially the work ethics of employees.
“The technical is bad because the human resource is equally bad. Bad attitudes were prevalent among the workers. Some of them might be able to do the work (but) the human resource is rotten – that’s just what it is and that will always trickle down into your final product,” he quoted the Consultant as saying.