Sandra Jones, head of the public service and Permanent Secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister yesterday expressed confidence that T&T can reform its public sector financial reporting system, but says that the reform cannot happen immediately.
Jones has been working in the public sector for more than three decades and has worked at several government agencies and ministries.
She said: "If you have a plan, you would be able to move it forward. I am aware at the Ministry of Finance they do have a plan and ICATT (Institute of Charted Accountants of T&T) is working with them as well. They (the presenters) talked about the political will, (in the public sector) it's there."
Jones was speaking to reporters during the coffee break at the conference on Promoting Public Sector Financial Reporting reform 2016, which was held yesterday, at Hilton hotel, St Ann's.
Justifying her point that the political will existed in T&T to reform the public sector financial reporting system, she said in Parliament trends were showing that there was more accountability. She added: "We have to look to ensure that there are very little leakages on how public funds are moving forward."
What was clear, Jones said, was that the infrastructure must be in place including, training of staff and the implementation of the procurement legislation, which are the catalysts for ensuring that the goal of reformation of the public sector financial reporting system is achieved.
Asked whether the bureaucracy would be an obstacle to reforming the public sector, she said bureaucracy was always a "good" thing because it was part of how "we (in the public sector) work." Jones added that only when there is too much bureaucracy then it became a "challenge."
She said one priority area was to put an efficient Information Technology system in place so it made the public service work better.
"We talk about the issue of the asset management, there are a number of things that need to be put in place to treat with that. When you get the system in place you have to start training, it's a big project to get it going," she said.
While it was a costly project, she said, when it was completed the benefits would outweigh the costs as there would be better accountability for the use of public funds.
Using the example of preparing payroll, she said it was done manually before but now that it was being prepared electronically, "it has made a world of difference."
Addressing the issue of worker productivity, she said all ministries had to do job appraisals for their employees so that any increases in salary can be justified.