Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion Min­is­ter Car­olyn Seep­er­sad-Bachan has called for trans­for­ma­tion of the T&T pub­lic sec­tor which, she says, op­er­ates in a 21st cen­tu­ry en­vi­ron­ment us­ing 20th cen­tu­ry sys­tems and process­es."This must change, start­ing here to­day," she de­clared yes­ter­day, at the launch of the Min­istry's Lead­er­ship and Man­age­ment De­vel­op­ment Pro­gramme at the Hilton Trinidad yes­ter­day morn­ing.Seep­er­sad-Bachan chal­lenged se­nior pub­lic ser­vants tak­ing part in the pro­gramme to help cre­ate a Pub­lic Ser­vice "with an im­age of pro­fes­sion­al­ism and achieve­ment.""We have a du­ty to de­liv­er a 21st cen­tu­ry Pub­lic Ser­vice and our ap­proach must be mul­ti-faceted and de­ter­mined," she said.The min­is­ter said the process of cre­at­ing a 21st cen­tu­ry Pub­lic Ser­vice which was dri­ven by ex­cel­lence in ser­vice de­liv­ery, sup­port­ed by strong mon­i­tor­ing and eval­u­a­tion mech­a­nisms and time­ly de­ci­sion-mak­ing was not elu­sive.

She said as pay­ing cus­tomers, the peo­ple of T&T have a right to de­mand ex­cel­lence when they ac­cess gov­ern­ment ser­vices."The pro­gramme we are launch­ing to­day is a first step in the de­vel­op­ment of a force of pro­fes­sion­al and com­mit­ted lead­ers," Seep­er­sad-Bachan said."The di­rec­tion we go from here...is in­ti­mate­ly linked to our na­tion's de­vel­op­ment pri­or­i­ties."It is linked to the suc­cess of the eco­nom­ic sec­tors that dri­ve and pro­pel our econ­o­my."It is linked to the well-be­ing of our cit­i­zens...It is linked to the de­vel­op­ment of a mod­ern, de­vel­oped na­tion."