THE OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND BY THE OFFICE OF THE PRINCIPAL PERMANENT SECRETARY There has never been better proof of the Public Service’s flexibility and efficiency -Prime Minister Robert Abela

Prime Minister Robert Abela said that the past few months have yielded the best proof ever of the Public Service’s flexibility and efficiency – a Public Service which provided all the support that the government needed to carry out the extraordinary measures taken during the pandemic to aid workers and the economy.

The prime minister was speaking at the opening of a meeting for the highest-ranking public officers, themed ‘Strengthening the Public Service’, as part of Public Service Week 2021. He said that there was a time when it was taken for granted that the private sector is better than the civil service, but the situation is different now. The giant steps of recent years have led to a tremendous change in mentality, so much so that in many areas the Public Service is proving to be better than the private sector.

These areas include working conditions and work-life balance, where the Public Service has consolidated itself as an indisputable leader. Suffice it to say that while private sector employees are sometimes not even given the opportunity to work remotely, in the Public Service workers are given a choice between working at home or from the remote workspaces provided by their employer itself.

Praising the recent green initiatives by the Public Service which are bringing about crucial changes for our country, the Prime Minister urged the Public Service to remain the leader it has proved to be during the pandemic — always at the forefront because nowadays nobody questions the high level of service that the Public Service offers its clients.

A five-year strategy to step up our goals and objectives — Principal Permanent Secretary Mario Cutajar

In his address to the highest-ranking officers within the Public Service, Principal Permanent Secretary Mario Cutajar spoke about the new five-year strategy that the Public Service is launching and through which, while continuing to build on what has already been achieved, it is stepping up its goals and objectives.

“Technology, service itself, and people are what is needed to achieve a service of excellence in a single five-year strategy. This is the chapter we are starting today: the first strategy of its kind for the Public Service, which comes into effect from the beginning of next year and on which much work has already been done, but today, right here, we start to discuss its design”, said Mr Cutajar.

He explained that the main objective of this strategy is to strengthen the Public Service, following an extensive renewal exercise within it in recent years. Moreover, 2020 was a year of consolidation during which every measure taken by the Public Service since 2013 was studied, and the impact these measures had on people was analysed. The results of this in-depth study, carried out by three academics outside the Public Service, will be published by an international publishing house.

Mr Cutajar said that these are encouraging results with which the Public Service can now embark on strengthening itself. “We did not hesitate to look back and evaluate our own performance. We did so with courage and faith, because if we were able to renew ourselves, we will also be able to strengthen ourselves.”

Source: Office of the Prime Minister