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Former Cabinet Secretary Hazel Spencer says rotating staff across government departments could help restore accountability and reduce corruption, citing his experience as a customs officer where regular reassignment was standard practice.
Speaking during the question-and-answer segment of the Vehicle Gate town hall meeting, Spencer said one of the biggest weaknesses in today’s system is allowing employees to remain in the same positions for extended periods, which he argued fosters familiarity, complacency, and sometimes collusion.
“In my days in the Customs Department, we were rotated,” Spencer recalled. “Sometimes you end up down at the distillery, sometimes at the airport, sometimes you board a ship — all different functions in customs.
You could not get too comfortable in one place.”
He said regular staff rotation not only improved efficiency but also served as a deterrent to corruption by limiting opportunities for officers to form inappropriate alliances.
“That’s how we maintained integrity,” he said, adding that consistent changes in assignments helped create a natural system of checks and balances.
Spencer recommended that the same approach be reinstated across key ministries and statutory bodies, especially those handling procurement and public finances.
He said this kind of administrative reform would strengthen internal oversight and help prevent future scandals like the alleged EC $17 million vehicle procurement controversy currently under public scrutiny.
The former Cabinet Secretary emphasized that internal safeguards such as staff rotation must operate alongside strict financial procedures, including Cabinet approval, Finance Ministry verification, and Treasury oversight.
He said these measures only work if supported by honest leadership and a culture of discipline.
“People talk about systems failing,” Spencer said.
“But systems only fail when people stop doing what they are supposed to do. Rotation reminds officers that public office is about service, not comfort.”
His remarks added to a chorus of calls from panelists at the town hall for reforms to strengthen accountability, promote transparency, and rebuild public confidence in the government’s financial management systems.
Spencer said good governance depends on both strong institutions and ethical conduct from those entrusted to run them.
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Well said And the PM said the same thing. But will the political will be there? Too many sacred cows are embedded in the system. Start with an investigation of customs and customs officers. Tell us how an officer working for $3,000 and $4,000 a month can own million dollar homes, not home, and multiple expensive vehicles. And while on customs there are over 100 vehicles with ABC numbers meaning Customs. And then after Customs deal with corruption in the Police. Yesterday I had to detour from Popeshead Street because of vehicles parked. Popeshead Street is no parking on both sides of the road.But it is common knowledge that the Police have been paid off by certain businesses. The PM must make a pledge to this Nation to clean up all the corruption. We are where we are today with this public scandal but everyone knew it was going on but no one did anything. A former high official at Public Works on a government salary is now building his second apartment building. That is public knowledge. Another one built a whole building on Redcliffe Street not only with government material but also government workers. That is public knowledge. He was promoted and reassigned.
😂..my goodness me.
These people speak of corruption like you just painting a house and one side of the brush isn’t applying anymore paint, so you just turn the brush over to the other side.. 😂.
No sir, in this case what you do, is to dip the brush back in the paint and get fresh paint on the brush so you can have a more even paint stroke.
So dip back in the public sector(the paint) and get some fresh paint.. That’s what you should have suggested. And might I say, a better standard of paint, because the current paint is trash.
There are lots of opinions and ideas being thrown around. Rotating staff across government departments could help restore accountability and reduce corruption: Yes; but that’s a solution
to a tumor that needs to be cut out.
The laws were broken. The Government lost revenues and taxes. Individuals within Government and private businesses were working together like a mafia operation.
Where is the investigation and prosecution?
What is the reluctance to investigate and prosecute these people?
Moving one member of a Mob operation from concrete to asphalt does not distroy the Mob.
Investigate and prosecute the members of the Mob, during which time the Government and the public learns exactly what and how they contravene the existing regulation. This enable the Government to design and implement new policies and regulation with safeguards.
Come on the system is broken Rotation is not enough.
Investigate and prosecution is the best deterrent.
There is merit in rotation.
This was not a few bad apples; but a network
of individuals across ministries and the private sector
Just because people are rotated don’t stop them from getting together with others and circumvent poorly designed systems and regulations.
Our problem with corruption is not just a system problem its an endemic problem. When our people have lost the morality of seeing wrong from right. No matter how small. And I have given in many previous post the examples of a lets say a cleaner stealing janitorial supplies like toilet paper or air freshener from the job and seeing nothing wrong in doing so. If a driver uses the school bus to pick up church members on Sunday to take them to church and think nothing wrong with that. It’s government money and Gods work I’m doing. We as a people have lost our moral compass. We really do not see anything wrong in small theft. My mother used to teach me that a lie no matter how small is a lie and will grow like a cancer and destroy you. Same thing with stealing. No matter how small it is stealing.
Malachi 3:8-10 King James Version (KJV) But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation.
We need to have a moral discussion about these things and not just focus on these single things. Our hearts need to turn to the right things of God. So we will see Right from Wrong. And don’t call Right Wrong and Wrong, Right.
That is why some of us can speak about our integrity is worth more then any amount of money. I once saw a movie with Richard Gere Indecent Proposal (1993), where Richard Gere plays the billionaire who makes a million-dollar offer to a struggling married couple, portrayed by Woody Harrelson and Demi Moore. The film explores the impact of this proposition on their marriage. And it shows you the struggle people go through when have to make decission challenging their integrity. When I came out the movien with friends we went to have a drink and let me tell you the discussion when on in to the wee hours of the morning. I still was not convice whether or not I would have made the same decission.
We need to protect people that are coming under such pressure and lets look at the Singapore model and first jail the persons offering the bribe. Because that is the root of the problem. Not the one that is being deceived. The Devil is the problem, not Eve. Without the Devil Eve would not have been deceived. And we would still be in Paradise.
Therefore I pray ernestly that the Churches take up this call of RESET from the Prime Minister and start preaching to their congregation about their morality. The spirit by wich they live day by day. Let each of us do slef examination and do not throw stones. Like when they brought the lady who was caught in the act of adultry to Jesus and ask him what he would do. And jesus stood up and said,”Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her”. Lesson to be learned. We have all sin and fall short, yet we scream the loudest when it comes to condeming others for their sin.
I sometimes when in the heat of things do not agree with the Prime Minister on the stands he takes, but when you analyse this afterwards he makes the best decissions. This is a time for RESET. and let us not lose this one in a life time to do so. RESET. And leave the politics out.
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