PSA PRESS RELEASE No. 01/15 23rd January 2015 UPHOLDING RULE OF LAW: KEY FOR SUSTAINABLE SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT FOR TONGA! It is a milestone for the leading trade union in Tonga, the Public Service Association (PSA), to be invited by the Hon. Prime Minister of Tonga, Hon. ‘Akilisi Pohiva, the first commoner elected Prime Minister for Tonga, to make a presentation to his Cabinet yesterday at the Fa’onelua Convention Center during the induction week of Cabinet where all Ministries make presentations to Cabinet. After 10 years of fighting head on with the two previous Cabinets for democracy and workers’ rights, this invitation marked the first sign of real change in the Tongan Government since the 2010 political reform. The PSA, one of the partners who strongly supported the movement for democracy in Tonga and have worked closely with the Hon. Prime Minister Pohiva since 2005 as the leader for the movement for democracy in pushing for Tonga’s political reform, confirmed their continued support and also offered a Partnership for Quality Public Service to ensure sustainable socio-economic development for Tonga. This Partnership Quality Equation is: Quality Management + Quality Jobs = Quality Service. However, “Upholding the rule of law” was the priority message PSA conveyed to the Hon. Prime Minister and his Cabinet Ministers yesterday as the key for sustainable socio-economic for Tonga especially in the first year of his 4-yr term. The presentation was based on a number of issues which were largely ignored by the former Cabinets, unlawful decisions made by the former Cabinets which have hindered the delivery of Quality Public Service hence the socio-economic development of Tonga. These issues included: (1) The continued unlawful employment of the Acting Chief Secretary & Secretary to Cabinet; (2) Review of the Public Service Commission given the numerous unlawful decisions they have made since 2005 costing Gov’t hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees & compensations of public servants unlawfully dismissed from Gov’t. The PSA recommended a set of criteria for appointing of new Commissioners who have the qualifications and years of experience in top positions in the Public Service; (3) Review of the Public Service Tribunal given that the members are sympathizers of the former Cabinets hence decisions are biased and may be unlawful; (4) Review of the Public Relation Commission given that the Commissioner is also the chair of the Public Service Tribunal making it hard to appeal on the Tribunal’s decisions; (5) Use of the legal counselor of Tongasat by Gov’t instead of the Solicitor General in the joint legal case by PSA & the Democratic Party of the Friendly Islands led by the Hon. Prime Minister against the former Gov’t and Tongasat which would be unnecessary extra costs to Gov’t; (6) Non-payment of licences by Tongasat for the use of the satellite slots as per Agreement with Government in 2009 which is millions of dollars in lost revenue to Gov’t; (7) Legality of the outright sales/lease of two satellite slots last year at ~USD25m (~T$45m), distribution (only T$4m to Gov’t) and payout of majority sales money to Tongsat since they have not pay any licences on the two satellite slots sold. The PSA recommended (i) for an investigation to be undertaken to confirm the legality this issue, (ii) the Minister of Finance who was one of the two negotiators in the sales and payout of the sales money be transferred to another portfolio such as the Minister of Police; and (iii) the Ministry of Finance be added to the portfolio of the Minister of Commerce, Tourism & Labour, Hon. Pohiva Tu’i’onetoa, the former Auditor General of Tonga for many years; (8) Unfair dismissal of 3 employees from Tonga Forest Products Limited, formerly Tonga Timber Ltd; (9) Consideration for Tonga to be a member of the International Labour Organization (ILO); and for the Employment Relation Bill 2013 to be tabled to Parliament. Another very important matter which was of concern to PSA and was conveyed to the Hon. Prime Minister is the integrity & accuracy of information that is given to him by his advisors and/or the drafters of his public speeches. On his online speech which is an English version of his speech during his first meeting with all employees in Government on the 9th January 2015, it is stated that the “state of the Public Service is appalling”. The PSA said that it may be the choice of word of whoever drafted the English version but this is not a true generalization of the Public Service in Tonga. The PSA admitted that there are problems in the delivery of service by the public servants and also the other employees in Gov’t who are not classified under the law as public servants which include King, Members of Parliament, magistrate, soldiers & police but the service cannot be generalized as “appalling” otherwise the Government would not be functioning today. The PSA reiterated the Partnership Quality Equation, which is: Quality Management + Quality Jobs = Quality Service. That is, if the Public Service is “appalling” it means that the Management (King, Parliament, Ministers & CEOs) and jobs are “appalling”. The PSA also advised the Hon. Prime Minister that the salaries of the employees in Government only accounted for 38.7% of the Budget, as per page 9 of the 2014/2015 Government Program Budget Estimates, and not 80% as he said during his speech after the opening of Parliament last Thursday. The PSA recommended to the Hon. Prime Minister to renew the staff in his office as he needs staff whom he can rely on and who are not from the former administration. This included the Acting Chief Secretary and clerical staff in his immediate office. The Hon. Prime Minister also needs a Personal Assistant whom he can trust to make his programmes and an Advisor to screen information including speeches that are given to him to make sure that they are accurate and inline with the policies in Government. For more information, please do not hesitate to contact the PSA Secretary General
Posted on: Fri, 23 Jan 2015 01:00:03 +0000
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