Welcoming the Permanent Secretaries to their specific ministries yesterday, Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama addressed them as the A-Team.

“I am convinced that we now have an A team at the top of our civil service,” Mr Bainimarama said.

Speaking at Suvavou House at the induction of new permanent secretaries, Mr Bainimarama said the team would spearhead the reform programmes Government was currently putting in place with the assistance of the World Bank.

“To establish a culture of excellence at every level of Government, a culture of efficiency and job satisfaction through hard work and to make the civil service the employer of choice in Fiji,” he said.

He said the Government planned to attract and keep the very best people and to give them attractive salaries and career paths.

“And above all, to put the notion of service back into the civil service for the benefit of every Fijian,” Mr Bainimarama said.

He reminded them that they had been chosen solely on the basis of merit, with no regard for religion, ethnicity or socio-economic status.

They were the best people for these jobs and the best people they could find here in Fiji and in the rest of the world.

To the Permanent Secretaries from overseas, he said they had been chosen for their special skills and the contribution they could make to capacity building in Fiji.

“We must never be afraid to learn from the experiences of others,” Mr Bainimarama said.

“And this Government will never exclude talented foreigners who can help us take Fiji to the next level. Because the Fijian people deserve the very best.”

Mr Bainimarama reminded them of their constitutional obligations.

Government had given them the authority to be much more innovative and imaginative than their predecessors, the opportunity to use their skills to run their ministries more efficiently,” Mr Bainimarama said.

Mr Bainimarama said  Fiji had lost too many good people in the past to the private sector and requested them to identify talented and exceptional individuals and do everything they could to keep them.

He said they must be committed enough to identify and remove non-performers and civil servants who resisted change, were unwilling to learn new skills and were not service orientated.

Mr Bainimarama reminded them that they must have zero tolerance for discrimination of any sort stressing the importance of having an inclusive approach.

“Whether on ethnic, religious, gender, social status or any other grounds, including provincial rivalry” it should not be tolerated, he said. Edited by Rusiate Mataika

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