Testing of shared corporate services among three ministries a success - Clarke

The Ministry of Finance and the Public Service says the pilot sharing of corporate services in areas such as procurement and finance among three ministries has been producing positive results. 

Portfolio Minister, Dr Nigel Clarke, said the services are also being tested in human resources, legal and audit at his ministry, the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of National Security. 

He said the shared services in finance have been focusing on bank and supplier account reconciliations. 

“Benchmarked against service-level agreements, scores came out at 100 per cent for the Ministry of Justice, 86 per cent for the Ministry of Finance and 83 per cent for the Ministry of National Security, which indicates that we are good to go to move forward,” Dr said. 

He was delivering the keynote address at the opening of the 2024 Caribbean Public Sector Financial Management Conference, at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel in St Andrew, on Wednesday. 

The shared services pilot allows for testing of the implementation approach before commencing a full roll out of operations.

Dr Clarke said that full implementation of shared services across government will allow for greater financial management, improved efficiency in the delivery of services to the public, greater accuracy and for the development of skills of public-sector employees.

“It is not necessary to physically replicate, in several locations, the same function across 200 or more government entities. What we can do is have a dedicated facility in which a lot of people are housed, and they provide a service to the various government departments and agencies,” he pointed out.

The shared services programme is part of the broader reform of the public sector. 

- JIS News

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