NO LAYOFFS OF CARICOM SECRETARIAT STAFF FORTHCOMING

Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, February 28- Even as Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Heads of Government meet in Grand Anse, Grenada to contemplate the focus and direction of the integration movement, cuts to the work force of the headquarters of the CARICOM Secretariat are not imminent.

This assurance was given by Ambassador Lolita Applewhaite, CARICOM Acting Secretary-General, in her address at the Opening Ceremony of the Twenty-Second Inter-sessional Meeting of the CARICOM Heads of Government.

Ambassador Applewhaite stated that the Community Council of Ministers in recommitting itself to the regional integration enterprise had ensured that the Secretariat, which while containing costs, would carry out its work programme.

The prevailing economic circumstances in CARICOM Member States, she said, had necessitated that the CARICOM Secretariat tightens its belt; but this will not result in the laying off of staff.

“The Secretariat, in presenting its reduced budget to the Community Council took account of the conditions in our Member States and their ability to contribute to the Secretariat’s budget among so many other competing calls on their slim resources”.

“The reduced budget will not mean a cutting of staff but it will mean managing what we do better by using even more innovative methods. It will mean continuing to do more with less.

It will mean not filling some positions as they become vacant. But it will not mean the laying off of staff,” Ambassador Applewhaite said.

Once CARICOM Heads of Government have re-established the priorities, focus and direction of the Community, she said that action must then be taken to ensure the active participation of the regional public in development efforts.

Ambassador Applewhaite told the leaders that in resetting goals, consideration must be given to devising the means for ensuring that the citizens of the Community were “fully seized of the benefits of integration to them and the change that they signify in their daily lives”.

“This is a task for all of us. It has to be a collaborative, co-operative effort of all our institutions, governments and civil society,” she stated, adding that it was in this spirit of regionalism, the Community has been supporting its French Speaking Member State, Haiti, since the 12 January 2010 earthquake.

In this context she said that CARICOM must maintain and increase its resolve to ensure that the international community does not waver in its commitment to the recovery and rehabilitation of Haiti. The Acting Secretary-General also voiced the Region’s appreciation to the “relentless pursuit” of that objective demonstrated by the CARICOM Special Representative of the Heads of Government on Haiti, the Most Honourable Percival Patterson and his team on behalf of the people of Haiti and the Community.

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