PUBLIC SERVICE AND PRIVATE SECTOR

Graduates need to be used. We need to find ways of helping them into public service for the good of our entire community.

Public facing services need to be improved. I support all and any policy that, in consultation with employee organisations, helps to find improvements.

General Orders need to be reviewed and modernised to renew and streamline the service provided generally.

Methods of promotion within the public service should be reviewed to encourage specialisation. The movement within the service from one department to another is fine, in early parts of one’s career but later, there is a need to develop specialist skills. I realise this may be difficult in a small jurisdiction but in consultation and with discussion, it may be possible to find solutions that benefit all.

Linked with specialisation is the issue of training. I will support all and every initiative that will provide better training, leading to an improved public service.

Recruitment needs to be fair, open and transparent.

e-Government needs to be spurred on to bring Gibraltar to the forefront of the 21st. This needs to be connected to improved efficiencies and speedy service.

There is a need to carefully look at how the provision public services can be improved, especially in the fields, for example, of health, social services, employment and the private sector generally.

Often the only option if one is affected by maladministration is to take the matter to court on a Judicial Review. This is hugely expensive and slow. The powers of the Ombudsman must be widened to allow justice to flow at an affordable price. Additionally, the Ombudsman must be given more authority and teeth so that his decisions are followed.

OUR PRIVATE SECTOR:

Our private sector is central to our prosperity.

I vouch full support to private enterprise and its growth but believe in as little government interference as possible as the means to encourage a vibrant private sector. The whole Trade Licensing needs to disappear save for the purpose of ensuring proper visibility by the administration to ensure payments of dues, duties and taxes and for the protection of employees.

Our private sector includes financial services, online services, tourism, the port and shipping and the business/retail sectors. I will support measures to ensure growth in each and minimal administrative interference. Interference should be limited essentially to protection of the public and visibility to the administration to ensure payments of dues, duties and taxes and for the protection of employees.

There is cross-over between sectors in the policies outlined below, so all-inclusive consideration is needed.
I pledge support for initiatives that will lead to growth in our financial and online services in a properly regulated environment.

I will get behind all and any initiative that will improve the tourist attraction and offering of Gibraltar. Tourism is essential to the prosperity of Gibraltar, to its hotels, bars, restaurants, retail trade and generally across the board to create prosperity and jobs and feed public finances.

We need to improve our heritage product, concentrating, for example on uplifting the image of our old town and improving sites like the Moorish Castle and Northern Defences. The approach needs to cover many areas, including traffic management and environmental issues.

We should take the initiative to encourage more cruise ship calls and shipping calls generally and bunkering. Ship to ship repairs and crew changes need to be promoted.

Filling in our port is reducing an expensive asset that we should exploit more for our communal prosperity. It needs to be done sparingly and carefully, if at all.

Complications and public interference in this sector need to be eliminated. Licensing requirements honed down to a minimum. Public services honed to provide as good and efficient service as is achievable.

Businesses that are operating underground need to be eliminated and transgressors prosecuted.
New businesses and job creation need to be incentivised.

Cost and expenses caused by government looked at and revised in as favourable a way as possible to help businesses.
The issue of rental levels needs to be looked into with care to reach a sensible balance without interfering too much in market forces.

The establishment of new business and light industry needs to be encouraged.

08-10-2019 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR