E-Govt training takes first step

The first batch of 20 former civil servants who lost their jobs in Government’s retrenchment exercise last year have begun training in digitising documents for an e-government drive.

The training started on Monday at the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Smart Technology in Baobab Tower, Warrens, where the first members were drawn from a pool of 250 workers signed up for the course.

Permanent Secretary Charley Browne said the trainees will be deployed throughout the public service to digitise records.

The training is being organised by the House Mitigation Unit, the government department that has been mandated to cushion the blow of job loss to civil servants.

The Government’s Special Advisor on Poverty Alleviation and Sustainable Development Goals, Corey Lane, who collaborates with the unit, said the training was available only to those workers who were retrenched in 2018.

Some workers, who were retrenched in 2014 under the Freundel Stuart administration were  “outside of the mandate of the unit”, Lane said.

Retrenched workers from 2018 who wanted to be trained in digitisation but had not yet heard from officers from the Mitigation Unit, have been urged to contact the Unit at 832-0092 or 832-0093, according to a Government Information Service release.

Lane urged the ex-civil servants to ensure they provided accurate contact information, as some of the details submitted were incorrect, inadequate or missing.