Above: Charlestown, Nevis (CJ Photo)

By the Caribbean Journal

St Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Denzil Douglas has issued a warning to the country’s public servants, urging them to be more productive and cherish their employment opportunities.

“We still have a lot of complaints of absenteeism, lateness and of persons who are not producing to the maximum,” he said. “We want to give a warning that in situations where we are not getting value for money as public servants, the government will have to take appropriate action.”

Douglas pointed out that the freeze on new hiring in the country’s civil serve continues, aimed at closing the fiscal gap and curtailing expenditure.

“We are retiring those civil servants who have reached the retirement age and who could have been replaced,” he said. “We did say we will not hire any new persons, except that we were forced to and even in situations where there are vacancies in the public service, we try to fill those vacancies from within instead of bringing people in.”

Douglas cautioned that the government had not taken a decision to make layoffs.

“We have not taken a decision to lay off persons,” he said at his monthly press conference. “We will not lay off people. Instead of that, we believe that the challenges are great enough so that those who are employed will remain employed.”