Above: CARICOM Secretary General Ambassador Irwin LaRocque

By the Caribbean Journal staff

The CARICOM Secretariat has begun the process of restructuring, according to Secretary General Ambassador Irwin LaRocque.

The reforms have already been instituted in corporate areas, human resource management, finance and the way projects are managed, he said this week.

“There is still some way to go, but change is underway,” LaRocque told a gathering of Ministers at the 33rd Meeting of the Community Council of Ministers in Guyana this week.

The changes haven’t come without challenges, he said, pointing to the secretariat’s “aging information technology infrastructure, staff retention and the increasing inflexibility in the use of donor resources.”

“Taken all together these factors along with the challenging economic and fiscal situation faced by our Member States, affect the ability of the Secretariat to maintain and improve on our service to the Community and the implementation of the work programme,” he said. “In the face of ever increasing mandates, the need for prioritization, which lies at the heart of the decision by heads of government to devise a strategic plan, becomes paramount in order to ensure the focused and optimal use of our human and financial resources.”