“55 Year Retirement Policy by Bainimarama Government”. 24 Oct. 2013

Letter to the editor, 24 October 2013.

[Appeared in Fiji Sun, without the paragraph in red]

 

Dear Sir/Madam

The Bainimarama Government insists on enforcing its 55 year retirement rule for most civil servants.

Can the Public Service Commission explain why it enforces this policy when many professionals, such as engineers, school principals, architects, senior administrators, are their peak of productivity and experience at this age, and the economy cannot afford to lose the economic contributions of such persons?

Of course, the PSC may save some money in the short run by replacing the more expensive senior person with a cheaper junior person.  But the PSC will pay more in the long run, because the quality of performance of the junior person may be well below that of the replaced senior person, and the junior person may well make many costly mistakes which the senior person would not have.

Can the Public Service Commission explain why the 55 year retirement rule is not applied to Mr Voreqe Bainimarama, Mr Meli Bainimarama and Mr Filipe Bole, and indeed to several, if not all of the Public Service Commissioners themselves?

 

Professor Wadan Narsey