So many of the public service issues discussed in Parliament, the press and by citizens everywhere usually have one common theme.

That is, the unsatisfactory outcome of most of these endeavours, despite many key players being handsomely rewarded irrespective of the poor results.

Time and time again we hear of more resources being allocated to the Tarouba Stadium, Maracas Bay, Diego Martin road works, flooding alleviation everywhere, improving output in the judicial system, the housing ministry, better quality results in education, new road to Chaguaramas, computerising the Licensing office, greater efficiency at the passport office, better service from the Police Service and the list goes on and on.

Yet, budgets come and go while some of the above projects are given the spotlight from time to time, only to soon fade into the background like a damp squib, with little positive long-term change in the process.

In the search for a solution let us look at what obtains currently in many government departments.

Here you find many fairly lowly paid civil servants who have no real official incentive to produce excellence because whether they work effectively or not their official reward remains the same.

So, quite understandably many of them act in concert to slow production down to a degree where certain individuals and enterprises now offer them unofficial incentives to do the work they are supposedly being paid to do in the first place.

So, why don't we look at finding ways to have all government employees earning a portion of their income from an official incentive scheme? It could go a long way in bringing down corruption levels right across the board.

Gregory Wight

Diego Martin