PHILOSOPHY FOR PUBLIC SECTOR REFORM Government's ...

White Paper on Public Sector Reformthese issues. It will take the required action to improve the financialmanagement mechanisms in the public service, and modernize operations andtransactions so that agencies can discharge their financial responsibilitieseffectively and be accountable for them.2:3:6 PlanningBarbados has consistently used the model of the five-year macro-economicnational development plan as the centre-piece of the government’s planningprocess. But this process though useful, has its short-comings, and must bebuttressed by the greater use of the strategic planning process in governmentalorganisations.Government agencies undertake functions which are necessarily interdependentand complementary to each other. At the planning level however, thisinterdependence needs to be more evident. The experience is that weakcoordination of activities occurs too frequently; policy analysis and policydevelopment skills are in short supply; research capability within planningsections of ministries needs to be strengthened; and proper inter-linkages mustbe maintained to facilitate a better holistic approach to the planning and controlsub-processes.The current centralisation of the government’s socio-economic planningprocess also poses its own difficulties. Centralisation has its advantages formanaging and controlling scarce resources, but it runs the risk of omittinginputs from the wider cross-section of society - particularly those without easyaccess to the decision-making apparatus.