EXHIBITION AT THE CENTRE FOR CREATIVITY AS PART OF THE PUBLIC SERVICE WEEK

An exhibition on the services offered by four Government Ministries was formally opened at the Centre for Creativity, St James Cavalier, on 18 June 2001 at 6.00 pm. The exhibition deals with the services offered to the public by the Ministries for Social Policy, Education, Health and the Environment.

The exhibition includes several displays as well as computers from which additional information is available, including information from the Internet. It will be open to the public from Tuesday to Friday between 10.00 am and 8.00 pm.

The exhibition is part of the programme of activities of Public Service Week. It was opened by Mr Joseph R Grima, Permanent Secretary at the Office of the Prime Minister and Head of the Public Service. In his address, Mr Grima stated that Public Service Week was intended to communicate to the public the reasons why many public officers take pride in the importance of their work and in the quality with which they carry it out.

Mr Grima stated that the Service had made an important contribution to the social and economic development of Malta. It had also facilitated the growth of Malta's IT industry through a major computerisation programme which it carried out over the last 11 years. The Service would continue to blaze the trail for the private sector in the field of IT through its electronic government initiative, which would revolutionise the delivery of public services.

Another major challenge faced by the Service was the process of harmonisation of Maltese laws and government structures with those of the EU. Public Service employees laid to rest initial doubts as to whether they had the capacity to cope with the scale and complexity of the work involved. Mr Grima said that while much remained to be done, the progress so far registered was very encouraging and gave grounds for optimism that the Service would be able to meet the Government's goal of being ready for membership by the end of 2002.

The Service also had solid achievements to report in the improvement of service quality. The Quality Service Charter initiative was designed with this end in mind. To date 30 Charters had been launched, each of which committed a Government Department or office to meeting specific standards of service delivery. Concluding, Mr Grima said that while perfection was a long way off and much still needed to be improved, the Service had already made many improvements and the employees involved had much to be proud of.