As citizens of this great country, we all should do our individual parts to ensure that the New Year we are entering would be safe and profitable for us all and for our country as well. For a start, let us make sure that before the current year is out, we would clear all outstanding bills we might owe the Government such as PPUC Bills, PNCC bills, Medical bills, water bills, and so on. This also applies to you if you are a business establishment that has not paid some or all of your taxes for the year we are bringing to a close.
If we cleared all of our obligations, we would enter the New Year with good consciences and would help our Government begin the year on a strong financial footing. It would also be very good for our economy if we treat our private financial obligations in the same manner. Let us enter the New Year with strong determinations to make the months ahead safe and profitable for all of us and for our Government.Government employees should be rewarded with monetary awards, not blankets of empty Employee of the Year Certificates, for outstanding job performancesWe believe there is a provision in the Government of Palau Civil Service Manual that provides for rewarding employees, with monetary awards, who produce excellent performances in their jobs. As far as we can recall, however, there has not been one instance where such an honor had been bestowed on anyone in the decades that we have been an independent republic. Instead, our Government issues many empty “Employee of the Year” certificates at the end of each calendar year.Why? Was it because all government employees, without exception, produced only mediocre performances in their jobs during these years, or was it because government supervisors failed in their responsibility of observing and evaluating their employees’ performances? We do not know the true reasons for this anomaly, but whatever it is; it is not doing any good for the morals of our hard working pubic employees. We fervently hope the new administration would correct the problem or problems when it takes office in January.As we understand it, the Incentive Award System in the Civil Service Manual provides that employees may receive award for investing into their jobs more skill and effort than is required. Based on savings to the government, the awards could be paid in two ways: one, for tangible savings such as inventions or other improvements to a job method, and two, for intangible savings such as an individual’s work performance which is much greater than what the job requires. As we understand it, an employee may be nominated for an award by his or her supervisor. Nominations would be studied by an authorized committee, which would recommend appropriate actions, including monetary awards, which would be presented to the deserving employee by the President on behalf of the Government of Palau.
