28 October 2011. The Public Service Commission (PSC) in Tonga concludes its four-day Conference of the Pacific Public Service Commissioners' today, which was held at the Fa'onelua Convention Centre from 25-28 October.
Facilitated by the Australian Public Service Commission (APSC0, the Ninth (9th) Conference of the PSC Commissioners' was hosted in Tonga this year.
With reflection on the theme to ""Initiating, maintaining and sustaining reform outcomes - how do we know we've made a difference?", the conference has brought out for discussions topics on how to best address better public service in changing environments, reform in the public sector from a regional perspective as well as the political and administrative interface considerations for an Effective Public Service.
The Acting Prime Minister of Tonga, Hon. Samiu Vaipulu opened the Conference on Monday October 25, with key addresses by the Regional Directors of the Governance and Institutional Development Divisions of the Commonwealth Secretariat, Mr Max Everest-Phillips and Dr Taiamoni Pifeleti, including Regional Governance Advisor from the Forum Secretariat Dr Henry Ivarature.
During the week, the Conference has engaged in meaningful dialogue of high-performing Public Service in the Pacific, with reports being presented by Samoa, Niue, Solomon Islands, Marshall Islands, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Palau, Kiribati, Nauru, Cook Islands, PNG, Fiji, Timor Leste, FSM and including Tonga.
Nearly fifty delegates consisting of distinguished Public Service Commissioners, development partners officials and regional aides from across the Pacific participated in the conference.
Not only did the conference serve as a platform for human resource managers (HRM) to network and discuss common house-keeping matters with regard to public service administration, stakeholders from non-government organizations (NGOs), for instance, churches, ICT, health sectors and civil societies were also invited to participate in the Conference.
The conference was jointly coordinated by the Australian and New Zealand Government's Public Service Commissions in association with Tongan Government. It was chaired by Tonga's Public Service Commission Chair, Mishka Tu'ifua with Felix Thomas of Vanuatu PSC as Secretariat.
The last session of the Conference concluded with a Workshop for the Pacific Commissioners, with the review of their respective progress of their public sector administration and management.
Each Public Service Commissioners also worked together in sharing ideas for future directions to meet their respective country's reform goals over the next four years.
ENDS
Issued by the: Ministry of Information and Communications, Nuku'alofa, 2011.
