Employees of the Quarter for the fourth quarter of 2009 pictured here with the Deputy Governor Mrs. V. Inez Archibald and the Director of Human Resources, Mr. David Archer.  The honourees from Mr. Archer’s left are Elleson Rhymer, Sean Leonard, Vincent Wheatley and Levor Lettsome.  Philomena Robertson is pictured left of the Deputy Governor while Akesha Smith is at her right.  Photo by GIS/Ronnielle Frazer.

SEVEN HONOURED AS EMPLOYEES OF THE QUARTER FOR FOURTH QUARTER

Seven public servants, representing all seven ministries including the Governor’s Group, were honoured as Government’s Employees of the Quarter for the fourth quarter of 2009 at a recent ceremony held in their honour at the Prospect Reef Resort’s Reef House.

The honourees for the third quarter are Mr. Vincent Wheatley of the Deputy Governors Office; Ms. Philomena Robertson of the Premier’s Office; Ms. Leann Hill of the Ministry of Finance; Mr. Sean Leonard of the Land Registry Department; Mr. Elleson Rhymer of the Public Works Department; Ms. Akesha Smith of the Ministry of Education and Culture and Mr. Levor Lettsome of the Adina Donovan Home.

His Excellency the Governor, Mr. David Pearey in his remarks said, “It is wonderful to be here to recognise the great people and individuals we have in the BVI and in the public service.  It is a personal and enormous pleasure for me to work with people of such high quality and to be able to play my small part this evening in saying thank you and congratulations.”

The Governor added, “Each one of you deserve our recognition and praise for the work that you do.  As we always do on these occasions, we exhort you to continue to serve the public and your colleagues and help raise the standards across the board.”

“In these somewhat challenging times, we have to add to that exhortation.  We have a very significant role in ensuring expenditure is capped and possibly reduced.  If we cannot do that as public servants; if we cannot contribute to the service quality of the country, while at the same time doing it in a highly efficient way to save money for the exchequer, then in essence we are not playing our full role as public servants,” the Governor added.

Deputy Governor Mrs. V. Inez Archibald expressing congratulatory remarks said, “We are very grateful to all of you for performing so well to be awarded Employees of the Quarter.  We know from former Employees of the Quarter that it takes hard work and commitment, so we thank you for that.”

Mrs. Archibald added, “We have to work together to get the work done to build the ‘World Class Public Service’ after which we strive.  I commend the Department of Human Resources for continuing on this journey of assisting us to say thank you.” 

Director of the Department of Human Resources, Mr. David Archer in his remarks said, “Regardless of what you do on a day-to-day basis, when you take time to recognise people it brings you this great sense of satisfaction and joy.”

He shared, “The difference between great, average and excellent people is that excellent people always find a way to recognise others.”

Mr. Archer added, “The Governor spoke about our ability to monitor the work that we do in light of the economic challenges.   The difference between having to make serious decisions about the public service really rests with how we as employees do our work because only where we have efficiency like we have this evening can we ensure value for money; only when we have efficiency can we really argue why we should exist and why we should continue the work.”

The awardees in their remarks, delivered by Ms. Philomena Robertson said, “As we are recognised and awarded for exemplary service, we are entrusted with the responsibility to continue being beacons in the Virgin Islands Public Service motivating our peers and helping to cultivate within them an innate desire to consistently give 100 percent or even 200 percent if necessary. This is essential if the Government of the Virgin Islands is to be successful in its mission to create a World Class Public Service.”

“When we joined the public service we were entrusted with individual duties but it is imperative to note that our productivity as public servants depend largely on how we function as team players, contributing to the overall goals and aspirations of the public service,” Ms. Robertson added.

The Employee of the Quarter initiative was launched in 2005 as a means of recognising public servants who exceed expectations and set an example for their fellow public servants.  This service-wide ‘ministerial level’ recognition programme is administered by the Department of Human Resources-Employee Relations Unit.