Senior Government Officials including Mrs. Beryl Isaac, Permanent Secretary in the Department of Human Resources and Mrs. Patricia Antoine-Clyne, Accountant General, met on Thursday May 15, 2008 with Mr. Simon D Sutcliffe, an Actuary and Director of Bacon Woodword and de Souza Limited, to discuss a draft actuarial valuation with regards to establishing a new pension scheme for public officers who joined the service after 1983.
This exercise began in September 2007 following a request by the Government of Grenada to the Commonwealth Secretariat to conduct an actuarial study of the possibility of the Government establishing a pension scheme for persons joining the public service after 1983. An actuarial valuation involves using assumptions about factors such as future rates of mortality and pensionable earnings increases to project the current workforce into the future and to calculate the estimated benefit outgo in each year.
According to Mr. Sutcliffe, the comprehensive actuarial valuation, including the financial implications for all concerned, is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2008. The report will then be presented Cabinet after which it will be taken out for wide consultations with all stakeholders, including the unions.
Mr. Sutcliffe further stated that developing and instituting a pension plan for the public service is “a long process for a long term benefit”, and getting right, is extremely important, if it is to work well.
The Government of Grenada sees the implementation of the pension scheme as a crucial to the well-being of the workers and for the improved productivity and stability of the Public Service..