“As a government, our fundamental information is how much assets we have. We cannot put it on a balance sheet because we cannot even start with a simple registry in each ministry. Therefore, we need to capture it, not just capture for capturing sake, but capture it where it can be usable, where various persons can get that information in a one portfolio where we will call a database and where various persons can use. Whether you want it for a social component, whether you want it for a building, whether you want it from an engineer, where you just want it as a government to know where are the primary places that I need to put my focus on.”
The Ministry of Finance has established Public Asset Regulations under the Public Finance Management framework. These regulations outline how government assets are to be classified, recorded, purchased, maintained, and ultimately disposed of. Director of the NIPP Unit, Haward Wells, says the objective of the training is to assist government agencies in implementing a standardized approach to asset management.
“The idea is to get the participants trained in the use of the public asset management system And from there, of course, it’s a symbiotic type of relationship. They capture data that helps them in their everyday work, makes it a lot easier as it relates to tracking what happens in buildings. It is the first iteration of this training hopefully we’re looking to roll out this training throughout the rest of the agencies with primary custody and responsible for government assets.”
Participants are being trained to use the Public Asset Management System, or PAMS, a web-based platform designed to support both asset tracking and long-term infrastructure planning. Workshop facilitator and Civil Engineer with at the NIPP Unit, Fabian Felix, expounded on the benefits of the system.
“So, the system has two major components. One is a long-term planning component, which looks at infrastructure systems. We’ve categorized all infrastructure systems in St. Lucia in about 15 sectors. So those systems, they talk to each other. It’s a system of systems. What happens in one sector affects the other sector. So that’s one. We’re able to project what St. Lucia needs as a country over a projected time frame, whether it be 2030 or 2050. The other component of looking at infrastructure systems is the risk and vulnerability component. So we are able to assess various climate hazards on those infrastructure systems, whether it be current systems or future systems.”
Hubert Harte, Director of Works for the Plante and Equipment Unit in the Ministry of Education noted the relevance of this training. With over 150 facilities under the unit’s care data driven decisions become extremely important.
“Well, what we hope to implement is on-site data gathering. And as the director mentioned, that we’ll be able to use a common platform to amalgamate that information. So our officers should be able to go out on site. And of course, we’re always dealing with emergencies. They could go out on site, gather the information on site, and make instant report that will come to the decision makers of the ministry.”
The Public Asset Management system is expected to improve transparency, enhance fiscal sustainability, and ensure that Saint Lucia is better prepared to quantify, manage, and protect its national assets.