Government Outsources HR Tasks to NeoPeople

Government’s push to modernize the public service is now sparking concern, not over efficiency, but over trust. As thousands of sensitive personnel files move from filing cabinets to digital systems, and some human resources functions shift to a private company, NeoPeople, public officers are asking pointed questions: who can see their information, and how secure is it really? Those concerns took center stage today as Public Service Minister Henry Charles Usher addressed fears about confidentiality, outlining the scope of the overhaul and the safeguards he says are built in to protect employee data.

 

Henry Charles Usher, Minister of Public Service & Disaster Risk Management

“The concerns that public officers have about their data, about the performance appraisals, about their P-files, is one that has been ongoing. Even with the physical files because oftentimes those physical files are stored externally because there’s no space in particular ministries. We’ve heard stories of them being stored in storage containers. The digitizing of those files is a part of the modernizing of the public service. Now, the digitizing of those files does also include protecting the confidentiality of those files, and that’s what we intend to do, and that we have to insist on that whoever is managing those files. It’s very important that however that data is being managed, whether it is outsourced to an organization such as NeoPeople, or whether it is housed in-house at CITO or wherever, the confidentiality of that information is critical. So we did a lot of homework when it came to NeoPeople. We made sure that their ability to store this information was able to protect the data for our the public officers, and we feel confident that they do have that capacity. Of course, as there are always digital hackers out there. They… I think BTL sent out a release some time ago saying that they get thousands of attempted security breaches of their data information. Same thing happens with banks, financial institutions, social security. So the firewalls that are put in place, the protection of that data is critical, and, we’re always making sure that is at the highest level possible.”

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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