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Senator Charles Gibson, Minister of Public Service
"The 23rd of June each year has been declared as public service day and for the past 9 - 10 years we have been celebrating public service day in Belize. What we try to do first of all is to find out those public officers who have served 25 years and more and the whole idea is to ensure that we recognize and honor and we reward these officers for the hard work, the dedication that they have been doing over that period of time. As you can see this morning, we had what I would consider a very impressive ceremony and now we are having a luncheon and it is really, as I've said before, to honor them and to tell them thank you for the hard work and the dedication that they have done to assist in the development of this country."

"We actually have a database which tells us persons who have served the 25 year period. We confirm that by sending out what we called a circular to our ministries and departments asking ministries and departments to inform us of those public officers who have reached that particular plateau. It has been a very tedious exercise, it's something which we began quite early in the year, but as you can see it has worked out to my mind relatively well. I also want to say that besides this ceremony today that what we have been doing throughout the latter part of May and the earlier part of June is what we called public service information day and the real difference with the information day and today is that the departments and ministries have an opportunity to showcase their work. many people in the country would not know some of the services that are being offered by the government. There are a number of new services which are being offered and so it's an opportunity for ministries and departments to showcase their work so that people can have a better understanding of what services are being offered, but most importantly too, anything we do we need to see whether or not we can improve and it also offers the opportunity for the public to ask questions, to make suggestions how we can improve our service. I think throughout the day the discussions, the presentations that have been made you will see that there is an underlining theme "service delivery" and one of the things that we are striving as much as we possibly can is to see how we can improve the services which is offered to the public by the government of Belize."

Russell Blackett, Assistant Commissioner of Police
"After thirty-seven years of service, it feels just like yesterday. I do believe that when you want to do good for your country - bringing peace and prosperity to all - it seems as a God given gift. Whatever I've been through over the last thirty-seven years, I know that I was guiding. I put God first in everything and I serve my country to the best of my ability."

Reporter
"What is the key to be able to do the job that you do and of course for so long?"

Russell Blackett, Assistant Commissioner of Police
"Like I say you must be dedicated, you must be loyal, you must be fair, you must be considerate, compassionate to the public out there. As police officers we tend to have that authority and the authority we have sometimes we do not understand how to use it. We are doing our best along with the commissioner of police and the ministry of national security to ensure that the quality of service we give is being raised from time to time. I do believe that the safety of the public as I always mention and bringing about peace to the citizenry at large is our first and foremost goal. We have to be self committed; we have to put our self before for the public. You must be there for the public, you must be conscientious, we must be partners with the public - it's like one big family and you have to have that trust from people especially with the community policing aspect of our department. I do believe that we have come a long way and it will only get better."

This year's Public Service Day is celebrated under the theme, "Public Service! Service for You, Service for Me, Serving the People, Serving Belize".