Financial administrator wins civil service annual gong

(CNS): Zhané Rambaran, the financial administrator in the Portfolio of the Civil Service, has been crowned Government Employee of the Year for 2023. Rambaran won the top award out of a field of 12 finalists who were all employees of the month last year. Rambaran was selected as April’s winner for her “exemplary contributions” to the government’s strategic goal of delivering exceptional customer service.

The twelve finalists were initially nominated by a colleague, then endorsed by their chief officers and ultimately selected by Deputy Governor Franz Manderson.

The Deputy Governor’s Award Programme, which celebrates each year twelve Employees of the Month and one Employee of the Year, was created in 2012. It recognises civil servants whose behaviour exemplifies the civil service’s values of passion, integrity and professionalism and whose performance demonstrates accountability in delivering against the government’s broad outcomes to both external and internal customers.

Rambaran was described as “someone who makes all of our lives better” with an “infectious smile. PoCS Chief Officer Gloria McField-Nixon said Rambaran played a crucial role in ensuring timely payments to vendors, upholding government policies and procedures, and ultimately supporting the public, economy, community, and families.

She said Rambaran was “someone who, in their civil service career, was growing from strength to strength, who brings the zeal and who reflects and exemplifies that the right attitude can determine the altitude”.
 
As she accepted her award, Rambaran said civil servants were not serving a niche market or one particular group of people. “Rather, we are serving every person who calls these beloved Islands home… This is no light work, but it is work that fills me and my colleagues with an immense sense of pride,” she added.

Manderson said he had found it difficult to select a winner. “I can say without reservation that all twelve nominees are world-class civil servants,” he said. “I am happy to see that they have come from a cross-section of the civil service. They live our values. It demonstrates to me that our vision of being a world-class civil service is the correct one. It is because of our civil servants, who work hard every day. I have seen it.”

The other 2023 Employee of the Year nominees were:

• Beckie Seymour, Executive Officer, Department of Children & Family Services
• George Hurlston, Solid Waste Collection Driver, Department of Environmental Health (Sister Islands)
• Tanisha James, Assistant HR & Development Manager/ Acting Senior Manager, Public Works Department
• Prisca Smith, Administrative Assistant, Office of the Deputy Governor
• Anita Veitch-Lee, Administrator, Department of Workforce Opportunities & Residency Cayman (WORC)
• Audrey Hill, Administrator, WORC
• Kiria Bodden, Financial Administrator, Ministry of Border Control & Labour
• Kim Chin, Legal Executive Officer, Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions
• Jeremy Olynik, Senior Geographical Information Systems Officer, Department of Environment
• Heather Jackson, Library Officer, Public Library Service
• David Dixon, Director, Department of Vehicle & Drivers’ Licensing;

In addition to the Employee of the Year award, three teams also received Moments of Magic awards for outstanding work. These included the e-Government Department for developing and implementing the e-Gov portal, the health ministry’s Steps team for developing and implementing that research project, and WORC for a collection of improvements that reduced the processing time for various types of applications by 70%.