Fonction publique : Om Kumar Dabidin, Secretary for Home Affairs, part à la retraite  

Om Kumar Dabidin, Secretary for Home Affairs, est parti à la retraite ce samedi 31 décembre après avoir passé plus de 40 ans dans la fonction publique. Il a adressé un message à ses collègues.

Voici son message :  

My Colleagues and Friends of the Public Service

I will retire from the Public Service as from today after more than 40 years of loyal and dedicated service to the Government and the State.

It seems like it was only yesterday that I joined the public service as a Clerical Officer and then Labour Inspector in the year 1982, and later in 1988 I had the privilege of being appointed as Administrative Officer, after going through a highly competitive selection exercise.  Since then I have had opportunities to engage in every facet of public policy and public administration. I have, through ups and downs, climbed the ladder of senior officials with determination, dedication, commitment and hard work until my nomination as Secretary for Home Affairs, a position in which I have served with passion and humility to this date.

I still recall when I joined the public service, I was in high spirits and eagerly looking forward to serving with love, passion, integrity, humility and compassion, and to bringing changes to some archaic methods of service delivery.  Now when I am about to leave and when I look behind, I can see one constant trait which encapsulates all those values and it is nothing more than hard work and commitment. Dreams do not become reality by magic and success is no accident. It takes, inter-alia, determination, hard work, sacrifice and diligence to realise the objectives set forth.  The most important factors, to ensure success include undeniably, hard work and the upholding of values and principles, coupled with dedication to the job at hand and an unremitting devotion and focus on the things you want to see happening.

However, I am brimming with nostalgia and gratitude as well.  It has been a great honour and privilege for me to have served the Government of the day in my respective capacities, from Clerical Officer, Resource Person, Labour Inspector all the way to Secretary for Home Affairs, and as acting Secretary to Cabinet and Head of Civil Service on several occasions. 

Together with other stakeholders of the Public Service as well as the Private Sector, we have over the years rebuilt, reinvented, strengthened and modernized our services. We have confronted seemingly unsurmountable challenges, along with many twists and turns. We have seen adversity not as a stumbling block, but as a stepping stone towards greater achievements.

As I look back on those achievements, I want to sincerely thank every single Officer in the Public Sector, past and present, as well as all other stakeholders of the private sector, who have collaborated with me and provided me their invaluable support and contributions.  I am tremendously grateful for your commitment and the myriad of sacrifices that you have made. It is in this way that together, we have, through our relentless and continuous efforts, been able to overcome the unprecedented challenge represented by the COVID 19 Pandemic, during the two lockdowns. The Work Access Permits delivered by the Prime Minister’s Office were instrumental in controlling the movement of our citizens so as to find the right balance between preventing the spread of the disease and sustaining business continuity. Today, Mauritius is recognized as one among the first African countries which has successfully managed and has been able to mitigate the devastating effects of the Pandemic and this is due to the joint efforts of both the Public and Private sectors, under the abled leadership of the Honourable Prime Minister. 

I also had the privilege in my capacity as Permanent Secretary, Senior Chief Executive and Secretary for Home Affairs at the Prime Minister’s Office, to contribute in enhancing the organizational set up of several of our institutions such as, the National Sanctions Secretariat, the Mauritius Police Force, the Mauritius Ports Authority, in collaboration with all the concerned stakeholders.  On the international front, I have had the honour to accompany the responsible Ministers to represent Mauritius in several international fora such as the Human Rights Committees to present our country reports, and my interventions, which I will forever remember, are the ones I made at the United Nations on migration issues on which a lot of progress has been achieved by Mauritius.

All these positive contributions have required the most impressive displays of teamwork, innovation and resilience, and I have seen them in you all.  Working with you has also made my time, as Secretary for Home Affairs, nothing short of a real privilege that I will cherish for the rest of my life. Gratitude, as the most exquisite form of thankfulness, fills my heart today and through these words I want to reach out to all those who, in the spur of the moments, we have taken for granted, but who above all else, deserve my deepest appreciation. 

To you all I say “Thank You” as sincere as a prayer and a special gratitude to express my feelings, although there is lot more to it than those two words can say. 

Lastly, Martin Luther King said, I quote: “If you can´t fly then run, if you can´t run then walk, if you can´t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.” Unquote. 

Hence, life is a journey, and we have to keep on moving just like days and nights and we will reach surely with love, pride and success the ultimate destination which we have been looking for.

Thank you.

Om Kumar Dabidin                        
Secretary for Home Affairs 
Prime Minister’s Office
31 December 2022