SLA celebrates 30th anniversary, rewards long-serving staff |06 May 2015

Forty-four employees who have worked with the Seychelles Licensing Authority for between five and 28 years have been recognised and rewarded for their long service and loyalty.

Eight employees who have clocked 20 years of service and above received special mention and rewards, while the principal licensing officer of the Seychelles Licensing Authority (SLA), Flavia Contoret, was recognised and rewarded for clocking more years  of  service with the company – 28 years in total.

Altogether 19 employees have clocked between one and five years of service, five of them between five and 10 years, eight of them between 10 and 15, four between 15 and 20 years, and eight of them between 20 and above with the longest being Ms Contoret.
   
The other seven longest serving employees with more than 20 years of service are Christa Ernesta, Lisette Boniface, Miranda Benoiton, Linda Beaudouin, Beltanne Maria, Franky Madeleine and Daniel Quatre.

The employees received their certificates, tokens of recognition and rewards during a gala evening organised for them by the SLA at the STC Club 55 at the weekend.

The event was attended by Finance, Trade and the Blue Economy Minister, Jean-Paul Adam among other distinguished guests and SLA management and staff.

Addressing guests at the event, Minister Adam pointed out that over the past 30 years the SLA has been growing alongside the economy being an organisation that has always sought to reach out to the people it serves.

He said the SLA has been a platform for economic stability, always recognising that quality matters more than quantity.

“As we celebrate today, we celebrate that drive to always bring better quality to the efficiency of the SLA, the quality of services available to its clients and to the business environment as a whole,” Minister Adam pointed out.

Stressing on the fact that there is always room for the organisation to improve, Minister Adam said: “Let us also use this anniversary celebration to reflect on ways to continue to improve, let us invite constructive criticism, let us have an open conversation on those areas where there is still scope for improvement.”

“In many areas the SLA has set the bar in terms of timely processing of various applications. But there are still some areas where we have unnecessary delays,” Minister Adam pointed out.

He noted that in many cases these issues arise because the overall processes are not sufficiently streamlined or there are inadequate resources.

“The Ministry of Finance, Trade and the Blue Economy and the Ministry of Investment, Entrepreneurship Development and Business Innovation are working together to tackle these issues and others as part of an inclusive approach to improve the ease of doing business in Seychelles,” Minister Adam told everyone present.

For his part, SLA’s chief executive Daniel Gappy pointed out that the authority will continue to strive to provide a much better service to all.

 “The SLA will continue to grow, it started with only five members of staff when it was set up 30 years ago. Today we have above 50 members of staff which represent a critical resource for the Seychelles economy,” said Mr Gappy.

He also availed of the opportunity to thank all the SLA staff for their dedication during their long service with the organisation.

“I congratulate all of you and look forward to 30 more years of both economic stability and innovation in terms of licensing process,” Mr Gappy said.

He also pointed out that the SLA is in the process of modernising its registration and inspectorate services as it adopts electronic service delivery mechanisms to improve access to services and simplify registrations.