Twenty-two civil servants recently commenced a weeklong tailor-made training on handling cabinet papers, minutes writing and strategic management, at the Management Development Institute (MDI) jointly organised with the Personnel Management Office (PMO).
Speaking at the opening ceremony held at the MDI in Kanifing, Hon. Momodou Sabally, Secretary General and the Head of Civil Service and Minister for Presidential Affairs, told the participants that fundamentally, the public service, under the leadership of President Yahya Jammeh, strives to shape an innovation high performing public sector capable of delivering sustainability, modern and qualitative public services.
Clearly this cannot be achieved without adequate and relevant capacity, especially at policy level, he said.
“The cabinet as the epitome of state machinery and policy formulation counts on the critical support and input of the civil service, therefore the existence of capacity gaps in the critical area of communication such as preparation of cabinet memorandum potentially has a huge negative impact on the delivery of quality goods and services to the public this of course is unacceptable,” he said.
This is why, according to him, the training has been sanctioned to strengthen capacity in this important area.
He said he had no doubt that MDI as a premier institution for the training of public servants would put together appropriate modules and team of experienced facilitators to adequately address the targeted skill gaps as required.
This, he added, would be helpful and rewarding for the participants in representing the network of frontline practitioners.
Tailor-made programmes of this nature provide a unique and multi-stakeholders platform for constructive dialogue, exchange of best practices and formulation of innovation solutions.
“I dare hasten to say that positive attitudinal transformation at all levels, especially at policy level, is sine qua non to rapid national development as envisaged in our development blueprints,” he noted.
For his part, Alieu K. Jarju, deputy director general of MDI, in his remarks, said it is imperative for all countries to develop adequate and efficient human resource capacity to not only deliver services for their citizens, but to compete as equals in the league of nations.
“We must understand that poverty and underdevelopment are structural rather than natural conditions that can be reversed through the development of a strong human resource capacity base now called human capital development,” he said.
