Senior
managers and directors from the public sector Wednesday commenced a two-day
training on corporate ethics, social responsibility and corporate governance.
The event, underway at a hotel in Kololi, was jointly organised by Personnel Management Office and Crown Managed Service Limited.
Speaking at the official opening ceremony, deputy Permanent Secretary at Personnel Management Office, Pateh Jah, said The Gambia government recognises the fact that its human resources are its most valuable and priceless assets.
He said the government is not oblivious of the fact that the fulfillment of its vision and achievement of its objectives and goals depends on a well-trained, disciplined, highly qualified and motivated employees.
“This is why the government attaches great importance to capacity development,” Mr Jah said, adding that the government is committed to provide the necessary resources to equip the civil servants with the requisite knowledge and attitude to enhance performance.
He said the PMO recognises capacity building as a continuous investment and will take all necessary measures to enhance and improve the knowledge base as well as the skill levels of the civil service.
Mr Jah said the capacity building is not limited to only within the country; it involves overseas training as maybe required.However, he said overseas training will not be the focus as in the past.
“Overseas courses will be entirely need-based and will be used when such cannot be acquired locally as local training will be given much greater prominence,” he explained.
Madam Isatou (Aisha) Saidy, director and principal consultant of Crown Managed Services, said the training will help to shape a proper ethical standard for corporations and for the next generations of workforce.
“Corporate ethics in The Gambia is influence by lots of factors, top most of which is our attitude,” she said.“We need positive attitudinal change in order to develop and progress as a nation.”
Madam Saidy said they are aware that adopting the appropriate ethical standards will not happen overnight in The Gambia.
The goal is to ensure that policymakers and heads of institution work closely together to come up with appropriate policies that will be delivered gradually over time, she explained.
The consultant said change in work ethics is required but the change will not occur unless there is commitment to it.
She said the aim of her firm is to get more senior and middle managers exposed to ethical trainings, and drafting and implementing ethical policies.This is because the more management and staff are aware about ethical issues, the easier to find ways of implementing appropriate ethical standards.
However, this can only be effective if the senior management shows commitment through modeling behavior.
