By: Amadu Femoh Sesay
Information Officer-Cabinet Secretariat
The Secretary to the Cabinet and Head of the Civil Service, Dr. Ernest Sahid Alie Surrur has expressed dismay about the inability of some Permanent Secretaries and Professional Heads of Ministries to submit their Performance Targets for 2014 and warned that the HRMO will stop their May salaries if their targets were not submitted on or before 10th May.
Dr. Surrur flanked by the Solicitor General (Left) and HRMO Director General (Right)
Dr. Surrur was on Thursday 24th April addressing Permanent Secretaries and Professional Heads of Government Ministries at the usual monthly meeting for Permanent Secretaries and Professional Heads at the Civil Service Training College, Tower Hill in Freetown.
He disclosed that they were supposed to submit their Performance Targets in December last year. “April is almost gone and still many of them have not submitted their Performance Targets for 2014 and they have all been trained in Target Setting and several reminders issued to them… he stated.
The Head of the Civil Service reiterated that the key role of Civil Servants is to deliver quality, improved, reliable, timely and satisfactory service to the populace. He said before delivering the services, Civil Servants need to make important decisions in deciding what to deliver and how it should be delivered to satisfy the people they are serving.
Dr. Surrur said the Civil Service needs to shine again and reclaim its old glory of the past where Sierra Leone was the center of governance for the sub region. He recalled that the country used to help other nations in West Africa in strengthening their Civil Service.
The Head of the Civil Service further recalled that in the late 50s top senior Civil Servants in Ghana were Sierra Leoneans. He said they were imported into Ghana to teach Ghanaian Civil Servants on governance adding that he was confident the Civil Service can do same for Sierra Leone.
Dr. Surrur said the Civil Service should always be a great place to work if its staff were able to satisfy their clients as it employs people from diverse backgrounds committed to public service and making a difference in performance.
He called on Civil Servants to work together to create an open and fast moving organization, provide all staff with the required tools and opportunities to work more collaboratively to achieve results faster. Dr. Surrur admonished them to build long term relationships among themselves and their clients they serve.
The Director General, Human Resource Management Office (HRMO), Abdul Rashid Bayoh said the Civil Service is full of talented, skilled, experienced and energetic people observing that the above qualities have
not been converging to address the challenges within the Service.
He informed the gathering that the HRMO had just completed a three day retreat in which the institution was able to indentify its strengths, weaknesses and opportunities. The Director General added that possible conclusions and recommendations were also proffered as to how they can improve on their work.
Updating the gathering, the Director of Communications in the Ministry of Information and Communications, Bakarr Tarawally said the Directorate has created ICT Units in all the Ministries. He said the ICT cadre engineers are working with KN Ireland in the laying of the ECOWAN regional backbone connecting Freetown to neighboring cities.
The Director noted that the ICT has the potential to contribute 30-40% of the country’s GDP, if fully strengthened and implemented. He stated that the Department will conduct training and sensitization of Civil Servants and Public Sector workers on ICT.
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