The Personnel Management Office (PMO) organized a 4 day refresher training from 21st – 24th, October, 2019 for Assistant Secretaries from government, ministries and departments held at the PMO Conference Room.
The session was attended by more than 14 participants. The training was opened by Mr.Lamin F Jawara, Permanent Secretary PMO, who thanked the coordinators for organizing and facilitating this important session and went on to welcome participants urging them to showcase enthusiasm to learn new skills and knowledge during the entire sessions, so as to familiarize themselves more with PMO mandates, PSC Regulation and the General Orders in order to better understand rules and regulations governing the civil service.
Mr. Lamin Saidy, Director of Training at PMO said the objective of the training is to discuss various aspects of personnel matters and procedures to enhance the knowledge, skills and attitudes of participants. He also reiterated that the training is envisaged to instill basic Human Resources Management skills and knowledge among participants in order to enhance competencies and improve service delivery in the civil service.
Mr. Musa Camara, DPS Finance and Admin -PMO presented on Ethics governing the Civil Service and he said acts such as bribery and misappropriation of funds and such other activities as patronage, nepotism, conflict of interest, influence peddling, seeking of personal benefits by using official position, granting favours to relatives and friends, leaking or misusing government confidential information and engaging in unsanctioned political activity are all unethical conduct that Civil Servants should avoid at all cost.
Mr. Abdou Bah, the Director of Human Resource Information systems at PMO among the presenters took participants through his unit’s functions and General Orders (GO) of the Civil Service. He said that, in the GO “Longevity increments, equals 10% of one’s basic salary, will be paid to an officer who stagnates at the top of his or her scale. The first increment will be paid two years after the date the officer reaches the top of the scale and will be paid after each stagnation period of five (5) years thereafter and longevity increments are pensionable emoluments”. Mr. Bah explained.
Mr. Bah further stated that PMO in collaboration with the Accountant General’s Department is planning to launch HRMIS system to be managed by PMO and the system will facilitate information processing, sharing and HR decision making for managers and Heads of Departments. It will also be a one stop platform for all HR activities Bah promised.
“The sessions have been very informative and enlightening. The facilitators did a good job in the way they delivered and have done justice to their various topics and I personally gained an in-depth knowledge on these different areas that are very relevant to my work as an Assistant Secretary and these sessions enhanced my understanding of the different units and their mandates within PMO” said Fatoumatta Dibba, a participant from Public Service Commission (PSC) said.
Mrs. Dibba added that lot of what was discussed is directly related to her work duties and currently she is working on different letters such as Confirmation in appointment, Promotions, and Appointments, so the knowledge acquired will help her work effectively and efficiently.
Pa Masanneh Korta from Ministry of Health said the training was fruitful due to the fact that the topics delivered by facilitators were thoroughly explained and skills gained will be applied to his Term of Reference to improve performance.
Ida Sonko from Ministry of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology among participants said the training came at the right time as it gave them more insight into Human resources management processes and also enhanced understanding of their various functions as Assistant Secretaries.
She added that the sessions were interactive, it helps refreshed their memories in term of responsibilities in respective ministries and department. “the policies and procedures of our designation have been clearly outlined to make us better administrators and more of these kind should be organized often so that PMO can have an idea of how their staffs operate in their different departments and also share expertise and experience” Ida stated.
During the closing, PS Jawara finally thanked the participants and advised them to make best use of the knowledge and share with colleagues, especially on issues related to Human Resource (HR) because they supposed to be the HR staffs at their different departments.
He said, this kind of sessions will be conducted often to give a platform to hear personnel matters and strengthen capacities for better service delivery.
