By: Lamin B. Darboe Information Officer, PMO

The minister of Public Service, Administrative Reform, Policy Coordination and Delivery has challenged the Senior Management Team (SMT) under his watch to come out ready and get the new Ministry running.

Hon. Baboucarr O. Joof made these remarks on Thursday while presiding over the official opening ceremony of a two- day “Planning Retreat” at Sindola Hotel in Kanilai, Foni Kansala District, West Coast Region.

The retreat organised by the new Ministry was geared towards engaging the Senior Management Team (SMT) of the Ministry to come-up with the ministry’s work-plans for both 2022 and 2023 respectively, ended on Friday.

Hon. Joof therefore stated that the new ministry would take decisions instead of PMO, while Letter Heads and Stamps of PMO will also change to reflect the new institutional arrangement. “It is like the birth of the new ministry being finally formalised.”

According to Public Service procedures, Minister Joof explained, all correspondence, communications, administration of personnel and other issues would now be addressed to the new Ministry instead of Personnel Management Office (PMO) and Department of Strategic Policy and Delivery (DSPD).

“When I was appointed as the minister, I set-up a task-force in early July to look into the scope of the new Ministry based on a concept note which  President Barrow handed over to me immediately after my appointment as minister,” Minister Joof informed his SMT members.

The task force, he added, has now established the scope of the Ministry, functions of the various entities within the Ministry and also come up with a proposed structure for the ministry of how it will deliver the mandate based on the concept note along-side the resources at hand.

Thus the task force, he added, defined the mandate of the ministry, outlined the functional responsibilities and proposed institutional structure for the new Ministry.

“The integrated process now ends after Kanilai retreat. All power in the Ministry will now be handled by me (Minister). My permanent secretaries and deputy permanent secretaries will provide technical details within the sector,” Minister Joof explained.

He described the retreat as timely, adding that the synergy completed the ministry’s integration process but added that the retreat also created a platform for the senior staff of the ministry to be actively involved in the planning and decision making process for the sector.

Public Service Minister explained that Public Service Act 1991 and the Constitution of the Republic of The Gambia which is the principal law in the country were reviewed in order to establish the mandate of the new ministry.

“Let me say this here that PMO, DSPD and National Records Service (NRS) are now integrated into the institutional structure of the new ministry and will cease to exist in their current forms,” Minister Joof concluded.