By: Saidu Jalloh
On his reelection to the office of the presidency, H.E., the president Rtd Brigadier General Dr. Julius Maada Bio developed the “BIG FIVE GAME CHANGER” geared towards “Accelerating Economic Growth and Building Resilience” as the driving force for the second term agenda.
To deliver on Pillar 4 (Revamping the Public Service Architecture) of the “BIG FIVE GAME CHANGER”, he appointed Hon. Amara Kallon as the Minister of Public Administration and Political Affairs charged with the mandate to provide political and technical lead to revamp the public service. Key responsibility among the many is to coordinate the development and implementation of the public sector reform.
Again, at the state opening of the first session of the Sixth Parliament of the Republic of Sierra Leone on Thursday 3rd August 2023, His Excellency, the president Rtd Brigadier General Dr
Julius Maada Bio laid the foundation for an ambitious goal in “Revamping the Public Architecture” as a strong political will to support and facilitate an efficient, inclusive, and accountable public service in Sierra Leone.
On December 12th, 2023, in Johannesburg, Republic of South Africa; H.E. President Dr. Julius Maada Bio, as the substantive Chairperson of Africa Peer Review Forum of Heads of State and Government, made a strong commitment to provide sound leadership towards promoting good political and economic governance and sustainable development and efforts to consolidate the healthy collaboration in the African Continent and beyond.
It is against that backdrop, Hon. Amara Kallon, the Minister who doubles as the APRM’s Focal Person, Deputy Minister, Technical Team, and a cross section of senior staff members at the ministry, paid a courtesy call on Hon. Dr. Moinina Sengeh, the Chief Minister to present a status report on the first 100 days of deliverables, the progress of work, and the action plan for 2024.
Hon. Amara Kallon’s PowerPoint presentation captured a detailed analysis addressing the subject matter.
His presentation highlighted a general background of Sierra Leone’s public service, vision statement, mandate, responsibilities, emerging issues, challenges, transformation pillars, key strategy objective activities, the ministry’s challenges, partners, and requests to name but a few.
Under Key Activities for 2024, Hon. Amara Kallon articulated the ministry’s programme of events as follows:
The review of the Civil Service Codes, Rules, and Regulations of June 2011.
Development of the Public Policy, Act, and Regulations, digitalization of key service delivery systems, development of the Competency Framework, capacity building and strengthening of the Public Service Architecture and revamp the Civil Service Training College.
According to Hon. Amara Kallon, the approach to roll out the Activities for 2024 is through the reactivation of Public Steering Committee, Peer learning visits and tours, and working in collaboration with partners like Public Service Commission(PSC), Human Resources Management Office(HRMO), Public Service Reform Unit(PSRU), Cabinet Secretariat/Head of Civil Service, United Nation Development Programme(UNDP), African Peer Review Mechanism(APRM), European Union(EU), People’s Republic of Egypt, etcetera to achieve this goal.
In articulating the ministry’s challenges; Hon. Amara Kallon briefed the Chief Minister on office space to accommodate the staff for the task ahead, budgetary allocation, Assets/equipment and vehicles, Technical Team, capacity of the existing staff, mindset/political will to mention but a few as stumbling blocks to effective delivery.
According to Hon. Amara Kallon, amidst this prevailing state of affairs, the ministry with the moral support of the aforesaid partners have been able to hit their 100 days target or expectation under the development of the Public Service Reform Plan as follows;
Ongoing assessment of the status of the public service activities are: Developed the vision, mandate, and responsibilities. Management and Functional Review(MFR),Peer learning visits and tour and Multi Stakeholders Consultative Conference on a Policy Agenda in Public Service Reform and etcetera.
In Conclusion,Hon. Dr. Moinina Sengeh, the Chief Minister in his remarks, applauded Hon. Amara Kallon and his team as one of the few ministries to have presented a comprehensive update of the first 100 days deliverables, Progress of work, and Action/Activities plan for 2024.
Under the key requests, the Chief Minister promised to cross-section the cabinet paper minutes to explore opportunities and follow up with the ministry of finance to address the office space, budgetary allocation, the approval and motivation of technical team, equipment and vehicle challenges to mention but a few.
For the EU public service extension project time, the Chief Minister gave assurance to add his voice and facilitate a meeting for amicable resolution.
Since Revamping the Public Service Architecture is pillar 4 of the “BIG FIVE GAME CHANGER,” the Chief Minister assured Hon. Amara Kallon and his team of his unflinching support to the point of scouting for more international partners to join the developmental wagon.