By: Saidu Jalloh
In a bid to revamp the public service in Sierra Leone, The Ministry of Public Administration and Political Affairs has held the first in Africa multi – stakeholders consultative forum on a policy agenda for public service reform in Sierra Leone.
Sierra Leone has set the bar high for other African countries to emulate their vision and strategies to reform public service.
The Minister of Public administration and Political Affair, Mr. Amara Kallon used the opportunity to welcome distinguished guests and gave a historical background about how the Ministry was formed.
He stated that His Excellency the President Julius Masada Bio is the chairman of the APRM Forum of Head of States and government and by default all other committees under APRM must be headed by the institution of Sierra Leone.
This means that the previous name of the Ministry was Ministry of Political and Public Affairs was the focal point of APRM in Sierra Leone and by default the minister is the chair of the committee of the focal point and also all ministers who preside over APRM in their different countries. He reminisces that in 2020, the AGR report for the AU was on the fourth industrial revolution, but because of the spate of military intervention in West Africa the theme was changed to unconditionally change of government in Africa. He also added that a research was done to know the rationale behind the spate of unconstitutional change of government in Africa and the research proved that it was the ineffectiveness of Public Servants and when this happens citizens rise and the military will take control. “It is from this inspiration that the president, Julius Masada committed himself that if he wins the June 2023 election, he will revamp the public service in Sierra Leone and he won successfully and created a new ministry which is Ministry of Public Administration and Political Affairs,” Minister Kallon said.
He further explained that they should make no mistake that they couldn’t feed the nation if they didn’t have a strong public service and also said they wouldn’t create the 500,000 jobs if they didn’t have a strong public service, and he said that in entirety they couldn’t achieve the human capital development if they didn’t invest in their public service. He addressed that the youth would become nuisance to society if they don’t create the opportunity for them to play the role In governance and he also spoke about the women who formed about 51% of the Sierra Leone population if they don’t play the critical role in our governance system, we would not forged ahead.
He highlighted the point that come out of the discussion in which he said are: they want to build a public service in Sierra Leone which can reliever on the needs and aspiration of the people of Sierra Leone and also said they want a digitalized public service that can deliver through technology and they cannot run away from that and he also encouraged public service to generate funds to undertake their own activities that they either wait for donate which will come late or strings attached to it.
He expressed that the Civil Service Training College would be transformed to a National Public Service Academy. He said they have put together a document for the transition from Civil Service Training College to National Public Services Academy with the business plan, the lane had been secured to put the structure and they are looking for donor or partners to build the structure.
The Chief Minister of the Republic of Sierra Leone, Dr. David Moinina Sengeh also took the podium to express the importance of revamping the public service in Sierra Leone. He lamented that often those conversations held before had not been fruitful and they are coming around the table again to try to understand where their differences come from whether or not they have similar problems and put that into a framework we all agreed to. He noted that it is never easy the relationship between the appointees and civil service which draws lot Ms of differences and which many of us do, temporal vs permanent, political vs technical, pragmatic vs bureaucratic but these are all false dichotomy we are all in the same team and our is for effective public service delivery so that the citizens can benefit. He narrated that in 2018, they captured the aspirations of the people in focusing in human capital development particularly the flagship program of His excellency the Free Quality Education and he said he was very privileged to be part of that story directly as the Minister of Basic Education, but the successes they have had required the collaboration and participation of every ministries, every permanent secretary, every entity to the government had to play their own role for us to be where we are today, and for us to be talking about the educational successes and gains they had made over the last five years. Dr. Sengeh also said that the same commitment had been made in the big five game changers and pillar four of that big five is to revamp the public service and which the justice sector reform requires that same level of participation and collective ownership for us to be able to deliver. He noted that the delivery in pillar four is essential in the delivery of all the four pillar in the big five game changers because they require effective human capacity to feed salone, to educate our children, to employ our youth and to drive technology and innovation.
He further that the public service and civil service are the engine that drives government vision across all sectors to the people. He reiterated the words of the president in August at Bintumani in which he said “this public service engines are engines that must be cabareted to maintain speed and efficiency and general fitness. Without the public service engines, our destination for a prosperous nation would seem decreasingly far and far from where we are. Our government believes that public service reform is a compelling mandate to advance a better society in Sierra Leone. It is also part of the change process through which the country would be capacitated to compete at the global arena.”
Professor Eddy Maloka, CEO, APRM Continental Secretariat also gave a wonderful speech and lavished praised on Sierra Leone as the first country in the continent to hold such high level of consultative meetings in reforming public service. He also said he is looking forward to the exercise and the experts are in Sierra Leone. He also commended the leadership of President Maada Bio and the people of Sierra Leone in making this happen. He said that they are there as APRM to accompany the government of Sierra Leone and the have the APRM office in Sierra Leone and his colleagues are here and their newly appointed executive, National office and also Continental office.
Amara Kallon climaxed the program by giving thanks to all the invitees and said that he want to tap into the knowledge of the diaspora and encouraged them to come home because there is no place like home. The Ministry is try to create an enable environment for every Sierra Leoneans.