By Foday Moriba Conteh
The Executive Management Board (EMB) of the Sierra Leone Police Force held a one day seminar at the Conference Room of the Police Headquarters on George Street in Freetown, on Performance Monitoring and Management Processes with the theme: “Accelerating Service Delivery; Implementing the Medium-Term National Development Plan”.
The Seminar was organized by the Directorate of Service Delivery and Performance Management in the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development in collaboration with the Office of the Chief Minister on Wednesday 5th May 2021 organized
It was held at the request of the Inspector General of Police, Dr. Ambrose Sovula, in response to Government support to MDAs to accelerate service delivery.
In his introduction, the Director of Service Delivery and Performance Management in the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development and in the Office of the Chief Minister, Dr. Robert Tamba Moikowa emphasized the importance of policing services maintaining that the Sierra Leone Police is a key player in service delivery.
With reference to the call of H.E. the President, Dr Julius Maada Bio, to accelerate service delivery within Government institutions, he said the engagement was part of the Government’s support to strengthen institutions and that the engagement will be continuous with a focus on the Benefits of Performance Management across Government institutions; Target Setting ; Alignment of Deliverables and Annual Work Plan (AWP) with the Medium-Term National Development Plan; Results-Based Management; Indicators for Monitoring Performance Outcomes and Reporting, with reference to the Performance Tracking Table.
The participants, members of the EMB, comprising Directors of the various departments in the Sierra Leone Police highlighted their key deliverables for 2021, including the acquisition and overhauling of the Sierra Leone Police Communication Network Nationwide, construction of new Police Stations nationwide, acquisition of 35 Land Cruisers and 20 personnel carrier trucks to enhance operations, strengthening internal security by providing basic logistics to personnel and installation of Close Circuit Television (CCTV) project in strategic locations in Freetown.
Also invited to the seminar were members of the Independent Police Complaints Board. This is an independent civilian oversight mechanism with a unique mandate within the security sector to receive and investigate complaints from the public. It also advises the leadership of the Sierra Leone Police.
To enrich the engagement, the Chairperson of the National Monitoring and Evaluation Directorate (NaMED), Dr. James Edwin, underscored the importance of monitoring and evaluation in service delivery and lamented that, in the past, huge sums of money went down the drain that has left the country underdeveloped and the people poor due primarily to lack of monitoring and evaluation asserting that the situation is more deplorable in inaccessible and remote parts of the country.
The Head of NaMED also revealed that the development budget for the Police Force was Le.7 billion in 2020 and Le5 billion this year, that there are 229 projects in this year’s budget funded by Government and donors that will be monitored and evaluated to reduce the non-implementation of projects that causes huge loss to the country, especially in remote parts of the country revealing that the system would be digitalized with the use of the Global Information System.
According to Dr. James Edwin, the process would take Sierra Leone to another level and revealed plans by the World Bank to train staff of Local Councils with a $3.5 million project for which he encouraged the EMB of the Police to explore other sources of funding.
Other topical issues discussed were that the Police have 20 uncompleted projects in the Western Area, not accessing its Development Budget, rankings that were reduced from 19-9, external factors affecting its work, lack of security and insurance for personnel, personnel welfare and capacity-building at strategic level, regular retreats/workshops/seminars, intelligence and operations among others.
In his PowerPoint presentation, Dr. Robert Moikowa underscored that the deliverables of the Police Force must be aligned with Government’s Mid-Term National Development Plan and its indicators, dilated on the Police Force managing public perception, earning public confidence, riots, corruption, professionalism, leadership, performance of the Police Force from the lens of the public, Government and the International Community and entreated the EMB of the Police Force to do self-evaluation in order to see if it is on track.
The Deputy Inspector-General of Police, who chaired the event, Mrs. Elizabeth Turay underscored that the EMB is delighted with the initiative that would help them improve and make amends reiterating that for Government to succeed the Police Force must be on top of the situation.
In conclusion, the Directorate of Service Delivery and Performance Management was requested to decentralize the training to the regions and other senior managers. It was agreed that this will start with strengthening the capacity of the Corporate Affairs Department, to be followed by a two-day workshop for senior officials and partners including the Independent Police Complaints Board and a workshop. It is hoped that this support of Government will positively impact the Police force in the face of its current challenges.
