By Amin Kef Sesay
The Ministry of Planning and Economic Development, on the 7th July 2020 has engaged focal persons from ten (10) Government Departments, Agencies, Parastatals, Commissions and State-Owned Enterprises in a one-day orientation seminar to help them accelerate effective service delivery in 2020 and beyond.
The seminar, among other things, focused on the performance management process; result-based performance outcomes and indicators including the verification and streamlining of deliverables for Government departments, agencies, commissions and state-owned enterprises as presented in the 2020 budget vis-à-vis their strategic plan with the Medium-Term National Development Plan (2019-2023). The seminar was also geared towards agreeing on quarterly targets, and next steps to accelerate service delivery. The seminar for the institutions would be in batches while the individual level engagement continues simultaneously, so as to observe the COVID-19 social distancing measures.
Welcoming the participants, the Development Secretary, Peter Sam-Kpakra said the seminar was a continuation of the first presidential seminar, which the Office of the Chief Minister organized for heads of institutions, at the Bintumani Conference Centre on the 25th February 2020, where His Excellency President Julius Maada Bio recognized the important role and contribution of commissions, parastatals, agencies and state-owned enterprises to the achievements of his New Direction Agenda and declaring 2020 as the Year of Accelerated Service Delivery.
In his opening statement, the Minister of Planning, Dr. Francis Kai-Kai said that the process was to ensure that they were clear on their deliverables and got them to deliver on their targets in this Year of delivery and beyond. He said the work of the Government institutions were critical to each of the eight (8) clusters of the MTNDP (2019-2023), which encapsulates the aspirations of Sierra Leoneans and also brought together President Bio’s manifesto commitment in changing and transforming the lives of ordinary Sierra Leoneans.
Dr. Kai-Kai said even though with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country, the President was determined for things to happen quickly and ensure that some amount of progress was achieved in 2020 and beyond. He re-echoed President Bio’s appeal to the participants to focus on delivery in 2020.
“We want to see what you are supposed to deliver on and see whether you’ve delivered. The deliverables should be your focus especially for 2020 and this should be consistent with the MTNDP 2019-2023. The session would be practical and tell you how to arrive at those deliverables for your respective institutions,” said Minister Kai-Kai.
Dr. Kai-Kai continued to emphasize on the need for Government parastatals, commissions and state-owned enterprises to provide effective service delivery to the public.
During the presentation, Dr. Robert Moikowa, the Director of Service Delivery and Performance Management demonstrated the performance management process, target-setting: verification and streamlining of deliverables; monitoring performance outcomes and the tools of the performance tracking tables, among others. Dr. Moikowa emphasized that the outputs of Government Departments and Agencies efficiently contribute to the implementation of Government policy objectives; supporting Lives and Livelihoods and the effective implementation of the National Development Plan.
The Senior Director- Program Development and Quality Assurance from NaCSA, Dr. Susan Roberts while thanking the Ministry for convening the engagement, noted that the process would bring useful change and vital exchanges to service delivery processes in their various sectors. She said the endeavour was very significant for their institutions and they were looking forward to achieving their targets in 2020 and beyond.
Other dignitaries present included, the Deputy Development Secretary, Umaru Conteh, the Deputy Director-General, NASSIT, Emmanuel Gondoe among others.
