By Sheku Sackoh Turay
The Ministry of Public Administration and Political Affairs (MoPAPA) held an inception meeting with Prof. Duramany Lakoh, who is the consultant for the development of a curriculum for the Public Service.
The inception meeting was held in the conference room of the Ministry on last week.
Prof. Lakoh commenced his statement by commending the Ministry for the development of a Public Service curriculum, which will become a policy, rollout, and be implemented across Government institutions in Sierra Leone.
He said he is the consultant working on a transition document which will transform the Civil Service Training College into a Public Service Academy.
After its transformation, it will serve as a capacity-building institution for Civil Servants and for Public Servants, respectively.
“I’m very excited to work with all of you guys, and I’m happy to come here to do the work. Whatever we are doing is owned by you; I mean all of you seated here. You should take ownership to ensure we do the right thing,” the Professor noted.
He emphasized that Civil and Public Servants are the owners of the curriculum because politicians come and go.
They should take ownership and supervise the process in order to have a successful and efficient curriculum, especially the technical team in the different directorates.
In the future, Civil Servants will have to give reference to the documents and not the politicians. So, they need to understand the documentation process accordingly.
“The effort to strengthen institutional capacity and enhance Public Service delivery in Sierra Leone, MoPAPA is engaging with strategic partners, academic institutions, and regional organizations to develop this document,” Prof. stated.
Nevertheless, the consultant highlighted that he is not doing it alone, but through collective contributions from the partners and the Ministry, which will lead to the development of the document.
He also mentioned in his statement that all the diverse ministries will have sections in the document about their respective ministries in the curriculum. It will be very comprehensive.
He concluded by indicating the timeframe from methodology to the inception of the document, which is a 90-day process. The inception has to be consultative.
According to Momoh Conteh from the Directorate of Public Administration, he said the meeting was an inception meeting for the Multi-Annual Program Estimate (MAPE) Project, which aims to develop a Curriculum for the Public Service as a key activity of the Ministry.
“The curriculum will be developed for the Public Service, but it will be owned by the Civil Service Training College.
“After the development of the document, it will be officially handed over to the College by the Ministry, because they are responsible for the training of Civil Servants,” Momoh cited.
He stressed the ownership of the document and how it is going to be implemented as a project funded by the European Union as an activity of the Ministry.
