Omar Gibriel Sallah, permanent secretary of the Personnel Management Office (PMO) who doubles as the Director of the Management Development Institute (MDI) Board of Governors, has said that the robust civil service delivery system of the Gambia requires the right calibre of competent human resource personnel in the quest to quarantee effective service delivery as well as quality output and productivity.

PS Sallah made this remark yesterday while preciding over the opening ceremony of a three-week induction training course for the newly appointed cadet administrative officers of the civil service, organised by the PMO and the MDI.

The focus for the induction course is on strengthening the capacity of the newly recruited and solid group of middle level managers who can be retained for the future challenges of development. It will also go a long way in enhancing the civil service delivery, thereby equipping participants with the requisite and essential skills in areas such as usage of bureaucratic language and idioms, policy analysis concepts, tools and expertise in drafting of speeches, cabinet memorandum, treaties, memorandum of understandings, communiqués, amongst other pertinent areas of concern to them.

According to PS Sallah, the prime objective in this exercise is to provide a core of efficient staff, and a lean, effective and efficient system to deliver goods and services to the public in the most objective, cost efficient and beneficial manner. He added that there was a need for more qualified people in the service.

"Notwithstanding the said objective, the challenge for us is not only to move from a civil service built on the colonial model but one built on post colonial development model, based on the realities of today. This calls for structural change which has a robust training programme, with emphasis on management as opposed to mere routine administration,'' he said.

The PMO boss added: "we have come to realise that our development aspirations cannot be realised if the well trained and competent people are not in the right places to stire and produce the right policies that will engender organisational changes necessary for this country to develop and prosper".

He then maintained that the PMO, which emerged out of the former establishment secretariat, is an institution responsible for human resource development, noting that it was a practical oriented outfit requiring adequate resources and manpower to meet the dynamic challenges of personnel management.

He added that his office had evolved to render services and collaborate with various institutions in order to encourage training, recruitment, promotions, staff inspections and record management for more realisation of the goals and objectives of public sector reforms.

He then implored the inductees to actively listen and learn in a bid to serve both for their interest and that of the country, and he quickly reiterated the importance government attaches to the training. He also revealed his office's intention to fund trainings of this nature every four months.