The Ministry of Public Administration and Political Affairs (MoPAPA) has on Friday 20th December 2024 brought together Human Resource (HR) Officers from all Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) on the validation of Individual Performance Appraisal System (IPAS) and assessment of key public institutions, held at the Foreign Service Academy, Tower Hill in Freetown.

On the overview of the meeting, Amara Kallon who is the Minister – MoPAPA, implored all HR Officers to stay put and pay heed to the Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Framework that has been developed in line with key recommendations put together – considered fit into what is needed to be done in their respective institutions – in the path to ensuring clear achievability of IPAS.

The Minister emphasized the importance of the developed framework and the respective recommendations, underscoring the need for sound discussions that are expected to bring out challenges – which would evidently trigger support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and other partners – to enhance effective service delivery.

The Hon. Minister disclosed that in line with the accountable governance commitments of H.E President Bio’s led administration, has led for the first time – a government’s ministry, concerned with the ideal reforms for the public service; has triggered attention from the African Union (AU) – whereby, Sierra Leone has been selected to host the AU Public Administration Managers and Practitioners Conference.

The Minister enlightened that MoPAPA as a Ministry is concerned with the identification of issues in the various key public institutions and to develop programmes for the issues identified and at the end of it all, undertake thorough monitoring of the implementation activities carried out by the said institutions – to ensure having them prepared in driving the necessary reforms, made visible by the political and strategic leadership of MoPAPA.

Minister Amara Kallon in his statements, throw light on the assessment of these key institutions; noting that the assessment digs deep into their capacities; citing, for instance: The Public Service Commission – PSC (the umbrella body); Human Resources Management Office – HRMO (concerned with HR Management); Public Sector Reform Unit – PSRU (concerned with the technical responsibility to support MoPAPA with the reform processes).

On his part, Ansu S. Tucker – Director General HRMO, expressed profound gratitude to the leadership of MoPAPA for what he referred to as robust steps undertaken to revamp the public sector and by extension, expressed same on Minister Kallon’s resilience in making visible cabinet approval of the 2011 Civil Service Codes and Rules, describing such as ‘a win for all.’

He stressed the need for such institutional framework assessment stating; it has to do with making visible strengths and weaknesses associated with all concerned institutions including MoPAPA – in the direction of shaping performances.

The Director General went on to emphatically enlightened that institutional assessment cannot be achieved without IPAS assessment, thereby, also stating; in order to ensure relevance for such assessment, led HRMO to establish – the Performance Management Directorate in 2011.

For effective service delivery, DG Tucker called for updated policies around IPAS and in the same vein, he called for the automation of the IPAS process – “as an assurance to making informed decisions,” he added.

The session was climaxed with a thorough PowerPoint presentation on the institutional framework assessment by the Consultant – Dr. Hindowa Momoh, followed by contributions from the HR participants.

MoPAPA Communications