By Amara Thoronka
PSRU boss handing over review report to RAIC chairman and Information Commissioner
The Public Sector Reform Unit (PSRU) on Friday, 9th July, 2024, presented its final report on the management and functional review of the Right to Access Information Commission (RAIC) at the conference hall of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.
It could be recalled that the Steering Committee on Public Sector Reform rigorously reviewed and approved the said report on 2nd May 2024.
Presenting the review report, Director of PSRU, Sulaiman Foray, started by praising the leadership of RAIC for committing to and supporting the review process throughout.
“Let me take this opportunity to commend the leadership of the Right to Access Information Commission for taking the bold step to conduct a management and functional review. It takes a visionary leader to embark on change. Change is difficult and people often resist it, but it brings more impacts and those impacts can change our society. I always implore leaders who exhibit the tendencies to implement change,” he said.
He said President Bio deliberately articulated in his manifesto promise that would transform into a medium term national development plan, that he wants to transform the public service architecture, stressing the importance of the public service in realizing and sustaining growth and development.
“No nation can grow more than its public service. It takes transformation in the public service to transform a nation because the transformative drives of nations are embedded within the public service and that is the human resource. If you lack the requisite skills and capacities within your structure and system, it would be very difficult for you to implement key priorities in your institution. So, it is important that we constantly review institutions and look at systems and processes that institutions are using to carry out their functions,” he explained.
The PSRU chief mentioned that His Excellency the President, in his second dispensation, brought in a Ministry of Public Administration and Political Affairs, a move he said indicates the President’s commitment in transforming the public service architecture of Sierra Leone, adding that, in the medium term national development plan, it is articulated that mandates, functions and responsibilities of institutions must align with national priorities, noting that, that is why his institution, PSRU, has been given the core function to look at institutions and align them to national priorities.
Mr. Foray said the efficiency and effectiveness of an institution is not determined by huge number of personnel, saying a downsized institution can equally do well and save government money.
“You do not need large structures. You do not need blotted numbers to be efficient and functional. Mostly, you need some lean structures to make you efficient and functional in dispensing your duties. At the PSRU, our mission is to ensure that we create lean performing institutions. We do not need to have many directorates. Some directorates can be subsumed under units to make them more functional and productive. We have made billions of Leones in savings with management and functional reviews. We have done mergers and demergers, thus, reducing the wage bill,” he narrated.
In his PowerPoint presentation of the review report, the PSRU Director displayed the proposed organogram of the Right to Access Information Commission which he said is necessary and in the best interest of the nation and crucial in making the Commission more professional, effective and efficient in delivering on its mandate. The proposed structure of RAIC has a range of positions with a clear hierarchical structure.
Making a statement, Madam Mariatu Brown, the Deputy Financial Secretary at the Ministry of Finance emphasized the need of the review.
“A management and functional review of any institution is very important because it chats the way forward. We are preparing for the 2025 budget which requires a lot of planning and part of that planning is a management and functional review. Such a review identifies challenges and proffers solutions. It is our hope that this document will support the implementation of the activities of RAIC,” she stated.
A representative of the Minister of Information and Civic Education expressed delight over the outcome of the review, noting that RAIC is an agency being supervised by the Ministry of Information and Civic Education, adding that the management and functional review to see how they can implement their mandates and functions much better. “It is a big gain for both the RAIC and the Information Ministry,” he said.
In his statement, Dr. Ibrahim Seaga Shaw, the chairman and information commissioner of RAIC, welcomed the report and highlighted some development following the institution’s first management and functional in 2018.
“This is not the first time we are doing a management and functional review at the RAIC. We did one when we came in 2018. Gaps were identified and recommendations made. Within the last five years, we have benefitted a lot from those recommendations. We won’t have been where we are today if not for that review.
We didn’t have a website before we came in but we now have a functional website in addition to a staff manual. We also didn’t have a strategic plan, but we now have one which we started rolling out in 2023. We also now have an open data mechanism in addition to digitalizing freedom of information forms to enhance speed in accessing information. A lot more recommendations were adopted and we continue to implement more,” the RAIC boss said.
The Public Sector Reform Unit provides leadership, coordination, strategic guidance in design and implementation of all public sector initiatives. It conducts systems review of MDAs in order to investigate institutional weaknesses and