By Lamin B. Darboe
The Director, Human Resource Development Division (HRDD) at the Personnel Management Office (PMO) has revealed that forty seven million Dalasi (D47, 000, 000) was the budget for long-term training of civil servants for this year.
Mr Lamin Saidy made this revelation recently during an exclusive interview with the Gambia Daily.
The Human Resource Development Division is responsible for the management and coordination of training of civil servants, dealing with study leave issues, bonding, collaterals, secondments and training clearances. The Unit is also responsible for human resource development for the entire civil service.
Highlighting the training budgets over the last three years, Mr Saidy reported that in 2019, the training budget was pegged at D45, 000, 000, increased to D102, 000,000 in 2020 but later reduced to zero due to the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic. He said the budget was reallocated to fund national Covid-19 interventions in the country. The 2021 budget stood at D45, 000,000 and in 2022, it was D47, 000,000.
He disclosed that in 2019 33 civil servants were awarded scholarships, mainly to pursue Master’s degree programmes within and outside the country.
“In 2022, over 40 civil servants have been awarded scholarships to pursue Master’s degrees and other specialised training programmes. These degree programmes and specialised trainings reflect the priority training needs identified by the MDAs,” he said.
The Director further explained that PMO receives both long and short-term bilateral scholarships from friendly countries; like the People’s Republic of China, India, Egypt among others.
He reported that in 2019 the first cohort of 25 senior government officials, who comprised of 7 permanent secretaries and 18 deputy permanent secretaries, attended a two-week long training course in New Delhi, India.
He informed that the 2nd cohort of senior government officials led by the Permanent Secretary at PMO, Mr. Lamin F. Jawara, has recently returned from a-week long training on Public Policy and Governance in New Delhi, India.
On his unit’s biggest achievements for the past few years, Mr Saidy mentioned creation of training committees; promotion and domestication of training of civil servants and focusing on relevance and cost-effectiveness of trainings. He said more civil servants undergo both long and short term trainings as they ease burden on civil servants to deposit collaterals at PMO to undergo long-term trainings (zoning of collateral requirements) and creation of functional Training Management Information System (TMIS).
This, according to Mr. Saidy, will enhance proper storage and retrieval of data for informed decision-making on trainings, promotion of paperless scholarship and training committee meetings.
He said all these efforts are geared towards improving service delivery for the citizens and residents of The Gambia.
The HRDD under Mr. Saidy’s leadership won the 2021 Division of the Year Award within PMO.