Description:
There is a general consensus that The
Gambia's civil service has a number of key capacity
weaknesses. Pay is too low to hire, motivate and retain key
technical and professional staffs. Staffs are not managed to
achieve results, neither rewarded for good performance nor
sanctioned for poor performance or breaking the rules.
Frequent removals and transfers of Government officials have
undermined job security and institutional knowledge. The
main objective of this report is to outline the results of
the analysis of civil service capacity constraints. Based on
the analysis, the report presents options to consider for
the proposed civil service reform program which the
Government plans on preparing. The Personnel Management
Office (PMO) drafted a reform strategy in August 2007, the
'public sector reform sector strategy paper
2007-2011,' which can be further developed by
incorporating the findings of report. The expected goal of
this strategy is to build the capacity of the civil service
to formulate policies and allocate resources to implement
those policies so as to ensure effective delivery of public
services. This report is organized as follows: chapter one
identifies the overall capacity constraints in the civil
service; chapter two analyzes civil service pay and
benefits; chapter three assesses human resource management;
chapter four focuses on the education and health sectors;
and chapter five summarizes the major findings and proposes
reform options and the next steps.