Barely three days after effecting a major reshuffle of his cabinet, Gambia’s president Adama Barrow Monday effected another major redeployment of his permanent secretaries.
In the new redeployment, the permanent secretary of the Ministry of the Interior Bulli Dibba is moved to Ministry of Defense and while Lamin Jawara of the Ministry of the Environment is moved to the Public Management Office (PMO).
Saffie Sankareh permanent sectary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is moved to the Office of the Vice President, Pateh Jah, permanent secretary Personnel Management Office (PMO) is moved to the Ministry of Environment, Alassan Tangara, permanent secretary Ministry Defence is moved to the Ministry of the Interior, Mariam Khan, permanent secretary at the Office of the Vice President is moved to the Ministry of Youth and Sports while Dawda Ceesay, permanent secretary Ministry of Youth and Sports is moved to Ministry of Local Government.
Modou Lamin Jaiteh permanent secretary Office of the President is moved to the Ministry of Health, Modou Ceesay permanent secretary Ministry of Energy is moved to the Ministry of Finance, Rohey Bittaye permanent secretary Ministry of Local Government is moved to the Ministry of Energy, while Cherno Omar Barry permanent secretary Ministry of Health is moved to the Office of the President.
No reason was given for the changes.
Good news at least no one was sack, is good to keep hard working every day and stay away from misconducts and abuse of power. Working in the public office is very challenging, let’s put the country first.
A necessary anecdote to bolster competence in the civil service. Permanent secretaries should not be left to become permanent in their posts. They have to be rotated to fight corruption and incumbency.
Keluntang, the business of playing musical chairs in the top tiers of the civil service will not help much at all.
It’ll be a lot wiser to cut the public service down to what revenues can support.
Weed out the bad eggs through a comprehensive staff audit exercise.
Institute and enforce performance contracts with public corporations.
Bring local governments into the performance contract system.
Barrow and Ousainou to roll up their shirt sleeves to take charge of cutting waste in government!
The worthless positions of communications officer within ministries of state could be transformed into offices of Inspectors General that could be sent to Rwanda to study a system that gets things working in that nation that’s just a little over the size of The Gambia!
Gambians are getting sick of the gimmicks you know!
Andy, it’s not about playing the musical chairs but rotation of permanent secretaries could forestall the arrogance and incompetence that come with staying in one ministry till you retire. Frequent change of portfolios should keep them on their toes. The watch word is deliver, deliver,deliver. It’s time to change and get results.