By: Lamin B. Darboe
Communication Officer, MoPS
The Minister of Public Service (MoPS) has stated that, Civil Service reforms programme (CSRP) (2018-2027) mitigates patronage hiring, enhance competence, decrease staff turnover rate, eliminate corruption and improve service delivery levels for citizen satisfaction.
Baboucarr Bouy delivered this statement during Mansa Kunda ministerial townhall meeting held on January 31, 2025 at Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara Conference Centre in Bijilo.
He said CSRP vision was reinforced with the transformation of the Policy Analysis Unit under Office of the President (OP) into the Department of Strategic Policy and Delivery (DSDP) in 2019 to coordinate government policy.
Minister Bouy informed that PMO and DSPD were merged in 2022 to form the Ministry of Public Service, Administrative Reforms, Policy Coordination and Delivery (MoPS) in order to lead the management organization of government administration.
On his Ministry’s 2024 staff audit exercise, Minister Bouy explained that the exercise was to clean-up payroll and control the wage bill.
“It was also to ensure that there is one-to-one correspondence between positions in the payroll and those in the approved manpower budget,” he explained.
Until 2022 he went on, Pensions and gratuity issues were being managed under the Pensions Act of 1950, in order to establish a modern pension scheme which is contributory and comes along with a number of benefits, as it is a defined-benefit scheme.
According to Minister Bouy, his sector coordinated the enactment of the Pensions Act 2022 and took over the administration of Pensions.
Adding that all the processes of the gratuity calculations are being handled within the Pensions Directorate under PMO to deal with all matters related to pensions and gratuity payments.
As a result, he added, the average delays in processing of pensions which used to be in excess of 4-6 months have been reduced to 1 month, except for those cases which may have unresolved issues to address before completing the process of payments.
He revealed that, his Ministry coordinates the National Economic Council which is a forum where stakeholders discuss critical economic issues affecting the country.
The forum he added, provides timely information about the state of the economy, and create a platform for sector coordination and harmonized approach to economic interventions.
He named the institutions represented in the Council as follows: Central Bank of the Gambia (CBG), Ministries of Finance, Trade, Tourism and Agriculture, GRA, Gambia Import Export Promotion Authority (GIEPA) and Gambia Public Procurement Authority (GPPA). His Excellency, President presides over the meetings.
