Diamniadio, January 20 (APS) – The Prime Minister announced, Monday, in Diamniadio (west), the reactivation of the Public Administration Modernization Committee, “a structure for supervision and support” of the action public created in 2017 but never used.
”At the Prime Minister’s Office, we will ensure the operationalization and revitalization of the Public Administration Modernization Committee, a supervision and support structure, to lead the reform and renewal of the administration,” said Ousmane Sonko while delivering the closing speech at the conference of public administrators and managers.
Moving to the execution of its decisions is the Achilles tendon of the Senegalese public administration, according to the head of government.
”Execution. This is in reality the soft underbelly of our administration, the bad conscience of political decision-makers, because many things were designed on the basis of the same diagnoses and observations, to then be put away in drawers, so that the colossal human and financial efforts consent becomes vain,” he analyzed.
The fate reserved for the Committee for the Modernization of Public Administration by the former President of the Republic, Macky Sall, and his colleagues, is “the perfect illustration” of this habit of the Senegalese public authorities to throw reforms into oblivion already adopted, according to Ousmane Sonko.
”Safeguarding salary balances”
”Created by Decree No. 2017-231 of February 7, 2017, following the National Administration Forum held in April 2016, the Public Administration Modernization Committee is the perfect illustration of this. This governance body of the Modernization Support Program, placed under the authority of the Prime Minister, has never functioned,’ Mr. Sonko insisted.
He maintains that ”this state of affairs has plunged this entire program into deep lethargy, the general objective of which was nevertheless to contribute to the action of modernizing the administration of Senegal”.
According to him, the upcoming reforms will relate to the human resources of the administration and their budgetary impact, the remuneration system in the public service, which “has ceased to obey the standards laid down for the safeguarding of salary balances”, public procurement to be rationalized, etc.
”For most of these projects, we will open the necessary consultations (…) We will then ensure the faithful standardization and correct execution of the conclusions that will result from them,” assured the head of government.
According to him, deconcentration and decentralization, results-based management, strengthening the design and management capacities of public policies, the civil service law, the general quality charter of the administration, the new system of remuneration, the code of ethics of public officials, the territorial administration orientation law are instruments that the government will use to carry out its next reforms.
-The deconcentration charter and the master plan for modernizing the administration are part of its governance tools set aside “for almost ten years”, he said.
”Restructuring loss-making entities”
The complete dematerialization of administration procedures, the generalization of the application of the national reception, information and orientation strategy, the modernization of human resources management within the Public Administration, the modernization procedures and the information system of financial authorities are among the priorities of public action, according to Mr. Sonko.
As well as the strengthening of the national policy of conservation and management of archives and administrative documentation, the application of the deconcentration charter, the support of the territorialization policies of projects, the strengthening of the mechanisms of facilitation of the user access to the service and the institutionalization of the Grand Prix of the Head of State for the best public administration.
To achieve the objectives of the conference of public administrators and managers, each structure must have, as soon as possible, a performance contract with objectives consistent with the sectoral policy letter of its supervision, according to the Prime Minister .
The government will at the same time ”restructure loss-making entities in order to create real public champions among them,” he said.
Mr. Sonko announced, following the President of the Republic, the creation of a national agency responsible for the centralization of public procurement.
The draft decree creating the said administration will be ”immediately” submitted to the head of state, he said.
ESF
