Our country, under strong orders from the highest political authorities, is questioning the ways and means of optimizing the output of our public administration. Certainly, the equation is difficult but it is inevitable and its resolution will shape our economic future and our fortress for a mutually advantageous sharing of our geographical space.
Indeed, without a strong, transparent public administration, equipped with exceptional strategic responsiveness, effective and efficient, there is no socio-economic emergence. This results from the fact that wealth creators and job generators can only boost their inventiveness in a universe conducive to the explosion of their dormant genius.
The world is moving! We can mention, without claiming to be exhaustive: climate change, natural disasters which have become recurrent, food insecurity, the disruptive distribution of resources generated in a given geographical space, most of the wealth captured by elites without empathy, an asymmetrical diffusion of information, unlimited exploitation of the natural resources of poor countries, an obscurantism maintained by the ignorance of some and the passivity of others, an extreme desire for power of certain large countries wanting setting themselves up as global policemen, uncontrolled fanaticism, revolting xenophobia, doubts hovering over our regional economic communities such as ECOWAS, etc.
Faced with such elements of boundless gravity, the time should be, it seems to me, for the synergy of all intelligences, all means and all efforts to
-on the one hand, densifying our shell in this world of interconnection without, really, real empathy
– and on the other hand, reinvent ourselves to ensure plural sovereignty (food, energy, monetary, etc.)
For short, let’s conjugate in the first person plural! Because we have quality human resources. As proof, it is unknown to me and I do not remember any field in which compatriots are not cited for their skills, their seriousness and their dedication. They are in international organizations, professors in the largest universities in the world, leaders of large multinationals, members of prestigious learned societies from the North and South, leaders in the major civil societies of the world. These experts are today panicked by the violence of the debates on a national scale and fear any participation in the citizen debate for fear of being insulted, heckled by people who have no other strength than their courage and their perfect ignorance .
We must honor knowledge like a magnet, in the construction of economic emergence with shared dividends.
This is the price to pay in cash for an uninhibited, enterprising Senegal, rich in optimal exploitation of its various potentialities.
In my humble opinion, a call for applications for prestigious positions in our administration is necessary. However, the refoundation must be globalizing. And without doubt, the call for applications is a first precious stone in the constitution of total quality circles which I have already designated under the term “national skills teams”, driving forces of a standardized emergence.
My national and international professional experience leads me to think that an administration seeking constantly invigorated performance must:
1-recruit in its different compartments through competitive examinations
2-appoint its leaders by call for applications, accompanied by a real morality investigation;
3-require an annual mission letter for all executives, signed by the person concerned and their direct superior;
4- carry out an annual evaluation on the basis of the agent’s mission letter, to allow advancement in category;
5-carry out a multi-year evaluation or career evaluation on a frequency to be determined. Thus, the rank is no longer granted based on duration in a position but rather on the basis of the effectiveness and efficiency of the agent;
6-distinguish the rank of the position occupied. Thus, any person appointed will have the salary corresponding to their grade and position allowances.
7- limit the time occupied by a Director position;
8-capping the age for applying in a call for competition;
9- respect the retirement age of Directors;
10- avoid having services with a strong family connotation;
11- require an annual declaration of assets from all Directors;
12-multiply refresher training for facilitators. As an illustration, in the near future, artificial intelligence will impose new practices on us, it is urgent not to miss the train.
In conclusion, we need a revolution in our attitudes and behaviors for a new public administration, strategic input, for a new Senegal
These words are those of a retiree viscerally attached to his country, of a veteran thirsty for peace, tolerance and lasting and continuous progress for our common heritage: Senegal.
Dr Papa Abdoulaye Seck
