The Performance Management System (PMS) which is at the heart of the New Public Management is poised to emerge as the driving force for broader public sector reforms in Africa.
This statement was made by the Secretary to Cabinet and Head of Civil Service, Mr. S.C. Seeballuck, this morning at Trou aux Biches Hotel at the opening of a Commonwealth regional workshop on Performance Planning and Measurement in the African Public Service.
In his address, he pointed out that the main thrust of the workshop is on Performance Management and Measurement. On this score, he said that the need to measure performance goes beyond the issue of cost and quality.
"It goes to the basic need for maintaining and even restoring public confidence in Government", Mr Seeballuck said.
The Secretary to Cabinet and Head of the Civil Service recalled that the Mauritius civil service has, for the past decade, seen the implementation of a host of measures aimed at enhancing the quality of public services and making them more customer-oriented. He said that the implementation of PMS was started in 2006 and to date some 35 public organisations have embarked on this important reform initiative.
This workshop which is an initiative of the Ministry of Civil Service and Administrative Reforms in collaboration with the Commonwealth Secretariat will enable Commonwealth countries in Africa to share experiences in implementing the PMS, to learn from the experiences and to identify challenges and find solutions to such challenges. It will allow the participants to gain knowledge on how to develop strategic objectives in the public sector institutions that are aligned to national visions and goals.
During the workshop, the participants will learn on how to set performance objectives, measures, targets and initiatives to support attainment of strategic objectives in the public service, while using tools such as the Balance Score Card. They will also be acquainted on how to monitor and measure performance as well as capacity requirements to support and sustain performance planning and measurement.
Participants from Mauritius and various countries of Africa namely; Botswana, Cameroon, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia are attending this workshop which is a follow up to the one held last year in Botswana.
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