Personnel from Gov’t. Ministries Attending Management Course at MIND

Personnel from government ministries and agencies are currently undergoing training, which should lead to more results-based management within these entities.
The Results-Based Management, Implementation and Performance Indicators course was launched Monday (July 20), at the Management Institute for National Development (MIND) in Kingston.
The course is one of 11 to be delivered under the Priority Training Programme, aimed at facilitating the Government of Jamaica’s Medium Term Action Plan. The project is an initiative of MIND, the Modernisation Division of the Cabinet Office, and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
Chief Technical Director in the Public Sector Modernisation Division of the Cabinet Office, Hillary Alexander, said the training courses would help to establish the link between planning and budgeting; strengthen monitoring and evaluation; strengthen public sector procurement and financial management information systems; and improve the performance monitoring and evaluation systems and capacity building.
She charged the trainees to be receptive to the training, arguing that the public sector was in a “new ball game” that required that such entities adopt a business model and become more results oriented.

Senior Sector Specialist at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Astrid Wynter, explains the IDB’s role in the Government of Jamaica’s plans to have a results-based public sector. She was speaking at the launch of the Results-Based Management, Implementation and Performance Indicators training course geared towards public sector workers, at the Management Institute for National Development in Kingston on Monday (July 20).

“The fact is that we have to work differently, we’ll need different skills to work differently, the competency profile of the public sector has changed and what we are trying to do is to pre-empt many of these things,” she said.
She disclosed that the Division is looking to develop a business plan for Government in the future.
Also speaking at the launch, Senior Sectoral Specialist at the IDB, Astrid Wynter, commended the Government for taking the lead in the region with regard to instituting public sector reforms. She also reminded the trainees that they would be expected to reshape the way the public sector operates.
“We are all public servants, and we are accountable. These are not our funds. The time we spend in the office…we have to be accountable to the public and we have to provide results,” she said.
The training programme is funded under the PRODEV II programme, which is an IDB initiative. Last year June, Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Hon. Audley Shaw, signed a US$1.6 million grant agreement with the President of the IDB, Luis Alberto Moreno, for implementation of the Medium Term Action Plan for Development.