By: Lamin B. Darboe
Information Officer, MoPS
Minister Baboucar Bouy
The Minister of Public Service, Administrative Reforms, Policy Coordination and Delivery has revealed that the payment of Pension gratuity is now centralized at the Personnel Management Office (PMO).
Hon Baboucarr Bouy disclosed this on Friday during an exclusive interview with this reporter in his office in Banjul where he also dilated on issues within his portfolio.
“Everything regarding the administration and processing of the pension has already been handed over to the PMO by the Accountant General’s office, and now Accountant General’s office will only be responsible for the payment of the pension gratuity,” Minister Bouy confirmed.
He explained that a Service Centre is being set up at the PMO and is nearly completed, and when the center is fully completed for operations, in addition, will serve as a feedback mechanism and it will handle inquiries and concerns from the public within and outside the country.
“We want to save people from traveling long distances to come to us for inquiries. We want them to reach us through phone calls, without leaving whatever they are doing,” Minister Bouy added.
According to him, his sector is working on Service Process Simplification (SPS) to optimize public service delivery mechanisms in government.
On the issue of services rendered to the public, Minister Bouy explained that services rendered by the Public Service are not favors, but entitlements to be provided to the public with a high degree of standard.
He advised public servants to adhere to the Rule Books, namely: General Orders, Public Service Regulations, and Code of Conduct among others which he said were prepared to guide the operations of public servants in their work.
He went on say that lack of adherence to the Rule books is one of the biggest administrative challenges in public service. Generally, he noted, “most public servants are not actually going by the dictate of these Rule Books and unless we refer ourselves to them, we will continue to encounter problems”.
In the past, Minister Bouy said, The Gambia’s Civil Service was considered one of the best civil services within the sub-region. He argued that it was not magic because the then public servants were adhering to the Rule Books compared to today.
