By Yunus S Saliu
The Ministry of Transport, Works and Infrastructure (MOTWI) on Wednesday commenced a 3-day annual sector retreat at Bakadaji Hotel, Kotu.
The retreat presided over by the Hon Ebrima Sillah, Minister of Transport, Works and Infrastructure brought together different senior officials of institutions under the MOTWI for discourse about their achievements, shortcomings, challenges, and way forward. It was also attended by the Chief of Staff, Commissioner for state-owned enterprises (SOEs), Permanent Secretary, and among top officials across the sector.
Declaring the three-day retreat open, Honourable Minister Ebrima Sillah expressed delight about coming together again to discuss and reconnect on several issues across the various institutions.
Minister Sillah stated that it can take him the whole day to talk about the sector if given the opportunity, “But from the policy side, which we need as an industry. I’m really happy to say that over the last 12 months, we have initiated several policy initiatives that we have coordinated very effectively and efficiently with the revenues agencies and institutions to be efficient.”
He said one critical aspect of their work as policymakers is to ensure a sector-wide approach to the cross-cutting issues that they address daily.
Giving examples, he said “Look at our sector is very sensitive to public perception, if the Port Authority takes a long time to discharge it will affect many things, and if the NRA does not function effectively, people will complain, if the analysis is not well done, people will complain. If people are taking too long to come out of the airport people will still complain.”
However, he recognized the good work of the organizing committee in terms of the perception of the survey they have conducted on the Ministry’s various institutions and even the Ministry. “You will be surprised because I read the whole report I was really surprised that in some of the institutions you have more people that reserve their comment which means that they are not either happy or they don’t know much about what they are doing. That is interesting. If you look at the battle, interestingly with all the negative comments that we hear it is doing very well in terms of the perception that we have,” he noted.
However, the Minister briefly dilated on some of the challenges, plans, and achievements made in particular when it comes to ongoing road construction across the country, saying “As a sector, we are doing well.”
Among other speakers at the opening of the retreat included Mod Ceesay, Chief of Staff, and Ousainou Ngum, Commissioner for State Owned Enterprises.
The retreat started Wednesday, 28th February will come to an end on the 1st March 2024.