Tuesday 6 December 2022
Chief Secretary to Government Ivan Pomaleu has urged all staff of the Department of Prime Minister and National Executive Council to ‘pull their weight’ in their work.
Mr Pomaleu made his remarks at the opening of his Department’s Annual Planning and Budget Workshop for 2023 yesterday (Monday 5 December 2022).
Such workshop is held annually, usually at the end of the year, to review what has been done and achieved during the year and plan for the next year.
Mr. Pomaleu also reminded staff of the Department’s mandate, and that is to advance
and carry the Government’s overall expectation in ensuring policy objectives are implemented.
‘We must work on meeting those critical expectations”.
Mr Pomaleu currently has draft copies of the Key Results Areas (KRA) for each of the agencies that come under the Department.
“The expectation is that the Department will carry the full load of making sure those KRA’s are achieved.
“You will realise that in the Prime Minister’s public policy speeches, that he would continuously come back to these ideas of KRA’s that he has allocated to his Ministers.
“In fact, what he is expecting is that the KRAs would define what each agency are expected to do in the next five years in the context of the government’s overarching policies.
“The expectation is that we would ensure the KRAs are implemented by all government agencies.”
Chief Secretary Pomaleu said much work has been done to develop the KRAs in response to the requests to the agencies when this Parliament was formed in August.
He further reminded his staff responsible for each line agencies, to also confirm the set of KRAs for those respective agencies, in order to formally release their sets of milestones that they must report against.
“It allows us to understand and monitor how agencies would like to implement activities towards achieving their KRAs, and assist them in those processes.”
He added: “This agreed confirmed KRAs may have to be taken to the National Executive Council for endorsement so that we can help in the monitoring for the implementation of the KRAs.”
Mr Pomaleu further supports the immediate establishment of the National Monitoring Authority, adding, it is the key to enhancing the role of the Department in terms of monitoring the implementation of the national budget, and also the key policy undertakings of this government.
Chief Secretary Pomaleu added, “We are working with a Prime Minister who wants to get things done and we must pull our weight in our roles.”
He urged that the Department must be on top of all the policy pronouncement made by the government to ensure that those undertakings are implemented.
He also called on the Department to build efficiencies to its day-to-day tasks so that things that need to be turned around urgently are attended to immediately.
“This is why, the Planning and budgeting Plan plays a critical role in ensuring that the Department’s role is carried out.
“The Annual Planning and Budget Workshop is an important workshop where we set the targets for the incoming year and that is where we set the stage in terms of planning and financing.”