Parliamentary Committee on Planning and Economic Development Meets with The Leadership of PSRU

The Director of the Public Sector Reform Unit (PSRU), Mr. Sulaiman Phoray-Musa has informed cross section of members of Parliament that if the government pays attention and invest in public sector reforms it will severely reduce corruption across the public service as the dire need for anti-corruption issues will be minimized.

Mr. Phoray-Musa made these statements while addressing members of the Parliamentary Committee on Planning and Economic Development during a meeting with PSRU as part of their oversight functions.

He stated that part of the core functions of PSRU is to ensure structural alignment through Management and Function reviews which addresses duplication of roles and functions, rationalization of mandates for efficient and effective service delivery.

The Director explained that reforms started in earnest in 2002 with the establishment of the Governance Reform Secretariat and in 2008 the secretariat was transformed into the PSRU. He revealed that plans are underway to legislate the PSRU to give it the legal authority to not only reform institutions but also ensure enforceability of recommendations emanating from MFRs.

He catalogue some of the achievements and challenges among them are the development of a new Public Service Reform Programme for wider reform environment, conducted 24 MFRs for MDAs, conducted capacity needs assessment for six Local Councils and the dissemination of PSR activities through Media engagements.
Lack of legal instrument to drive PSRU’s mandate; limited capacity building/training opportunities for staff on relevant disciplines to enhance effective service delivery, lack of Donor-Support to implement key activities thus resulting to constant reliance on government’s subvention, delays in implementation of key PSR activities due to reduced and late receipt of annual subvention from GoSL and weak co-ordination and collaboration among Civil and Public Sector players were among the numerous challenges the Director highlighted.

The Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Planning and Economic Development Hon. Musa Fofanah, commended the Director and the PSRU staff for their remarkable achievements in actualizing the vision of H. E. President Julius Maada Bio.
The Parliamentary caucus expressed satisfaction with the transformation at PSRU and the remarkable progress that has been made regarding reforms across the public sector and assured that the myriad of concerns will be channeled appropriately for the necessary action.