Freetown, 2 May 2012 – A delegation from the government of Sierra Leone has reached an agreement with the World Bank during consultations in Washington D.C in the United States for the provision of funds amounting to the sum of US$17 million to support the implementation of the three cornerstone components in the new public sector reform namely: Pay Reform; Recruitment and Staffing and performance management.

During and after the civil war, the public sector in Sierra Leone suffered depletion of skilled manpower particularly in the senior, middle cadre of professional and technical staff. The public sector was also plagued with low remunerations and virtual absence of any intrinsic or extrinsic incentives for performance that has affected output to a very large extent.

The project will support the implementation of GOSL flagship Public Sector Reform geared towards Improving Productivity through Management and Pay Reform, specifically by addressing Pay Reform, Performance Management and Recruitment and Staffing.

The objective of the Pay Reform is to attract and retain key professional and managerial staffs; to motivate all civil servants to perform their jobs to an acceptable standard. Under this arrangement, civil servants will be paid more equitably and competitively according to a new structure. Equitable pay and more competitive pay will be introduced through the development of a new pay structure for the civil service. In this regard, a labour market survey will be conducted to provide a basis for establishing the salary ranges for each grade and where necessary, the size of any market supplements that need to be paid for specific job. The market survey will take a long-term perspective by examining the future demand for skills in the economy which are needed by the civil service.

The objective of recruitment and staffing is to create a capable civil service of the right size and job composition to deliver its core functions assigned by government. The Civil Service Code Regulations and Rules approved by Cabinet in 2010 set out GOSL’s recruitment policy for the civil service. To achieve this objective, priority vacancies in GOSL’s annual recruitment plan will be filled as recruitments will be based on appropriate open, competitive and merit based recruitment procedures. Promotion will also be based on open, competitive and merit-based promotion procedures as vacancies will be filled within three months.

On Performance Management Component, the objective is to improve the performance and productivity of ministries and individual civil servants so as to increase citizens trust and confidence in government while at the same time strengthen the accountability of ministries to the executive and citizens.

To achieve this, annual staff performance appraisal reports of an acceptable quality are required of civil servants and civil service managers; ministries performance is evaluated jointly by GOSL, and non-state actors.

The four years Project will be supported by a Specific Investment Loan and would use a result-based lending modality to support project implementation.

PSRU
8 Wesley Street
Freetown