Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare yesterday took delivery of a new booklet known as the “Good Decision-Making Manual”.
Ombudsman Fred Fakarii and Chairman of the Leadership Code Commission Solomon Kalu presented the manual to Sogavare, as the minister responsible for the Ombudsman’s Office and Leadership Code Commission Office.
Divided in six parts, the manual covers the importance of good record-keeping, principles of good decision making, why, what, when and how of good record-keeping, good decision-making check list, communication of good decision making among others.
Handing over the Manual, Fakarii shared with the prime minister concerns about the high rate of bad decision-making in the public service generally.
He expressed that bad decisions made by public officers is costing the government millions of dollars annually.
“Bad decision-making in the public service cost the government around $15 million a year for very minor employment issues, which if done correctly should not even cost the government $50,” Fakarii said.
He adds it is the Ombudsman Office’s work to try and correct these bad decisions.
“The importance of the meeting with the Prime Minister this morning was to inform him that these things are happening, and some serious actions must be taken to stop this resource wastage.
“We need to do that in order to save the resources to be used elsewhere in other urgent sectors of development,” the Ombudsman added.
He pointed out there is evidence of bad decision-making throughout the entire public service, and despite the huge resources spent on good governance and its principles – transparency, accountability, training and advocacy, the evidence to-date shows little improvement in the decision-making of public officials.
Fakarii said he hopes the Good Decision-Making Manual will become a compulsory knowledge and experience requirement for all senior managers in the public services.
Receiving the manual, Sogavare said he hopes the document will assist public officers make good and wise decisions to prevent unnecessary wastage of government resources.
Prime Minister Sogavare said the problem of bad decision-making in the Public Service has been a major concern for the government.
He believes the document will assist public officers make good and wise decisions to prevent unnecessary wastage of government resources while enabling the state to use the available resources on other urgent sectors of development for the good of our people.
The Ombudsman thank the Australian Government through DFAT, the Commonwealth Ombudsman of Australia and the Queensland Ombudsman for their assistance in the development of this document.
Fakarii said he hopes to soon complete two other documents currently being worked on.
One is a Complaint Management System Procedures for all government ministries and agencies to properly deal with complaints at the ministerial and agency level. This, he said, will hopefully reduce the chances of minor and simple case which can be dealt with effectively and at minimum costs at the ministry and agency levels
