More than two hundred public servants on Friday 22nd October received certificates after completing various courses offered by the Institute of Public Administration and Management, IPAM this year.
The 260 officers from 20 ministries within the Public service have been attending the courses provided in the third and fourth quarter of this year.
Included are four officers from the National Statistics Office, NSO.
The graduation ceremony was held at the Saint Barnabas Cathedral Hall on Friday morning with the Permanent Secretary for Public Service Nego Sisiolo as guest of honor.
Mr Sisilo spoke on the theme of building public service capabilities for quality service delivery.
He stressed that training public servants is a key role of the Public service and IPAM is mandated to carry out the training as specified in CAP92 of the Public Service Act.
“The role based trainings are unique because they deal with the actual practice and it has to be frequent to ensure that public officers stay relevant in executing their roles.
“While the trainings are on certain areas of practice like Microsoft and Excel, Information and Communications Technology and Knowing Your Public service, the general expectation is to also be ethical and to improve competence.”
Mr Sisilo made the assurance that while training impact may not be evident, IPAM and the Ministry of Public Service will be working on a framework to ensure the trainings that were delivered will be monitored for impact.
He said the Public Service will try to ensure that the trainings are not mere knowledge and intellect but are practiced to ensure that the service they provide is of quality standard.
Meanwhile NSO’s Grace Perakana, a statistician within the Social section says, the course she took was an eye opener for her and very informative. Ms. Perakana participated in the course ‘Knowing Your Public Service.’
“I started working in the Public Service under NSO with very limited knowledge of the system, procedures and policies put in place.
Attending this Course has given me a broader view and understanding on Government operations, roles and functions of certain institutions, the processes and procedures of implementing the government policies. ”
“It has also provided me an understanding about the responsibilities of government officers who deliver services to the public sector.
Mrs Perakana says with the knowledge she has acquired, she now knows who to go to when addressing certain concerns or issues and which institution or ministries to go to according to their specific roles and responsibilities.
She stressed the very simple things such as work ethics, standards and values are very important because they contribute to how people will see the Public Service and have confidence in the public servants.
The graduation ceremony on Friday concludes the IPAM trainings for this year.
