By Lamin B Darboe
Information Officer, PMO
Pay and grading structures are one of the reforms that PMO is working on following cabinet’s approval for its implementation effective July 2022.
The deputy permanent secretary for policies and programmes at PMO, Musa Cham, said the institution is currently working on many reforms and recalled that in January 2022, the civil service allowances rationalisation and standardisation recommendations were finalised.
“There is functional review that the office wants to undertake by identifying overlaps of mandates within the ministries and departments and also where there is duplication of duties,” he explained.
He said PMO’s outstanding achievement last year was the new pay structure and salary scale approved by cabinet for implementation this July.
He said his office is a critical enabler of the National Development Plan.
On pensions, DPS Cham informed that the current scheme was developed in 1950 during the colonial era and in 2017, the new government ordered a review.
“It was reviewed and it is currently at the National Assembly and hopefully by the end of this month, it will be approved after going through various committees,” he said.
On payroll issue, he said they have realised that although it has been under the Accountant General Department for decades, it is in fact a human resources issue.
“If you look at the payroll presently, there are issues regarding designations that do not match with grades and we felt that those are issues that would bring about misinformation and would not help in informed decision-making within the civil service.
…Dates of birth are also another issue in the payroll, and since it is an integrated system, we want to have one system to rely on. That’s why PMO felt it necessary to bring payroll to PMO,” he concluded.
