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Momodou
Denmark
11634 Posts |
 Posted - 29 Apr 2020 : 23:49:09
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How Permanent is the position of Permanent Secretary in this Government?
#Gambia - Musical Chairs
PRESS RELEASE: GAMBIA GOVERNMENT EFFECTS MAJOR CIVIL SERVICE REDEPLOYMENTS
Dated: April 29th, 2020 Banjul, The Gambia
Consistent with its philosophy of fostering growth and promoting rapid and efficient delivery of resources within all sectors of governance, The Gambia Government acting on Executive advisory, has effected major changes within the Civil Service.
This involves the appointment of a Deputy Secretary General, the redeployment of nine (9) Permanent Secretaries and the reassignment of four (4) Directors, two of whom are redeployed to the Foreign Service.
Accordingly, Mrs. Salimatta E.T. Touray, Permanent Secretary at The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been elevated to the position of Deputy Secretary General, Office of The President. A career diplomat, with extensive diplomatic experience spanning two decades, Mrs. Touray began her Foreign Service career as Cadet Administrative Officer in 1993 and rose through the ranks, becoming Acting Deputy Head of Mission & Chancery at the Gambian Embassy in Brussels. She would later return to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as Deputy Permanent Secretary, before being appointed Permanent Secretary. Between 2010 and 2012, Mrs. Touray worked for the UNDP Gambia Country Office as National Project Coordinator for The Gambia Priority Employment Project (Gamjobs). A former translator and schoolteacher, Salimatta Touray attended Saint Joseph’s and Saint Augustine’s High Schools and holds, B.A. and Master’s degrees in French with specialties in Languages and Literature from the Université de Franche Comté, Besançon, France.
The rest of the redeployments are:
Mr. Lamin Dampha, Permanent Secretary at The Trade & Employment Ministry moves to the Ministry of Health as PS No. 2.
Momodou Mbye Jabang, Permanent Secretary Ministry of Agriculture, moves to the Office of The President.
Assan Jallow, Permanent Secretary at Youth & Sports moves to The Trade and Employment Ministry.
Ebrima Sisawo, Permanent Secretary Ministry of Basic & Secondary Education moves to the Agriculture Ministry.
Saikou Sanyang, Permanent Secretary at Environment & Forestry moves to the Youth & Sports Ministry.
Muntaga Sallah, Permanent Secretary Office of The President moves to the Environment Ministry.
Louis Moses Mendy, Deputy Permanent Secretary at the Interior Ministry, has been elevated to Permanent Secretary Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education.
Saffie Sankareh, Permanent Secretary at Health, moves to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as PS.
In a related development, Mr. Alhagi Nyangado, Director General of Strategic Policy & Delivery at the President’s Office is designated as Gambia’s new Ambassador to Russia.
Muhammed Manjang, Director General of the Social Security & Housing Finance Corporation (SSHFC) moves to the Senegalo-Gambian Permanent Secretariat as its Executive Secretary.
Meanwhile, Mr Saloum Malang, a long-serving Deputy Director General of The Gambia International Aviation has been elevated to the position of Director General of The Gambia Public Procurement Authority (GPPA).
He replaces Mr Abdoulie Tambadou who is the new Managing Director of SSHFC.
With these redeployments and new assignments, Government envisages a more productive and efficient Civil Service administration which is the bedrock of our development aspirations anchored in the National Development Plan.
The Gambia Government therefore, urges all public and civil servants to support this initiative for the achievement of our development aspirations.
Signed:
Ebrima G Sankareh
The Gambia Government Spokesperson
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A clear conscience fears no accusation - proverb from Sierra Leone |
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Momodou
Denmark
11634 Posts |
Posted - 29 Apr 2020 : 23:53:18
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The following is culled from FB.
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Salam Pa , here is my view on the Manjang firing . I am also told the board opposed this attempt to remove him . Also he is not a civil servant and therefore cannot be redeployed within the civil service . All these other redeployments are designed to serve as fig leaf to cover the real objective which is get rid of Manjang and use social security as they want . I understand he has build up a healthy reserve and would not go along with attempts to chip away at that money and they want him gone . I shared this on the mariama post you shared
“It makes no sense. The PS moved from education is a professional educationist with decades of experience and taken to agriculture to replace a career agriculturalists with over 25 years of experience . The agriculturalist is moved to OP as PS . The PS at trade also with decades of experience at the ministry is moved to a new ministry he has no experience with . It is an absolutely insane reshuffling of the most senior civil servants nearly midway into the fiscal year that will do absolutely no good other than achieve the one objective that seems to be driving this whole scheme which is to get rid on Muhammad Manjang . Firing or removing Mr Manjang as a stand alone decision is something the president lacks the courage to do owing to the huge public backlash that ensued when he first tried to cashier him and hand SSHfC back to the wolves and be in a position to drain it little by little . So they decided to dress it up like a general reshuffling of the senior level personnel hoping that would insulate them from public backlash. It shouldn’t . They are offering Manjang a lousy position at Senegalo- Gambian Secretariat knowing fully well he is unlikely to accept a position totally out of sync with his qualifications and experience. The public has to once again saddle up and demand Mr Manjang be left to do his job at SSHFC unencumbered and the president stop this foolishness of trying to destabilize the civil service in the midst of a global pandemic with its severe attendant consequences across government and the country they are responsible for .” |
A clear conscience fears no accusation - proverb from Sierra Leone |
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Momodou
Denmark
11634 Posts |
Posted - 30 Apr 2020 : 02:55:44
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What is the rationale for this massive so-called Deployments?
By Madi Jobarteh
A close study of the nature of the movements within the civil and public services clearly indicates that this is not a decision meant to promote and protect national interest. Rather this is yet again another misdirection and misstep by Pres. Adama Barrow to weaken the Government machinery thereby injure national interest for his own personal political objectives. All Gambians and especially our political parties must come out to demand that these deployments be stopped and reversed forthwith.
Look at the case of Muhammed Manjang at Social Security. When the man came to that institution he was able to raise profits, reduce waste, increase pensioners’ benefits and transforming the institution for the better. Why would anyone therefore move Manjang only to take him outside of the entire civil and public services to a tiny marginal commission over there? What is the rationale and value of this deployment?
If the reports out there are anything to go by Abdoulie Tambedou was also said to be doing a good job at GPPA. Why then take him out of that place to Social Security where there was another man already doing a good job there? Why? By taking Manjang to the Senegalo-Gambia Secretariat means this Government is throwing the man out of the orbit of the entire socio-economic development of this country. At Social Security, Manjang was in the heart of the social and economic development process of this country as he was protecting workers’ money and giving them back better pension. Therefore, what Barrow did is to deny and injure Gambian workers who have been working like donkeys all their lives!
The Government Spokesman said these deployments were intended to bring about efficiency in the civil and public services. Is he telling us then that both Manjang or Tambedou were inefficient in their former institutions? If that is the case, then the best decision was to sack them and not to take them to another institution with their inefficiency. Or is it that Tambedou is expected to do better at SSHFC and Manjang will also do better at Senegalo-Gambia Secretariat? Mr. Ebrima Sankareh please answer these direct questions!
One can also look at the Ministry of Trade whose Permanent Secretary Lamin Dampha knows nowhere other than that ministry. From the lowest level he rose through the ranks to become the PS over the past 20 years. He is reported to be effective and efficient. He has the institutional memory and is indeed a human library on trade, employment and industry in this country. Was he inefficient? Was he ineffective? Was he underperforming or corrupt such that one would move him? Ebrima Sankareh tell us!
Similarly, Salimatou Touray need not become any Deputy SG since she is also a veteran in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Such people should be left in their positions so that their institutions continue to benefit from their experience, expertise and wisdom, while they become mentors for young professionals. If indeed they were inefficient then there is another solution to that than moving them to another institution.
Therefore, this decision by the Government is baseless and a direct threat to the building of efficient and effective state institutions. While Pres. Barrow has the authority to make some of these appointments but let him know that such decisions should be well informed and geared towards serving national interest only. He cannot just use his own whims and caprices to take decisions that weaken the State as a whole.
At this time, it is necessary that all political parties and CSOs rise up to take a definitive stand against this bad decision. Our political parties and civil society must not sit by watching the President make terrible decisions that will injure the stability, continuity and performance of the State. A weak State is a direct threat to our human rights and human development. For 50 years this country could not prosper simply because of such interferences with the State machinery. It has to stop.
It was this kind of disingenuous, baseless and politically motivated interferences with the civil and public services by Yaya Jammeh that he succeeded in weakening and corrupting the entire governance and development system of this country. The price was too costly. If you don’t know look at the Janneh Commission Report.
Therefore, Gambians must not sit by to have yet another President to just get up at anytime to interfere with the civil and public services indiscriminately. That’s instability and an unstable and weak government is a recipe for continued poverty, stinking corruption and perpetual underdevelopment. Any country that does not have an efficient, effective, highly competent and well performing civil and public services cannot serve its people well. Unfortunately, this is the direction that Pres. Adama Barrow has taken with our civil and public services. Stop him.
What we expect Pres. Barrow to do is to create and maintain a highly professional, merit-based, transparent, accountable and responsive civil and public services in order to better serve Gambians. Anything less must not be accepted by Gambians. Stand up against this decision.
For The Gambia Our Homeland |
A clear conscience fears no accusation - proverb from Sierra Leone |
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Momodou
Denmark
11634 Posts |
Posted - 05 May 2020 : 11:15:25
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Manjang has declined the Goverments offer to move to the diplomatic service citing that’s not his profession.
I admire his honesty.
I his resignation letter he wrote among other things:
quote:
"My training, professional experience and skillset is in finance, management and control of financial institutions. Therefore, I will not be doing justice to the Government or myself in taking up a role that requires diplomacy and or expertise in foreign affairs."
Comment by Sidi Sanneh
#MDManjang’s 2016-2019 record:
Cost down from D271M to D148M. Income grew D265.5M to D309.5M, operating profits from D1.5M loss to D138M profit. SSHFC highly liquid - term deposits & treasury bills grew D700M to D2.1 Billion net of new investments, including GTSC buses. #ThankYou for #ServiceToCountry
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A clear conscience fears no accusation - proverb from Sierra Leone |
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toubab1020
12306 Posts |
Posted - 05 May 2020 : 14:08:22
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I expect someone somewhere said this to someone 
"I his resignation letter he wrote among other things:
quote: "My training, professional experience and skillset is in finance, management and control of financial institutions. Therefore, I will not be doing justice to the Government or myself in taking up a role that requires diplomacy and or expertise in foreign affairs."
Cannot be clearer than that !
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"Simple is good" & I strongly dislike politics. You cannot defend the indefensible.
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Edited by - toubab1020 on 05 May 2020 14:20:14 |
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Momodou
Denmark
11634 Posts |
Posted - 05 May 2020 : 15:19:30
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| The last posting was removed because it was a duplicate of one above!! |
A clear conscience fears no accusation - proverb from Sierra Leone |
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toubab1020
12306 Posts |
Posted - 05 May 2020 : 15:31:25
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OK, just a bit of lightheartedness in these hard times of Corona Virus
quote:
Originally posted by Momodou
The last posting was removed because it was a duplicate of one above!!
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"Simple is good" & I strongly dislike politics. You cannot defend the indefensible.
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toubab1020
12306 Posts |
Posted - 06 May 2020 : 14:21:37
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https://standard.gm/letters-to-the-editor-286/
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May 6, 2020
Dear editor,
I don’t know Manjang and I have never directly interacted with him. Like many people, I only came to know of him through his hiring at SSHFC. From the various thieves and thief-helpers that came before the Janneh Commission, I thought the SSHFC was a poisoned chalice for the many spineless directors that oversaw its destruction over the evil era of Jammeh. From what I heard, the institution was on its knees when Manjang was appointed to take charge. And for the life of me, I thought all was going well over there! But someone somewhere had a different thinking and so they decided he is better suited to something else he knows little about.
It was just a few days ago that I wrote about untamed obedience to authority. You know, where senior civil servants accept to be treated anyhow by those in power or authority. Apparently, Manjang is no ordinary senior civil servant or rather was no ordinary civil servant. We know that Yahya Jammeh recruited people to come and run whole ministries when they have zero experience in even managing a table canteen of confetti. We know that evil and rapist Yahya Jammeh arbitrarily moved people from one ministry to another and I don’t know about you, but I have never heard so much as a whimper from any of them. Whether motivated by fear or lack of spine, no one should take up a position in a field you don’t feel you will effectively serve your people if service to the people is your persuasion. Sadly, with the obsession over titles and addiction to government jobs, some of our people have allowed themselves to be used anyhow, anywhere and at anytime! They have allowed themselves to be untamely obedient. They call it service to nation even if they know they cannot deliver said service!
I commend Manjang for daring to be different. Where many settled for mediocrity, he chose to be excellent. Where many allowed themselves to be pawns in a political chess game, he chose to be the King and took the highway. Where others succumb to desperation for titles and government jobs, he chose to forgo it all and stand alone. Resignation from senior positions in government is rare except when we bag an international appointment. Our people allow themselves to be played like a yoyo and get bounced from one place to another without as much as a cough.
Bravo to Manjang for daring to be different. I am sure many will be happy that you are no longer at the SSHFC but going by the numbers you posted, even folks like me that cannot count to twenty without taking off our shoes, are proud of you. That is what I call delivery. That you put them out in the public space says a lot. When I grow up, I want to like you and not accept anyone to play me like a yoyo! Go well sir and thank you for daring to be different.
Alagie Saidy-Barrow
USA
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"Simple is good" & I strongly dislike politics. You cannot defend the indefensible.
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MAJOR CIVIL SERVICE REDEPLOYNENTS
