By M. Dennise Nimpson|Contributor
The Government of Liberia through the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning and the European Union commence a two day EU- Country Portfolio Performance Review in Monrovia.
Speaking Wednesday March 31, 2021 at the opening session Finance and Development Planning Minister Samuel D. Tweah said the public sector lacks the ability to deliver the needed results for productivity.
Minister Tweah said too many resources were invested into capacity building over the years but the expected deliverables are lacking across government institutions.
“Even if you look at it the amount of money we have spent on capacity building in the last 10-15 years is astronomical,” he said.
According to him, the number of degrees that have been acquired it is unimaginable that such cannot be applied to services rendered.
“We need to understand where the challenge is, what is producing it because people acquired knowledge they have degree, but it will take thirty days to respond to email,” Minister Tweah added.
He stressed that people in the public sector are not proactive in in the discharge of duties, noting government employees take six months to produce a report that could be done just within three days.
The Finance Minister emphasized, “If things should be done in three days, why should workers in the government allow it to move to six months,”
Minister Tweah expressed optimism that the dialogue will serve as a catalyst that would discover the continuous problem for better remedy.
“I hope the conversation will revolve and these bottleneck that slow progress would be discovered,” said Mr. Tweah.
For his part, European Union Head of Delegation, Laurent Ambassador Delahousse said the mission support is in line with the Pro Poor Agenda for Prosperity and Development.
Ambassador Delahousse said their works uphold accountability because the funds provided are their task payers’ money.
Ambassador Delahousse said, “We have a framework to follow that promotes accountability because the money given is European Union Taxpayers money”.
According to him, the workings of the EU aimed to assist government deliver to the citizenry.
“The meeting is about EU support to government to deliver to the people, we do not do this action out of the blue sky because we have to give account of everything,” He added.
Ambassador Delahousse said they are working on the next framework and thanked the Minister of Finance for hosting the meeting which is intended to yield deliverables for the populace but starting first with government.
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