The Department of Personnel Management (DPM) recently conducted a workshop on the Performance Management System (PMS) for senior public servants in the East New Britain Provincial Administration (ENBPA).
The training was in response to a request by Provincial Administrator Levi Mano, who saw the need for senior ENBPA management at the provincial headquarters to the districts and LLGs to understand and embrace the PMS as an essential tool to deliver services to the people.
Personnel management staff and team leader of the PMS workshop, Marita Kouga applauded the foresight of the PA who embraced the department as an important partner to build the provincial administration’s capacity to implement important government reforms.
“True to your passion and three months after being appointed as the permanent Provincial Administrator, you extended an invitation for us to come and help you establish your Key Result Areas (KRA) for your performance-based contract of employment,” she said.
Ms Kouga and her team then presented the Provincial Administrator with his draft KRAs on Friday the 15th of March for further review and consultation with Governor Michael Marum.
“During the last few days and together with the ENBPA management team, we developed the KRAs and when approved, everyone else must adjust their activities to align with the direction that the PA has set,” Ms Kouga outlined.
“It’s important to take ownership of the Key Performance Indicators (KPI) that we are responsible for and to report regularly on the progress being made. And as your return on investment, I encourage the senior officers to take ownership of what you are expected to perform on.”
The key ingredients in the successful implementation of the PMS are alignment, ownership, evaluation and reporting and being SMARTER – as in Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Timebound, Evaluated and Revised.
“I am sure you (ENBPA) have established systems for regular reporting, however, I urge you all to use this online reporting to submit quarterly reports on the progress of these KRAs, so to complement the progress being made by the administration on the KRAs.
“The ENBPA has been one of our champions of the PMS, and thus with your help, the department can transition from manual processing to online processing.”
Kouga further thanked the PA for accepting their request to have the policy team come along and do awareness on the Human Resource Development Strategic Plan during the 5-day workshop.
“We are advised that you have already implemented the 70:20:10 model in the province and that you are using the service level agreement to outsource activities to those who have the capacity to deliver services. We applaud you for this as it is evidence of strong leadership and the department commends you for your progress.”
Meanwhile, Provincial Administrator Levi Mano acknowledged the DPM team and Secretary Taies Sansan for approving the team’s trip to the province to conduct the PMS workshop.
He said this program is about a system, iterating that a system is only as good as those who operate it.
“I am requesting that we continue to liaise with your ICT team to come to the province on a quarterly basis and assist us set up the online system. So that while the Governor is seeing my performance on the laptop, I should also see your (senior public servants) performance on the ground.
“Again, it’s not about the Governor or I as the Provincial Administrator, but it’s about this organisation, because we are trying to establish a system that will sustain the service delivery process in the province,” Mano said.