HIDA facilitates MIFOTRA conduct a Functional Review and Institutional Audit exercise in Government Ministries

HIDA is facilitating the Ministry of Public Service and Labour to carry out functional reviews and institutional audits of six Ministries, in order to measure progress in the implementation of the public service reforms and assess their impact in the delivery of services to the population.

With support from the World Bank through the Public Sector Capacity Building Project (PSCBP) which is managed by HIDA, an International firm, Oxford Policy Management Ltd., has been contracted with effect from February 16th 2007 for close to three months to provide the necessary technical assistance for the functional reviews.

The six ministries identified for this exercise include the Ministry of Public Service and Labour; Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning; Ministry of Education; Ministry of Health; Ministry of Infrastructure and Ministry of Lands, Environment, Forestry, Water and Mines.

The objective of the functional review and institutional audit will be to evaluate the whole reform process in public institutions, analysing its achievements based on its objectives and its impact on the functioning of ministries and their effectiveness of achieving strategic plans, with the view to streamlining the reform process; make concrete recommendations for improving the efficiency of the 6 ministries under review in implementing their action plans and sector strategies; extrapolate from the analysis of 6 ministries reviewed, to make general recommendations for improvement of institutional structures to be considered in future phases of institutional reforms of the public service; develop a methodology as well as build capacity of the ministry’s staff for future functional analysis; and to identify functions currently undertaken by these central ministries that could more effectively and efficiently be carried out if outsourced to private sector entities or civil society and/or decentralised to districts or sectors.

At the end of the review exercise, a comprehensive Report will be presented to stakeholders for validation highlighting the situational analysis of considered institutions clearly indicating an analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the reform of the public service with applicable recommendations to deal with the weaknesses and threats.

Meanwhile support has also been secured from UNDP to expand this exercise to other government Ministries, all public institutions, private sector and civil society. This exercise is set to commence in April 2007.