Civil Service: New evaluation system considered

A workshop to this effect ended yesterday in Yaounde.

Information from the Division of Technical Administrations at the Permanent Secretariat of Administrative Reforms at the Ministry of Public Service reveals that the former system of evaluating civil servants is poor because, personnel were assessed only at the end of the year without knowing exactly what they did throughout the year.

An Administrative Counsellor at the Permanent Secretariat of Administrative Reforms in the Ministry of Public Service and Administrative Reforms (MINFOPRA), Che Philip Amabo underscored that “most at times the assessment of civil servants was partial since friendship and other relationships between the boss and the worker was taken into consideration. As such, most civil servants usually scored a mark of 18 on 20. The least was 15 on 20.” According to him, it was difficult to find a civil servant with a mark lower than 12. Yet, users of public services were complaining of the poor treatment received at the public service.

The positive assessment of civil servants did not match the negative reactions from the public. It is within this backdrop that the Ministry of Public Service and Administrative Reform is about instituting a new system of evaluating civil servants through a workshop that ended yesterday, May 26, 2016, in Yaounde. Through the new system, workers will be assessed every six months. Before this is done, personnel and their immediate bosses will sit and draw an action plan or objectives to be achieved within six months.

It is on the objectives that the worker will be evaluated. The evaluation does not just end between personnel and their immediate bosses. It is a chain of assessment that further goes to a next level which could be a sub-director or director of the service. Through the new evaluating system, workers will be assessed at several levels. Besides the monthly grading of workers, there is a final assessment made in June and another one in December of each year.

Che Philip said when objectives are met, not only users of public services will be satisfied but also workers who will be rewarded at the end of the year depending on the work they have done. The workshop was out to let other ministries have knowledge about the new system, its importance as well as to train them on how to use the new format in evaluating personnel.