South Sudan: Open letter to the Hon. Minister of Labour Public Service & Human Resource Development
7 min readBy Dut Deng Kok, Juba, South Sudan
Tuesday, June 11, 2019 (PW) — Dear Minister, I am honored that you have agreed to serve South Sudanese as Minister of Labour Public Service, & Human Resource Development. You made a commitment to invest in human Resource sector, strengthening the middle class, and helping those working hard to join it. We want you to commit to provide more direct help to those who need it by giving less to those who do not. We committed to public investment as the best way to spur economic growth, job creation, and broad-based prosperity. We committed to a responsible, transparent fiscal plan for challenging economic times.
Below is ten areas for improvement of public service: Classification and Occupational Group Structures; Training and Development; Compensation and Benefits ; Works Force Adaptiveness ; Management Category ; Administrative Policy and Common Service Agencies; Staff Relations ; Resource Management and Budget Controls ; Staffing ; Service to the Public
One of the major goals is to alter the way that the public service delivered services to the public. If we are to tackle the real challenges we face as a country – from a struggling middle class to the threat of war South Sudan need to have faith in their government’s honesty and willingness to listen. I expect that our work will be informed by performance measurement, evidence, and feedback from South Sudanese.
You will direct our resources to those initiatives that are having the greatest, positive impact on the lives of South Sudanese, and that will allow you to meet your commitments to them. We expect you to address media regularly on your progress toward fulfilling your commitments and to help develop effective measures that assess the impact of the organizations for which you are answerable.
We have also committed to set a higher bar for openness and transparency in government. It is time to shine more light on government to ensure it remains focused on the people it serves. Government and its information should be open by default. If you want South Sudanese people to trust their government, we need a government that trusts South Sudanese. It is important that you acknowledge mistakes when you make us (Citizens). Citizens do not expect you to be perfect they expect you to be honest, open, and sincere in your efforts to serve the public interest.
Platform guides our government. Over the course of another three years mandate, we the citizens expect to deliver on all of your commitments. It is your collective responsibility to ensure that you fulfill your promises is the party (SPLM), while living within your fiscal plan. Other issues will arise or will be brought to your attention by South Sudanese, stakeholders, and the public service. It is my expectation that you will engage constructively and thoughtfully and add priorities to your agenda when appropriate.
As Minister, you will be held accountable for our commitment to bring a different style of leadership to government. This will include: close collaboration with your colleagues; meaningful engagement with Opposition Members of Parliament, Parliamentary Committees and the public service; constructive dialogue with South Sudanese, civil society, and stakeholders, including business, organized labour, the broader public sector, and the not-for-profit and charitable sectors; and identifying ways to find solutions and avoid escalating conflicts unnecessarily.
As well, members of the Parliamentary Press Gallery, indeed all journalists in South Sudan and abroad, are professionals who, by asking necessary questions, contribute in an important way to the democratic process. Your professionalism and engagement with them is essential. South Sudanese expect you, in your work, to reflect the values you all embrace: inclusion, honesty, hard work, fiscal prudence, and generosity of spirit. We want you to be a government that governs for all South Sudanese people, and I expect you, in your work, to bring South Sudanese Workers together.
You are expected to do your part to fulfill our government’s commitment to transparent, merit-based appointments, to help ensure gender parity and that Indigenous Canadians and minority groups are better reflected in positions of leadership.
As Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Labour, your overarching goal will be to help Canadians get the skills they need for good quality jobs. You will be able to achieve this goal by working with provinces, territories, municipalities, the post-secondary education system, employers and labour to strengthen our training systems to build the human capital that Canadians and employers need. You will undertake this work in a collaborative way with provinces and territories.
In particular, I will expect you to work with your colleagues and through established legislative, regulatory, and cabinet processes to deliver on your top priorities:
Improve workers’ access to good quality job training that provides Canadians with pathways to good careers. This would include:
Rationalizing and expanding the intergovernmental agreements that support skills training: the Labour Market Development Agreements (working with the Minister of Families, Children and Social Development), the Labour Market Agreements, and the Canada Job Grant. This work should support the efforts of provinces, territories and employers and avoid duplication; working with the Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs to renew and improve the Aboriginal Skills and Employment Training Strategy; and Developing a framework to fund training facilities delivered in partnership with labour unions: increasing our investment for Youth Employment Strategy and improving the strategy’s impact; working with the Minister of Finance to provide a great standard payment on Employment Insurance premiums for firms that hire new younger workers into permanent positions in 2019, 2020, or 2021; working with Minister of Youth & sport to develop a Youth Service Program;
Support the Minister of Gender Children and Social Development in developing a Poverty Reduction Strategy in the country. This strategy would set targets to reduce poverty and measure and publicly report on your progress., we will expect you to contribute initiatives to promote good quality jobs and decent work in South Sudan in response to the report from the Expertise: With support from the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster management,
Government of South Sudan, to successfully implement platform in public service depends on the ability to thoughtfully consider the professional, non-partisan advice of public servants. Each and every time a government employee comes to work, they do so in service delivery to South Sudanese people, with a goal of improving our country and the lives of all South Sudanese. I expect you to establish a collaborative working relationship with your staff, their role are not satisfactory, and the role of public servants is to delivery service to people concern, and also is to support you as a minister in the performance of your responsibilities.
We the citizens we have committed to an open, honest government that is accountable to South Sudanese people, lives up to the highest ethical standards, and applies the utmost care and prudence in the handling of public funds. I expect you to embody these values in your work and observe the highest ethical standards in everything you do. When dealing with Cabinet colleagues, Parliament, stakeholders, or the public, it is important that your behavior and decisions meet South Sudanese’ well-founded expectations of our government. I want South Sudanese to look on their own government with pride and trust.
As Minister, you must ensure that you are aware of and fully compliant unemployment in the country, the citizens are left behind by UN agencies, INGOs and commercial banks. You will be provided with a copy of Open and Accountable Government to assist you as you undertake your responsibilities. I ask that you carefully read it and ensure that your staff does so as well. I draw your attention in particular to the Ethical Guidelines set out in Annex A of that document, which apply to you and your staff.
As noted in the Guidelines, you must uphold the highest standards of honesty and impartiality, and both the performance of your official duties and the arrangement of your private affairs should bear the closest public scrutiny. This is an obligation that is not fully discharged by simply acting within the law. Please also review the areas of Open and Accountable Government that you have expanded or strengthened, including the guidance on non-partisan use of departmental communications resources and the new code of conduct for exempt staff.
I am deeply grateful to have this opportunity to serve with you as we build an even greater country. Together, you will work tirelessly to honour the trust the president have given you since you were Chief of general Staff SPLA till now as you are the minister of Labour & Public service.
Dut Deng Kok is a south Sudanese opinion writer and he can reach visa email dutmanyang@gmail.com
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