Seychelles Institute of Management gets new mandate to help shape up government agencies

SEYCHELLES – The Seychelles Institute of Management (SIM) will play a bigger role in helping government organizations and agencies achieve a new level of performance and service.

This was announced by the Seychelles Vice President Danny Faure when he addressed the Chief Executives Forum for the first time this year.

Vice President Faure said that by the end of 2010, the SIM would take this new role of assisting in capacity building, and to do this it would receive a financing of SR2 million a year for the next 5 years from the NHRDC.

Outlining the extended role of SIM, he said: “As part of the ongoing reform programs, professional development and capacity building will need to be addressed. Our organizations need [a] skilled and knowledgeable work force to support and sustain the various reform initiatives.

“In this change process, employee involvement and empowerment are crucial. So, we have to ensure that everyone in our organizations have the necessary tools to do their jobs and to continuously improve.”

Together with the Department of Public Administration and the Human Resources Development Council, SIM will develop a training plan for policy makers and implementers in the public service.

The Institute will have from now on until December to plan and organize the training, which will cover areas such as governance, financial management, strategic planning, performance management, and policy planning and formulation.

VP Faure called upon the CEOs with specific expertise in these fields to act as facilitators and assist SIM in the delivery of this staff empowerment program.

At the CEO Forum, the VP called upon the CEOs to raise the bar in the running of their organizations and providing a better service to the Seychellois public by becoming more dynamic and innovative.

He told them: “We have sought to create a leaner government; make more efficient use of resources and improve service delivery. But, as I said earlier, we have to go further still.”

He said government is moving forward with its policy objectives and strategies, which will take the country towards a more modern and prosperous Seychelles, and one that can continue to resist the shocks of any external fluctuations, and that in this task, it needed its organizations and agencies to improve their performance.