The new Bahrain Institute of Public Administration (BIPA) is now looking for temporary premises where it can train Bahrain's civil servants - both present and future, revealed Cabinet Affairs Minister Shaikh Ahmed bin Ateyatalah Al Khalifa.
He said the permanent headquarters would be built on an area of 8,500sqm and offer training to 500 public sector staff on a daily basis.
"The new premises will have 24 classrooms, equipped with the latest technological advancements, in addition to a multi-purpose hall for up to 300 people," said Shaikh Ahmed.
He added that the centre aimed to prepare civil servants to take up better posts in future.
"Basically, it aims to develop their qualifications to provide better government services in a high quality and transparent manner," he said.
"We are trying our best to ensure that the public money is not squandered and is being spent wisely - this is why BIPA has been formed.
"All of its training programmes are in line with Economic Development Board's directions, which puts human resources development at the top of any strategy."
Shaikh Ahmed said the government was keen to continue developing and improving.
"The Civil Service Bureau revamp, the launch of e-government and now the institute are all to improve government operations to ensure they provide better services, matching those provided by other countries.
"Previous training for civil servants was not satisfactory because ministries and government organisations didn't think that preparing employees to take higher positions was important.
"There was no future plan, no strategy and assessment of the training given or its benefit to employees.
"This means that training money was not spent properly, which is why BIPA has been established to take action and put things straight."
Shaikh Ahmed said the government had increased training hours for employees from 30 to 50, but studies showed that nothing had improved.
"Only 33 per cent enrolled for training, which is a total of 5,662 employees, while two out of 22 government organisations had more than 75pc of their employees enrolled for training," he said.
"Training costs have increased annually, but only nine out of 22 organisations used more than 75pc of its budget."
Shaikh Ahmed said that around 70pc of courses were abroad, with most of the training expenses covering travel.
"Instead of giving government employees promotions, they were being sent on a training course, which is wrong and unacceptable," he said.
"We can't keep quiet on this, because government's money is being squandered."
Shaikh Ahmed said that work would be co-ordinated with the CSB, which would accept applications from government staff.
"Training, whether in Bahrain or abroad, will be carefully assessed to ensure that the employees get benefit," he added.
"The institute has signed many agreements to exchange expertise, studies and programmes with other similar institutes and centres."
He said BIPA would mainly focus on new recruits to ensure they know the needs of their position and what they have to do.
"We want people who are aware of their work, we want someone who works instantly without any problem," he said.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Mohammed Al A' Ali
Quelle/Source: Gulf Daily News, 06.03.2008
