Manama: Bahrain's ministries and government agencies have been given one month to address employment irregularities, a senior official has said.
"An auditing of several ministries and governmental agencies has found the existence of 530 redundant staff and 150 irregular cases of part-time recruitment," Shaikh Ahmad Bin Atiyatallah Al Khalifa, the deputy chairman of the Civil Service Council and minister for cabinet affairs, said. "This is a blatant infringement of the Civil Service Bureau laws and violators have been requested to address the situation within the 30-day period stipulated in the Civil Service Law in order to ensure the employees' rights," he said in a statement.
Bahrain has been pushing with assistance from international expertise houses, mainly from Singapore, for reforms in the public sector to enhance its performance, increase its effectiveness and improve its services to the public.
"We are in talks with the Singapore Cooperation Enterprise (SCE) to implement a major project adopted by the Economic Development Board (EDB) and the Civil Service Council to reform the legal framework of the civil service in line with the national strategy and Bahrain Vision 2030," Shaikh Ahmad said. "The signing of a contract with SCE is part of the strategic plan of the Civil Service Bureau to upgrade its standards, mainly with the reform of its legal frameworks in a way that ensures more flexible and positive laws and regulations."
The reforms and the adoption of modern regulations and bylaws will increase Bahrain’s pace of economic development, contribute to a favourable investment environment and ensure greater flexibility and wider scope of responsibility and accountability in the management of the workforce in government agencies, Shaikh Ahmad said.
"Reforms will also contribute to eliminating bureaucracy and to allowing greater flexibility. They will eventually ease decision-making by government agencies and strengthen the role of human resources departments by giving them a wider range of powers and responsibilities," he said.
The reforms will be implemented in three stages to allow the identification of impediments in the current regulations of the civil service laws and prepare a draft legal framework before submitting the final draft of the regulations.
"The views of all competent parties will be taken into account, including those of human resources departments in the ministries and government agencies and the Department of Legal Affairs."
The Administrative Audit Bureau was set up to ensure the proper application by government agencies of the laws, rules and regulations. It also aims to improve the management of human resources in the public sector and strengthen controls over governance and internal management of the service. The bureau is tasked with creating a fair and transparent environment through the development of control management and a culture of self-control in the ministries and government agencies.
