MONROVIA, January 22 (LINA) - President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf is expected to launch a “Deconcentration Platform” that has been crafted detailing services to be sent to the various counties, ministries, agencies and commissions (MAC) in Gbarnga, Bong County in February.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) and the Governance Commission will shortly undertake a Rapid Assessment mission of five counties to ascertain conditions favorable or unfavorable to an unhindered deconcentration program, a release from the MIA said Thursday.
It said the assessment will identify priorities, strengths and weaknesses of each county in terms of services to be deconcentrated, inform the development of the deconcentration implementation plan, schedule and provide a benchmark to be able to measure progress throughout 2015.
Meanwhile, the release said another key activity, the first Staff Retreat of the program, took place at the Virginia residence of Dr. Roosevelt Jayjay, National Program Director of the National Decentralization Implementation Secretariat.
Speaking at the opening, Dr. Jayjay recounted gains already made by government and its partners in the direction of decentralizing key functions and authority to sub-national levels of state bureaucracy.
But he added that much was yet to be done to ensure that decentralization was kept on the front burner.
He maintained that functionaries of government involved with decentralization needed to be on the same pace in the implementation processes so as to facilitate progressive results.
LINA