County Service Training begins

A week-long training workshop for staff of the proposed first County Service Center in Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, got underway in Monrovia on Monday.

Over sixty participants drawn from all 14 service delivery Ministries, Agencies and Commissions (MACs) of Government are in attendance.
The workshop is under the auspices of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, in collaboration with the European Union or EU and United Nations Development Program or UNDP.
According to National Program Director of the National Development Implementation Secretarial of the Liberia Decentralization Support Project, the capacity- building exercise is in preparation for the opening of Liberia’s first ever County Service Center located outside Monrovia.
Dr. Roosevelt G. Jayjay pointed that the workshop comes against the backdrop of Government’s on-going Deconcentration Platform launched in February 2015, seeking to deliver services to citizens and residents in their counties of residence, instead of coming to Monrovia to access such services, as has always been the case.
Director Jayjay noted that the training will provide a platform for personnel of the MACs to review existing working practices with the aim of identifying priorities, weaknesses and strengths, that they will now work from a central point.
“Some institutions concerned include the Ministries of Internal Affairs, Commerce, Public Works, Education, Transport, Labor, Health, as well as Finance and Development Planning (MFPD), among others,” Dr. Jayjay noted.
He also said the training sessions will also provide the basis for establishing follow-up processes to ensure sustainability of the Service Center and training received, adding that out of the process will evolve the development of methods and strategies for the introduction of on-the-job trainings.
“Initial services to be provided at the Grand Bassa County Service Center include Business registration, issuance of birth certificates, issuance of marriage and divorce certificates, as well as the provision of ECOWAS Work Permits, among others,” Dr. Jayjay indicated.
According to him, the experience of the Grand Bassa County Service Center will be replicated in additional seven counties between now and December, 2015, further noting that already, renovation works were nearing completion on the proposed Service Center.
He said the Liberian Government, through a European Union Grant contribution, is facilitating the actualization of the County Service Centers in the initial eight counties. By Ben P. Wesee – Edited by George Barpeen