On Friday 25th August, 2023, the Human resources department of Prestea Huni-Valley Municipal Assembly organized an orientation to provide a comprehensive training to newly recruited staff to make them more efficient and professional in their duties and also give them the basic organizational information they need to navigate in their new department and role within the institution.
Objectives; the training was to equip officers with the requisite skills needed as local government staff.
The specific areas of concentration were;
- To ensure better understanding of the differences between local government and public servant including their welfare.
- Deepen the understanding of the local government administrations and organogram.
- Increase participants’ knowledge on the fundamentals and activities of the various department of the Municipal Assembly.
- To improve their skills on report writing and preparation of appraisal.
- Ability to integrate with values and code of conduct of a public servant.
- To improve their knowledge on public financial issues and their welfare.
Participation; the training was attended by over twenty (20) participants from the various department. The Departments involved included Works, Social Welfare, Development Planning, Agric, Budget, Records etc.
Facilitators/Coordinators; five (5) facilitators in the persons of Mr. Ohene Dwria Asare the Municipal Finance Officer (MFO), Mr. Oliver Kwesi Freeman a rep from works department, Mr. Bernard Kanode a rep from Development Planning, Mr. Nene Botchwey a rep from Agric, Mr. Collins Ransford Abam Assistant Information Officer in charge of RTI, Madam Martine Aka Kreho Assistant HR and Madam Anastacia Otoo-Essel as coordinator.
Orientation Methodology; the facilitators from the selected departments took their time to explicate things to the participants, Mr. Bernard Kanode from development planning explain in detail to them the organogram and structures of local government as far as District Assembly is concern through a power point presentation, Mr. Oliver Kwesi Freeman seized the opportunity to explain to them about the mandates of the works department which includes efficient maintenance of roads and other infrastructure, Development control, carry out survey and design of construction works, permit endorsement and others. Again Mr. Nene Botcwey spoke about the activities of the Agric Department of the Municipal Assembly which includes Training farmers on new methods and proper ways of farming, sensitizes farmers on agriculture technologies, implement government agricultural policy in the municipality e.g. planting for food and jobs etc. among others. Yet again Mr. Collins Ransford Abam the Assistant Information Officer in charge of RTI sensitized them on Right to Information Act 2019 (Act 989), he made emphasis on Access to official information, exempt information, procedure for access, preparing and publication of institutional manual, institutional reviews and many more. Madam Martine Aka Kreho the assistant HR also talked about the preparation of appraisals, welfare, promotion upgrading and conversion, entitlement of leave etc. Mr. Ohene Dwria Asare Municipal Finance Officer (MFO)also bequeathed a gaudy explanation about Public Financial Management Circle (PFMC) and Government Integrated Financial Management System (GIFMICS).
The training was participatory and the participants were allowed to relate the topic to their area of specification. The expectations and concerns of participants were elicited. The session included power point presentation, lecturing, questions and answers, discussion and opinion sharing. The facilitators were excellent and had good cordial relationship with participants. They made the orientation so simple and easy to understand.
Conclusion; the overall organization was very good. The facilitators through the coordinator did a very good job for making the training a success with the majority of the participants indicated that the orientation and material were excellent.