Human Resource Powers Returns to Agency Heads
Department of Personnel Management Secretary Ms. Taies Sansan formally returned all Human Resource Powers that were previously revoked on the 01st of October 2019 to department and agency heads to be restored, which will be effected on Tuesday 2nd January 2024.
All agency heads were advised through a circular instruction No. 18 / 2023 instructing the heads of department to attend the issuance ceremony to receive their instruments of delegation during the final day of the DPM reforms workshop.
Secretary Sansan congratulated all heads of agency on the return of the HR powers and functions through the receipt of delegation of Instruments and urged them to use these delegated powers with care and not to use these powers to cause further HR issues in their respective agencies but to comply with General orders and HR business processes in the Public Service.
“My department stands ready and willing to provide your HR teams with the necessary tools and authority to assist you in the exercise of these powers to succeed in achieving your organization’s goals and values” says Secretary Sansan.
The decision to return all administrative HR powers to agency heads came about after the government revoked all HR powers through the Special General Order 11 (SGO11) 2019 as part of the government’s cost saving initiatives to address the ever increasing Personnel Emoluments (PE) budget costs on the government payroll.
The SGO 11 was issued through the government directive as a means to rectify the standard rules that had been ignored or misapplied by respective government agencies under the devolved human resource environment.
She said however recent initiatives that have been undertaken to address these issues have resulted in the government trusts and confidence in the return of HR powers and one was the recent audit of the Government Payroll conducted by Deloitte.
“Agency heads have also been taking bold stands to ensure their agencies are complying to the relevant government business processes on HR matters and seeking advice on a regular basis to ensure compliance to relevant business processes” says Sansan. Secretary Sansan said because of these initiatives and progress it is thus in the best interest of the Public Service that reinstating all administrative HR powers will enable the Public Service to continue its valuable work more effectively and efficiently.