CSA Director-General Proposes Knowledge-exchange Partnership with Namibia to Reform Civil Service

The Director-General of the Liberian Civil Service Agency, Hon. Josiah F. Joekai, Jr., proposed a knowledge-exchange partnership between the Liberian Civil Service Agency and the Namibian Civil Service Commission. This nation-building initiative was discussed during a courtesy visit by Namibia’s Ambassador to Monrovia and Accra, H.E. Selma Achipala-Musavqi, on October 24, 2024.

Hon. Joekai highlighted the need for substantial reforms in the Civil Service Sector since he assumed office. His focus has been on streamlining and professionalizing the workforce, tackling issues such as discrepancies in the national payroll, recruitment process, and the management of consultancy regimes. Upon taking over, he faced challenges with ghost names on the payroll, double dippers, unmerited recruitment, and a bloated consultancy regime.

To address these issues, the Employment Status Regularization Project (ESRP) was initiated, conducting a physical headcount of every civil servant within Spending Entity of government.  This exercise successfully reduced the national workforce from 67,000 to 61,000, eliminating approximately 5,000 ghost names and providing comprehensive bio-data for each civil servant.

Hon. Joekai also informed Ambassador Achipala-Musavqi about the forthcoming Civil Service National Testing Center, which will automate the Civil Service recruitment test, minimizing human intervention. Additionally, the new consultancy regime is part of efforts to ensure a more rigorous and need-based hiring process, significantly reducing the number of consultants from 6,000 in 2023 to 1,000 in 2024, saving the government millions of dollars.

Ambassador Achipala-Musavqi commended the reforms, noting that the public service can be politically sensitive if not managed well. She emphasized the importance of performance management systems (PMS) and expressed interest in mutual exchanges to improve civil service efficiency in both countries.

The meeting concluded with Hon. Joekai agreeing on the significance of automating the PMS, which is underway at the CSA. This system aims to provide a more responsive and organized evaluation of both individual and institutional performances.