Responding to the deliberations of the representatives in the session proposing an act related to the Civil Service Law, His Excellency Dr. Raed Mohammed Bin Shams, Director General of the Bahrain Institute of Public Administration, reconfirmed that the strategic direction of BIPA is derived from the directives of the wise leadership which hold the citizen as the pivotal mainstay and focus of the development in the Kingdom of Bahrain and the primary beneficiary of the achievements of the government work. He stressed the fact that BIPA is concerned with the formulation of the leadership identity of the public sector personnel at all administrative levels in order to upgrade the efficiency of the government processes as stated in the 2030 Bahrain Economic vision and the government’s work program.
He further stated that BIPA, since its establishment, had contributed to the qualification and training of some 25,000 government employees, or 55.5% of the total number of the public sector employees. The efforts of BIPA did not stop at the boundary of training and qualification only to attain optimal investment but transcends to BIPA’s strategy which calls for realization of “sophisticated government performance for sustainable development” based on four other mechanisms, namely research, consultation, guidance and assessment and strategic communication, where all four elements strive to bring about satisfaction of the aspirations of the nation and the citizen. He drew attention to the concept of modern training which revolves around “learning”. This was achieved by regular and systematic personal guidance between the superior and the employee, learning from mass and group brainstorming sessions, drafting and writing of scientific working papers and reports, reading of academic books or articles, sharing of the employees’ expertise in behavioral or professional knowledge and skills in addition to systematic pear training. All these learning methods do not require budgetary appropriations.
Dr. Bin Shams added that BIPA is concerned with advancement of administration only by providing the trainees with the most recent knowledge, skills, behaviors and best international practices in the private sector based on scientific methodologies whose objective is to realize the citizens’ aspirations of advanced services and comprehensive policies that support the most important concepts related to optimal management and stewardship of the resources and constant and ongoing change culture as well as innovation for the sake of development. This approach has been specifically designed and prepared by Bahraini nationals to suit the training needs of the public sector and contribute to qualification of responsible officials who are capable of pushing the wheel of sustainable development in the Kingdom of Bahrain by assuming leadership role in the government system with a high degree of efficiency.
Dr. Bin Shams added that BIPA has bypassed and circumvented the challenge of government budgetary cuts by providing financial support for its 2018 training plan, in other word any of the government organization can offer training to their staff at the various career levels free of charge. He reasserted that the training plan comprises six training modules as part of the National Program for Development of Government Leaderships. The modules cover all career levels from the new recruits to the specialists, first specialists to division heads, managers, assistant deputy ministers and deputy ministers. In effect, nomination applications have been received from the training officers in the government organizations.
Dr. Bin Shams further explained that BIPA offers specialized government training programs, such as the general finance program, customer service program, government project management program and other specialized training programs which are still based on strategic leadership methodology and strategic thinking which are consistent with the scope of public administration. BIPA also designs custom made contract courses besides its featured training plan at the request of government departments. BIPA has offered such contract courses to some 76 government organizations since its inception.