Subtitles:
The Preparation Program for the new government staff is one of the most significant achievements of the Bahrain Institute of Public Administration.
The Bahrain Institute of Public Administration has succeeded in creating a second row of leaders.
15% of public sector employees have undergone training at the Institute of Public Administration.
Lack of budget led to a delay in our steps towards the desired change.
Bahrain’s most valuable potential is its human resources .. untapped treasure so far.
All what I aspire is to see the Bahrain Institute of Public Administration as a reference in the field of public administration and government policies.
His Excellency Director General of the Bahrain Institute of Public Administration (BIPA ) Dr. Raed bin Shams said that the call of His Majesty the King to establish a college for civil service is on top of BIPA’s priorities in the coming period. He added that His Majesty the King sought to create a second row of the government leaders to assume senior positions in government.
Dr. bin Shams confirmed that BIPA is not competing with the private sector, stressing that the Institute is working on the development of government performance to lead to outstanding results and a high degree of professionalism, a cadre of human resources who should be maintained by the government to serve its aspirations of development towards a more distinctive future.
He pointed out that the Institute of Public Administration during the past six years has contributed to the establishment a unique approach for positive change and continuous improvement of the government sector performance. Dr. bin Shams said that this change has exceeded all expectations, since the inception of the Institute. The Institute succeeded in providing required training for up to 15% of public sector employees, with the level of quality and professionalism aspired.
– Your Excellency Director General of the Bahrain Institute of Public Administration, Dr. Raed bin Shams…. How do you think the Institute of Public Administration is the ideal partner in the development of government employees with distinction?
The idea of establishing the Institute of Public Administration came to support the training sector in the Kingdom of Bahrain, adopting basic idea of no competition with the private sector. At the same time we seek to serve the government sector, in line with the needs of development, by eliminating the problems that impede the development of public sector performance. Our goal is to provide basic services with high efficiency and outstanding quality, efficiency and excellence in the government, in spite of the presence of competitors from the private sector.
– Since the establishment of the Institute of Public Administration in 2006 to the present day, what you have achieved during these six years?
One of the most important goals achieved by the Institute during these past years is to pave the way for positive change and continuous improvement of the performance of the government sector. This change is taking place in training and counseling, in the field of training we were able to exceed our expectations where the total trainees in the last three years reached eight thousand trainees. In the area of quality of training we have provided a range of major programs covered the significant gaps in the performance of government employees, both at the level of leaders of undersecretaries, assistant undersecretaries, directors of departments or at the level of the general staff.
The institute has succeeded in the development of the current government leaders, where we adopted professional style and quality in all programs provided to officials in the public sector, especially in the second level. These programs covered several specialized sectors, including project management, human resources and public relations. In addition to that we provided a selection of excellent professional programs such as (Kawader) program, which contributed mainly to create a second row of the government leaders, as advocated by His Majesty the King. The work is still going towards the implementation of the call of His Majesty for the establishment of the Faculty of Civil Service in the coming period.
Achievements of the Institute include as well, the preparation program for for new public sector employees. The program is a unique project for the Institute of Public Administration through being able radically to stereotype thinking and negative speculations of those who join government jobs. Once the new employee joins program, he/she will learn the methods and ways of positive thinking to perform the work properly being able to enjoy it away from the expected routine. At the end of the program, we note an evident change of the way of thinking of new employees who become not only motivated to work, but also we note positive change in their personality as well.
The performance management system
– Can you tell us about the project of performance management system which is implemented by the Civil Service Bureau in collaboration with the Institute of Public Administration?
This project is emanating from the National Economic Strategy, which on its light all ministries and government bodies will develop and review detailed strategic plans and implementation programs. It will determine possible success indicators for these initiatives, which facilitate performance appraisal process based on best practices in collaboration with HR departments in the ministries and government agencies. One of the objectives of the project is to promote a culture of high performance level in the government sector to be more productive and efficient, as well as encouraging staff to continue professional growth, through training, development, clarity of roles and performance requirements of various positions and job levels.
• Challenges …. Return on investments
– What are the main difficulties faced by the Institute since inception to date?
We recently faced lack of budget, due to the shift in the work mode of the Institute from the stage of free training programs to the stage of cost derived from government bodies and ministries, which led to delaying our steps towards the desired change, but this was not an obstacle in our quest for change in the administrative mechanisms that would help us to overcome these obstacles.
We also consider meeting expectations of the trainees and the aspirations of the leaders of the difficulties that we face on an ongoing basis, there is no doubt that everyone is looking for change and development in a distinct and unique way, so we at the Institute of Public Administration continue to develop our dynamic to face external challenges. BIPA is keen to keep up with modern trends in performance, through in-depth understanding of the needs of different sectors of government, by doing many of the discussions, workshops and need assessment in the ministries and government institutions.
Among the difficulties we faced in the beginning that we had a lot of mistakes like any other new institution but quickly learned a lot and benefited from our mistakes. At the same time, we have learnt from our successes and achieved fruitful results challenging ourselves in our ability to keep up with the market look to us that we are distinct, which is what drives us to create an institute which we are all very proud of, an institute appreciated by others.
– Do you think that BIPA reached the position which can enable it to theorize on topics of public administration?
In fact theory does not come by thinking and meditation, theory only comes only through proper researching. Unfortunately we are still in the Kingdom of Bahrain and the Arabian Gulf suffering a deficiency in the areas of research, so we first need to create a research environment in the field of public administration and government policies on a global level, then we will be able to view what is happening in the reality. This is what we seek in the Institute of Public Administration, so we started a series of research such as the project (capabilities), and (Training Needs Assessment TNA) to cover all key administrative areas in order to monitor changes and identify the actual needs for the development of the level of civil servants, raise the efficiency and productivity and achieve justice and equality among staff members of the public sector.
• Short Cut for Excellence and Achievement
– How would you rate BIPA from among similar training institutes in Bahrain?
What helped us to excel is that we have learned from the mistakes of others. We jumped a frog leap because we started from where they have reached, passed a lot of stages and problems after studying the experiences of other countries such as Britain, France, Singapore, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. So we are proud that we have fulfilled within 3 years what other institutes fulfilled in 50 years. Since 2009, we covered so 15% of the total government employees.
– What distinguishes the Institute of Public Administration from the rest of similar institutes in the region?
The team of the Bahrain Institute of Public Administration is what sets it apart from other similar institutes. What distinguish us is the brightness and enthusiasm in the eyes of the staff in performing their duties, the team spirit, initiative to accomplish of each member of BIPA family without boredom or fatigue, their joy when solving problems and eliminate difficulties. Everyone at the Institute of Public Administration enjoys his work, this spirit is what distinguishing the Institute.
– How to choose your partners such as the University of Oxford and the Civil Service College of Singapore?
BIPA always selects partners who can help us in framing the programs that suit our reality and touch the needs of the Kingdom of Bahrain, every country has its needs and characteristics, and our choice is not on the basis of excellence of partners, but keep in mind also their ability and their potential to work to develop training programs that serve the government environment in Bahrain. We are keen to take advantage of their experience in the transfer of knowledge. There is a saying “Don't give me the fish but teach me to fish! It is an important step on the long road of training and education.
– Do you study the nomination mechanism by the ministries? Are there standards to accept trainees?
BIPA and through the Directorate of business development and training, is communicating with various ministries and government institutions in order to nominate candidates in a proper way by categories that we are targeting in our specialized training. On the other side there are some programs or projects which require us to get to the staff through direct selection, including the preparation program, public relations to ensure healthy outcome of these expensive training programs.
Assessment Centre …Newly Born
– In addition to training and research, Institute of Public Administration offers advisory services, what are the most prominent projects in this area?
The Institute has a comprehensive agenda for research and advisory services with added value that will be provided through more efforts of the internal resources and outsourcing in order to develop a research agenda based on evidence to facilitate knowledge exchange and sharing across the public sector. To cover the pressing issues in the field of public administration such as performance measurement, staff development and progress in the field of management and policies, we have a number of projects such as job re-engineering, wages and project development capabilities.
– Assessment Centre .. What is the recent development and pillars of foundation?
If we consider the Institute of Public Administration as an infant then the Assessment Center is still an embryo but the level of ambition is very high. We seek through it to achieve 4 key objectives; to assess the training needs and evaluate outcomes of training on the one hand and on the other hand carry out personality, job and performance assessments. That is why we sought the help of (High Group) Company due to the large size of the project which targets the public sector in general.
The real challenge in the assessment center is to have certified national trainers. We do not have so far trained nationals, and if we are looking for sustainability in the training we have to find the personnel who can serve the Kingdom of Bahrain and provide proper training services in the field of public administration. The process of sustainability in the training is very important because the human resources are real wealth of Bahrain and they are untapped treasure so far.
• 2013 Challenge
– Are you prepared to host the International Conference on Management Sciences 2013?
This conference is a great challenge for us. We faced difficulties in competing with countries of the region and beyond for hosting the conference such as Argentina, South Africa and Saudi Arabia. Thankfully Bahrain has been selected due to being a fertile environment for the reception and acquisition of science. We are really thirsty to get to know the experiences of others in the field of public administration and government policies. This conference will position us on the world map in this field.
• BIPA….My first choice
– Did Dr. Raed bin Shams achieve all what he aspired for the Institute?
Of course not, we are still in the beginning of a long journey. I would like to see the Institute of Public Administration as a reference in the field of public administration and government policies, not only to the Government of Bahrain but also in the entire region, so I did not realize my ambition yet.
– If Dr. bin Shams is asked to go back in time, will you choose the Institute of Public Administration and why?
No doubt yes, because through my position in BIPA I feel that I can achieve what I believe we need in Bahrain to explore human potential, which is the real treasure of Bahrain. We all contribute to the development process initiated by His Majesty the King since his accession to power in 2000, when the King launched his reform project which was not only a political project but also an economic and social project. This ambitious project could not be achieved without concerted efforts and exploitation of all sources available in particular the human resources.
– What did you add to the Institute of Public Administration?
All what you added is the building blocks of this tower that we aspire to be a unique skyscraper in the near future worldwide.
– A final word
God willing, we will be up to the ambition of His Majesty the King to be shareholders, albeit few in advancing development in the reform project, create the necessary integration among all levels of schemes in the reform project, the Economic Vision 2030 and all the positive changes that we are trying to achieve in the Kingdom of Bahrain. A final thank you because we are in a position from which we can service our beloved kingdom.