The President of Civil Service Bureau (CSB) and Chairman of the Board of the Institute of Public Administration (BIPA) Ahmed Al-Zayed stressed that the Institute is currently working on the establishment of the early stages of “MENAPAR” concerning public administration research in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), and the first organizational meeting for the official establishment of the group is to be held next March, organized by BIPA in partnership with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), International Institute of Administrative Sciences (IIAS), International Association of Schools and Institutes of Administration (ASIA) and international consultation firms which provide research services to the public sector.
At chairing the meeting of the Board of Directors of BIPA, Mr. Al-Zayed added – in the presence of both: Vice Chairman of BIPA's Board and Director of Information Technology and Knowledge at Gulf Petrochemical Industries Company (GPIC) Mr. Adnan Al-Mahmoud, and Members: Assistant Undersecretary for Financial Affairs at the Ministry of Finance Mr. Ahmad Al-Faraj, Assistant Undersecretary for Training and Planning at the Ministry of Health Dr. Hala Al-Mehzaa, in addition to the Director General of BIPA Dr. Raed bin Shams – that a parallel forum will be held with MENAPAR to discuss the research agenda, where a board of directors will be elected, in addition to the financial plan, the proposed by-laws and the development of the program of activities for the years 2014/2015.
Mr. Al-Zayed also mentioned in the same context, the adoption of the Kingdom of Bahrain represented by BIPA, to reviving the issuance of the scientific journal (IRAS), which is the largest scientific journals specializing in public administration under IIAS Organization, where the issuance of the Arabic version of the journal has stopped years ago, and the journal will be issued and supervised by BIPA in cooperation with some Arab countries and IIAS Organization, which helps in building the civil service on the basis of a scientific world through oriented scientific research and linked to the culture of the Arab countries, and without a doubt it is an addition to the achievements of the Institute and bring BIPA to the light at the forefront of the international and global institutions in the field of public administration, referring to the confirmation of support from the French University of Aix Marseilles – the largest French university – and its desire to contribute to the re-issuance of this journal.
Then, the Board of Directors was given a brief presentation about the developments in the ISO 9001 project, where the first phase has completed and the results were shown to the senior management, which focused on spreading the culture of quality and strengthen the mechanism for communicating with employees and activating Institute's functions in regard to consultations and research, and currently working on the completion of the second phase of the project, as meetings were held with all departments of the Institute to review and determine the services – which amounted to 90 different services – in coordination with the CSB to begin the process of documenting and writing a quality manual.
At the conclusion of the meeting, the Board discussed the results of conferences, exhibitions, bilateral visits and international cooperation agreements, which aims to deepen benefiting from the global expertise in conformity with the local needs, especially in the field of training, in return for the transfer of the renowned national experiences to improve the practices of public administration on a global scale.