Amid the limited capacity across the public and
private sectors of Liberia, Deputy Public Works Minister for Administration,
Joseph P. Todd is nudging graduates of the Liberia Institute of Public
Administration (LIPA) to the reality that in a competitive world such as
exists, there is no limit to the acquisition of knowledge. “You are leader and
not future leaders. Leaders should always find creative and innovative ways to
meet job demands.
“Mistakenly too, we tend to safely infer that
upon the attainment of postgraduate studies lies the cessation of Knowledge,
and what is even more absurd is the generic perspective that Knowledge ends
when we attain our PhDs. Some scholars even deem it a “terminal
degree”, the Public Works official emphasized.
Deputy Minister Todd’s statement was contained
in his address at the 2022 First Semester 1st Circle Graduation ceremony
delivered at the Ministerial Complex in Congo Town, on Tuesday, June 14, 2022.
Put succinctly, he said “LIPA is the life
wire of public bureaucracy where personnel across various sectors of
Government are groomed for national duties, realizing that capacity building
remains an overarching sine qua non to national development programs.”
The Deputy Public Works Boss indicated that
according to a 2009-Strategic Mandate of LIPA, the Public Sector is now being
seen in a much wider sense than what it was when it was established.
“There are many new state actors in the form of
local and international non-governmental organizations that are partnering with
Government in the delivery of public services.
Consequently, studies have shown that the
question of public sector capacity and effective service delivery are anchored
on simultaneous building of capacity in all of the different domains of
governance ranging from the public sector, to the private sector, civil
society to the fourth estate.
These new partners as contained in that
Strategic Mandate Framework Paper, can now be seen as part of ” wider
public sector,” he pointed out.
He praised the head of LIPA, Prof. Alexander B.
Yonly and his team “who are ably executing the vision of His Excellency Dr.
George Manneh Weah, as the Government of Liberia sets as a priority the issue
of capacity building.”
Deputy Minister Todd spoke on the theme: “Going
Beyond the Finish Line, a necessity for genuine acquisition of knowledge”.
“Graduates, what is your Finish Line? Is your
Finish Line limited to you grabbing a postgraduate certification from LIPA
today? Is your Finish Line after you obtained your Master’s Degree from a
reputable institution of higher learning, or is your finish line the conferral
of a doctoral degree? As spherical is the shape of the Earth, so is our
educational sojourn. Dedy Budiman once put it “there are three worlds
that kills learning, and they are: I already know”. Education comes with
an undying passion that seeks new discoveries, especially so in our
ever-evolving world, he maintained.
As the graduates ended their course of studies
at LIPA, according to him, be it in monitoring and evaluation, public
sector and policy management or internal audit and control, “there is no limit
to what you can acquire in this competitive world.”
The Public Works Official stated that in order
to maximize work output on the job, it behooves us as Public Bureaucrats to
effectively and efficiently march our understanding of these various
disciplines by employing these three fundamentals of knowledge in achieving
organizational goals. “A public service practitioner must be innovative at all
times in meeting the job demands,” he indicated.
