Public sector streamlining team readies report on Tourism Ministry

AMMAN – The Ministry of Public Sector Development (MPSD) is working on a project to analyse whether human resources at ministries and government departments match the type of duties and responsibilities of their entities. 

The project started with the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities after a group of experts from MPSD, Civil Service Bureau and the General Budget Department studied the organisational structure of the ministry and the qualifications of its cadres to assess the relevance of such skills and experiences to the ministry’s mission.  

Minister of Public Sector Development Khleef Al Khawaldeh said in exclusive remarks to The Jordan Times that a report on the status of the human resources at the Tourism Ministry, which included recommendations, was referred to the prime minister. 

The team analysed the duties of the ministry and whether its human resources have the skills and knowledge to carry out these responsibilities, Khawaldeh said, adding that the experts then identified the actual needs of personnel. 

In addition to overstaffing in certain departments at the Tourism Ministry, the official noted, the report showed that the academic qualifications of some employees at the ministry are irrelevant to the jobs these employees are doing. 

The ministry only needs specialised persons in the field of tourism and cadres with the capability to develop the work of the agency. 

The report included a number of recommendations on how to improve the performance of the ministry through enhancing the capabilities of its staff. 

The report recommended that extra employees be distributed to other government departments where they are more needed. 

Khawaldeh said the team also evaluated the level of services offered by the Tourism Ministry, adding the ministry lacks a desk for customer service that could reduce the workload of sections that deal directly with the public. 

The report also highlighted the importance of cutting the time needed through applying electronic services, which are still not available despite the fact that the infrastructure is in place. 

The project to match human resources with duties of government departments is part of an executive plan to develop the performance of the public sector for 2014-2016, which the minister said aims at reshaping the government sector to become more qualified and efficient.