SAUDI ARABIA
The Saudi Arabian Ministry of Civil Service has announced a major restructuring plan consisting of eight new programs with a combined budget of SAR2.7 million (A$930,000) aimed at improving productivity in the public sector.
Minister of Civil Service, Sulaiman Al-Hamdan said the most important obstacle to raising productivity was the failure to link salaries, benefits and compensation with job performance and evaluation.
“The Ministry’s current payment mechanism is not compatible with the goals of our Vision 2030 and the National Transition Program 2020,” Mr Al-Hamdan said.
He said both reform initiatives called for modernising the salary system.
“There must be continuous efforts to develop the public services to enable the Government Agencies to attract competent cadres capable of accomplishing their priorities and initiatives,” Mr Al-Hamdan said.
The objectives of Vision 2030 include the re-examination and updating of Public Service regulations as well as a project for training the staff and heads of the human resources sections of the Ministries and other Government bodies.
“Some of the work in the Ministry will be automated in order to serve the people better,” Mr Al-Hamdan said.
“The situation should not remain as it used to be because the rapid changes in the current stage of the Kingdom’s development requires us to lead the transformation process.”
In a separate development, Deputy Director General of Civil Defence for Safety Affairs, Abdul Rahman Al Hussaini announced that women would be allowed to join the country’s Civil Defence Force for the first time.
He said this was in keeping with the Vision 2030 objectives.
This follows a call from a member of the consultative Shura Council to make training for Saudi men and women mandatory so that all Saudis could defend their country.
Vision 2030 also seeks to elevate the percentage of women in the workforce from 22 per cent to nearly one-third.
Riyadh, 19 March 2018
