Starting from Scratch in Recruitment and Training: Solomon Islands, 2004-2009

Abstract

This case study describes efforts to rebuild the Solomon Islands Public Service beginning in 2004. When the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI) intervened at the request of the Solomon Islands Parliament and ended the country's civil conflict in 2003, the Solomon Islands public service suffered from a critical shortage of trained personnel, insufficient pay tied to a complex and unequal housing-benefit policy, and slow and ineffective processes for centralized recruitment, promotion, and performance appraisal. A small group of officials in the Solomon Islands government and RAMSI decided to tackle these problems with (1) targeted training efforts in offices with good leadership but virtually no staff, (2) a dedicated program to reform the public service housing benefit, and (3) a Public Service Improvement Program to overhaul human-resources procedures.  Training efforts were particularly successful in the Office of the Auditor General and the Parliament Secretariat, agencies in which capable Solomon Islander leaders requested and directed RAMSI on-the-job training. The Housing Management Project had quick initial success locating and counting government houses but stalled in efforts to evict squatters and change policies that provided privileged public servants with expensive housing. The Public Service Improvement Program, finally, was delayed for two years by a failed RAMSI procurement process, and, at the time of this study, in late 2009, had completed only initial assessment work.

David Hausman drafted this case study on the basis of interviews conducted in Honiara, Soloman Islands, in September 2009. 

Associated Interview(s):  Lisa Cleary, Peter Kenilorea

Keywords
training
technical assistance
recruitment
promotion
patronage
downsizing
civil service
Focus Area(s)
Civil Service
Critical Tasks
Civil service recruitment
Evaluating performance
Performance management system
Promotion
Salary structure reform
Country of Reform
Solomon Islands
Type
Case Studies
Author
David Hausman