By: Daily Observer

The sustainability of any national development endeavour largely depends on the efficiency of the state machinery. The more effective and efficient the state machinery is, the more the public servants submerge themselves in the service of the national interest, to ensure that state resources are maximally utilised.

The attainment of such a standardised state machinery would be hard to come by without hard work, sacrifice and commitment to national duty.

The vice president’s remarks at the swearing-in ceremony of new permanent secretaries on the need for a motivated and committed team is fundamental, as national development aspirations would be wishful thinking without greater commitment on the part of government officials and Gambians in general in working for the success and sustainability of our development process. And the sustainability of those achievements and the fulfillment of the aspirations of Gambians largely depend on the commitment, loyalty and ambitions of those at the helm of affairs and the Civil Service.

Our civil servants should therefore become more ambitious and move forward with the demands of development.

As a matter of fact, all public servants should know that the country is running against time to meet its targets, and as such they should all come on board with equal commitment, dedication and hard work to ensure that we achieve the objectives of national development.

We hope that our civil servants would rise to the challenge and realise that development is no ordinary task; it requires the active involvement of all and sundry; besides, society is a system that operates efficiently through the equal functioning of all the sectors, a lapse in one sector easily creates a dysfunction in another and this retards progress.

What should therefore be the prime objective of our public staff is to commit themselves to the standards of best practices, be result-oriented and always match words with action in the delivery of their services, in addition to ensuring that state interests precede personal interests. They should also execute their various functions with honesty diligence, and a sense of responsibility.