16 Aug
THE Union Minister for the Office of the Union Government, U Min Thu, met with staff of the Mandalay Region General Administration Department at the regional cabinet’s meeting hall yesterday.
Firstly, the Deputy Director-General of the Mandalay Region GAD, U Myint Lwin, explained about their processes and performances. The Union Minister then delivered a speech.
GAD’s history
The Union Minister said Myanmar had passed through six forms of government administrations since achieving independence yet the main mechanism behind them had always been the GAD. He said the incumbent government has formulated the Myanmar Sustainable Development Plan (MSDP) to establish a Democratic Federal Republic.
The MSDP had three pillars and the first goal of Pillar I was peace, national reconciliation, security and good governance, said the Union Minister. He said the GAD was transferred to the Ministry of Office of the Union Government in December last year to achieve that purpose.
Three aims of GAD
He said the GAD has designated three prioritized aims in a workshop aiming towards decentralization, emergence of a good public-centred administrative system, and development of skilled human resources.
The first aim was to make any necessary amendments to existing laws, bylaws, rules, regulations and directives in order to be relevant to present times, said the Union Minister, adding that they would form the Regulatory Review Unit in the first step towards that aim.
He said the second aim was to reform the administrative system and they have already formed the Managerial Reform Unit for that purpose. He said it would draft and publish administrative manuals from the village-level to the district-level.
The third aim, said the Union Minister, was implementing people-centred regional development projects. He said the first step towards that has been taken in the form of the One State-One Township Project, which was linked with the MSDP.
The Union Minister said they were arranging a second workshop in late August to follow up on implementing the three aforementioned aims. He said the second workshop would focus on reducing restrictions to pave the way for reforms, emergence of a transparent administrative system and service system, and drawing up longterm and short-term projects for effective regional development projects.
Vision of the GAD
The GAD had set its vision statement as ‘Building a good administrative mechanism centred on the people’ said the Union Minister. He said the GAD was the main department that could instil coexistence and harmony among society, as well as preventing conflicts early on.
The Union Minister said GAD staff need to be skilled to the highest calibre as they have been tasked with not only administrating public affairs, but also liaising between the different government departments. He said this was why they were putting the project to upgrade the Institute of Development Administration as a top priority.
He said they were planning to form a committee to oversee the capacity building of the institute and also have plans to send staff members on training courses abroad. He said their first plan in that regard was to send a hundred gazetted government employees on two-week or threeweek training courses to Japan in five batches.
Proposed plans for next three months
The Union Minister said his ministry had already approved the four work programmes for their third three-month period. The first programme was for the GAD to compile a comprehensive electoral roll to ensure all eligible voters could cast their ballot in the 2020 General Elections.
The second programme was to complete the cases accepted by the Committee for Scrutinizing Confiscated Farmlands and Other Lands in the allotted time period. The third programme was to improve the quality of OSS offices, reduce unnecessary procedures and implement a mobile OSS service. The fourth programme was to provide basic training for ward/ village level clerks and to produce and distribute a similar level staff manual.
The Union Minister urged GAD staff to participate in the reforms and perform their duties with enthusiasm and honesty while putting the interest of the people first. He then cordially greeted the GAD staff in attendance.—MNA (Translated by Zaw Htet Oo)
