The Kingdom of Bahrain is a step ahead of many countries in bracing the development of civil service employees to provide their citizens with economic and social benefits.

'We were established as an institution with the primary role of shaping public services through training, and learning, to contribute to the development of personnel working in state ministries and public institutions. Our aim is to raise the standard and productivity of public administration to support the economy and social development plans,” said director general, Institute of Public Administration (IPA), Dr Raed Mohammed Benshams.

'Since our establishment we have invested a lot of time in building up the infrastructure that is the basis of a smooth operating organisation. We are now evaluating and short listing applications to recruit professional and highly competent workforce to enable BIPA to achieve our mission and goals, 'he added.

To reach its goals of developing public administration and training in state ministries and institutions, IPA undertakes tasks like determining the training needs, studies and research programmes that are appropriate for various levels of public posts, including leaders, executives and specialists.

The organisation also holds workshops, seminars and meetings on public administration other than preparing studies, researching and publishing articles and information on public administration in accordance with the training and development programmes.

“Institute of Public Administration (IPA) will enable change through an emphasis on ‘civil servants’ and the ‘Systems’ in use.  We will focus on the competencies and qualities required in the civil service and in each civil servant to serve our general public with transparent, secure, efficient and convenient government services,” said Dr Benshams.

To take this developmental move further ahead, IPA has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the National School of Government, UK, and the Civil Service College, Singapore, and other public and private organisations with international repute.

This memorandum allows IPA to exchange training and development programs, knowledge, statistics or studies relevant to the institute's aims.

Since the establishment, IPA has been working towards its vision of being a partner of choice to develop civil servants for a first class public service and act as a key catalyst to improve the performance of the public sector.

To see that vision come to reality IPA has worked towards seeking assistance of national and foreign expertise in studies, research, training and development in the field of Public Administration.

IPA will also be assisting the government by undertaking research commissions from ministries and offering professional services across the civil service. The core educational and learning curriculum will be catering for new government recruits and incumbent civil servants, offering general, operational, managerial and executive themes of education.

The focus of IPA is on the development of public administration and civil servants by closely working with outstanding providers. Education specifically tailored to the needs of individual civil servants, the civil service and for the benefit of our general public. – TradeArabia News Service