Abuja — The ECOWAS Commission has launched a comprehensive staff audit in execution of the new mandate by regional leaders to the Commission to work with the best professional hands to deliver on the Organization's overarching objective of developing the region through a people-centred strategic approach.
At a maiden interactive session with staff at the Commission's Abuja headquarters on Wednesday, 14th March 2012, Vice-President Toga Mcintosh said the audit or headcount was part of the strategy by the new management team led by His Excellency President Kadre Desire Ouedraogo to engage with the staff and ensure full participation and joint ownership of corporate decisions towards achieving common goals for the good of Community citizens.
The ECOWAS Council of Ministers at its 66th and 67th Ordinary Sessions mandated the Commission to undertake the exercise as part of the programme of equipping the Commission with appropriate staff in order to improve efficiency. The Commission is also required to ensure appropriate balance between administrative, personnel and programme costs to ensure cost-effectiveness, and also put in place proper staff identification in line with new security environment, and a mechanism for the Commission's new Staff Pension Scheme.
Dr. Mcintosh assured that interactions between management and staff members would be a regular feature to ensure ownership and full participation in decision-making. In her remarks, the Commissioner for Administration and Finance, Mrs. Khadi Saccoh, assured staff that "this is a management with a human face." The Acting Director of Human Resources, Mr. Albert Boateng, later expatiated on the headcount, and what is required of staff members during the exercise scheduled to last between 15th and 26th March 2012.
President Ouedraogo took office on 1st March 2012, giving full complement to the Commission's new management team, which includes six Commissioners and the Vice-President, who assumed duties in February 2012.
They replaced the pioneer management team that launched the transition from the ECOWAS Executive Secretariat to the Commission in 2007.
