THE PETROLEUM FUND CONCLUDES ITS SKILLS AUDIT EXERCISE AND RESTRUCTURES

Given the indispensable role that the Fund plays in the petroleum industry, the Fund found it imperative that its employees, systems, and procedures were up to date in order to keep abreast with the emerging and evolving industry challenges, as well as to have the capacity to implement its newly approved Strategic Plan 2020-2025.  Consequently, the Fund found it necessary to develop and empower its employees through the enhancement of the organisational structure, skills gap analysis, capacity building, and effective performance management system. Pursuant to this, the Fund decided to engage a Skills Audit Consultant to undertake the following; review of the organisational structure and performance management system, undertake skills gap analysis and make necessary recommendations.

THE OUTCOMES

Organisational Structure Review

The Organisational Structure Review stage outcome was the identification of the deficiency in the structure of the Fund, both at the strategic and operational levels. The following enhancements have been identified to improve the structure of the Fund in order for the latter to effectively deliver on its mandate, as well as on the new Strategic Plan:

At the Executive level,  there is a need to establish a position on the organisational structure to fulfil the role of the Director at the strategic level.  The need for this position emanated from the fact that at the top of the organisation, there is a limited capacity to support the Executive Secretary (ES) with regard to the programme decision and balanced scorecard for the strategy since departmental managers are usually entrusted with the functional duties and operational activities as the Fund has a limited number of professional support staff.

At the Professional level, there shall be established a number of critical positions to fortify the implementation of the Strategic Plan. The key areas that have been identified, for which a need has been established to create positions are the following: Information and Communication Technology (ICT); Public Relations; Risk and Compliance; Project Management; and Procurement.

The Fund further considered the issues of financial sustainability and affordability and was mindful not to deviate substantially from the Consultant’ recommendations, while taking into account the relevance of the skills and experience set of the current staff, to the new Strategic Plan.  In this regard, a number of existing positions were redesigned, and assigned with new job profiles. In other cases, positions were abolished and incumbents have been redeployed and assigned new responsibilities.

Performance Management System and Talent Management

The Fund has adopted the consultant’s recommendations regarding the review of the current Performance Management System and the Talent Management. Consequently, the Fund undertakes to review the current Performance Management System during this Financial Year to ensure that the objectives in both the Corporate Plan and Performance Contracts are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound (SMART). The wisdom of setting SMART objectives mean that the Fund will be in a position to clearly define its goals, focus its efforts, utilize time and other resources productively, and optimize its chances of achieving its mandate.

Furthermore, a need has been established to enhance the capacity of staff through the development of soft skills. In this regard, Executive Management Development Programmes shall be identified for senior management to capacitate them in leadership responsibilities. With regard to other staff members, relevant training programmes will also be identified, to not only capacitate them but to also facilitate succession planning including ensuring that their roles have a direct positive impact on the strategic objectives of the Fund.  As for talent exchange and learning opportunities, Management will identify professional bodies and collaborative partners to which staff members of the Fund can be affiliated and attached, for exposure purposes.

CONCLUSION

Given the increasing dynamics of the sector within which the Petroleum Fund operates, it remains important for its authorities to remain vigilant by ensuring that at all times, the organization is endowed with adequate resources, and in particular, its human resource. The Fund should, and will continue to build sustainable and flexible capacity to respond to its external environment, as well as ensuring that it becomes the institution of the future.