“Putting In Place Of Local Civil Service Is Progressive”

How has the Regional Assem­ bly been functioning up till this moment when the law on the recruitment of staff is still being waited? What we are still awaiting is the law on local civil service. There is no particular law on the re­ cruitment of personnel of the Regional Assembly. The Local Civil Service has an all-englobing connotation. We are still awaiting the law but the General Code on Regional and Local Authorities has made mention of the local civil service which has to be put in place. The recruitment of per­ sonnel for the Regional Assembly which is in the same line with that of other Regional Councils is ongoing. The supervisory Mi­ nistry has given the go ahead. There was the precautionary sus­ pension because the funds were not available at that time. You know, whoever talks of recruit­ ment of human resources must also talk of availability of re­ sources. You cannot recruit people that you will not pay. So, it is ongoing but we must be very careful. It has to be done pro­ gressively. We cannot in a go, recruit all the personnel that the Regional Assembly needs when we are not sure that the funds will be available. You know that the Regional Assembly does not generate their own resources. All our resources come from the State in the form of subvention. The Regional Assembly has been existing for a couple of years now. Have the personnel in place been meeting the de­ velopment ambitions of the institution? The personnel have been trying in their own little way but we are lucky that the law on De­ centralization permits us to work in collaboration with technical personnel of deconcentrated ser­ vices of the State like the engi­ neers, the Delegate of Public Works, Mines etc have been put at our disposal for any technical challenges. So, we have been working hand in gloves with them since we started. Will the putting in place of lo­ cal civil service solve any pro­ blem? It certainly will solve problems. The first problem it will solve is that it will in no small way curb the problem of unemployment of our youth. You know that is one of the major social challenges that we have today. It will on a global note, help to solve that problem. Secondly, it will enable the Regional Assembly to have its own autonomous and qualified staff to enable us meet up with the challenges of our mission. Talking about qualified staff, what kind of profiles do you need most? We need engineers. People think that the Regional Assembly have been created for every body who have studied History, Political Science etc...