The new Senior Management Team (SMT) at the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MoCI), led by Minister Amin Modad has held its first general staff meeting with the employees, with issues of team work, performance and respect for institutional polices, etc., dominating the  discussions.

Speaking at the well-attended meeting at the Ministry’s conference room, Friday, March 29, 2024, Commerce and Industry Minister, Amin Modad, set the stage for cordial deliberations by admonishing the employees to freely express their concerns without fear, but with respect to the rights of others.
He said the SMT, under his watch is determined to make the Ministry the best in Liberia by the time they leave office.  

Minister Modad however observed that realizing such dream requires a lot of things being put in place. He named them as improving the livelihood of Liberians through a conducive business sector in which they are active participants, reducing the cost and time of doing business through digitization and creation of an enabling business environment.

The Commerce and Industry Minister also spoke about other issues concerning the wellbeing of employees.  Among  them are  medical  and life insurance policy, capacity building opportunities, under which he committed himself to personally providing about  twenty scholarships(18 undergraduate and 2 at the graduate level) at the University of Liberia.
Minister Modad said the scholarship will be based on work-related performance and the required GPA for those who will benefit. 

He said the initiative is intended to encourage employees of the Ministry to build   their capacities on the job in order to step up their performance.
 Speaking further, Minister Modad observed that ongoing evaluation by the MoCI new Senior Management Team (SMT) has revealed that out of the Ministry’s workforce of 388 personnel, only five hold Masters, 108 BSC, 253 high school graduates while 11 are without any papers.

He described the huge number of high school graduates dominating the Ministry’s entire workforce, including others without any papers as a concern to the current SMT.

Touching on other issues, he vowed that anyone caught in corrupt practices will be dismissed.
Meanwhile buttressing Minister Modad’s comments, Deputy Commerce Minister for Administration, Scholastica Tanneh Nyenkan-Nimely assured the employees that the current SMT has no plans to witch hunt anybody.

Instead, Madam Nyenkan-Nimely added that they would promote a conducive working environment free of intimidation.  She said as part of ongoing strides to improve the Ministry’s overall output,  the Procurement, Internal Audit, ASSD,etc would be strengthened, the ground floor refurbished and a biometric system, linked to the HR Division set up,etc.

She said the new SMT also looks forward to getting the best out of the employees, in terms of performance and hailed them for also commenting on issues of concerns during the meeting.
During the meeting, the employees commended the new Senior Management Team at the Ministry for its expressed commitment to building their capacitates, promotion of the merit sysyem.etc.