THE Finance Ministry’s week-long Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) workshop for central government and public sector workers, which was held at the Police Officers Training Centre at Eve Leary, Kingston, came to an end on Friday last. 

Present at the closing were Finance Minister, Dr. Ashni Singh; Minister within the Ministry of Finance, Bishop Juan Edghill; workshop facilitator, Dr. Ray Rist and other officials, and participants of the workshop.

In brief remarks, Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh noted that the workshop represented an ongoing effort to build an effective institution to train workers who carry out services for both the Government and the public sector.
He said Government has been trying to build such an effective institution for the past 10 years, and as they go along, more workers will develop their managerial skills and will be able to do their jobs more efficiently and effectively.
Dr. Singh said the workshops would also teach workers how to manage their resources in their working environments, so as to achieve better outcomes and also to conserve on their resources at the same time.
In closing, he noted that the workshop is very beneficial to workers, and would be an ongoing programme to afford more persons opportunity to participate in the beneficial M&E workshop.
Minister Edghill, in his address, noted that this was the 13th group that the Ministry of Finance had formally put together to receive training.
He said that 600 persons have participated in this type of workshop since its inception 10 years ago.
Edghill added that several million dollars have so far been invested into this programme, and the Government is determined to give continued support towards it.
He noted that M&E provides the only consolidated source of information to agencies in order for them to achieve a progress report.
‘VERY BENEFICIAL’
In closing, Edghill stated that the 33 persons who had participated in the M&E workshop would be able to show improvement in their managerial skills.
Speaking with the Guyana Chronicle, two of the participants noted that the programme was very beneficial and that they were fortunate to have participated in such a workshop. They also urged the Government to continue investing in workshops such as this.
M&E WORKSHOP MODULES
Speaking with the Guyana Chronicle, Dr. Rist explained that the mini-International Programme for Development Evaluation Training (IPDET) five-day workshop covers eight modules, half of which make up the actual graduate programme, which lasts for two weeks.
He noted that because of the timeframe given, only the eight modules could have been covered, but the students would be added to a computerised list so that they would be able to complete their courses.
In closing, Dr. Rist said the Government can use Monitoring and Evaluation as a tool to allow agencies to increase their performances.