EEPP   Program Support Unit 

Functions and Team Building for the PFTC Department, EEAA 

Meeting on the Meeting with H.E. the Minister 

After lunch, the PFTC met to discuss the key results from the meeting with H.E., Minister 

Mahmoud Riad Tadrous.  Attachment  11. Key Items in the Meeting with the Minister, lists 

the points that were made.   Participants felt that the Minister had given the PFTC recognition 

and had supported the internal effort to define and reallocate responsibilities, including 

making explicit the work of executive support.  Participants also felt that they will be under 

pressure from the Minister to sacrifice and to perform on the job.   

Organization and Performance of PFTC 

An open discussion followed concerning ways to better manage the work of the department 

and the specialized units. Staff confessed that they were often working wrong, taking much 

time to acquire or to find information.  Moreover, the four new PFTC staff would need time 

to learn their jobs.  Old staff placed into new specializations too, would need time to learn 

and to perform.  For the short run, productivity might drop.  Meanwhile, the Minister expects 

a quick response from PFTC. 

One way to summarize the deliberations of the afternoon is to list norms of behavior that staff 

expressed.  Attachment 12., Norms of Behavior for PFTC gives the model behaviors that the 

department would like to see more of in their relations with other departments as well as 

among themselves.  Below is a sample of norms with comments: 

a.) 

 We do research in order to launch strategic direction for the Agency or for a 

technical department.  Other departments then take the lead in project planning 

and implementation.   Examples would be the trade and development theme 

(Tunisia protocol) and ISO 14001 for export promotion. 

b.) 

 We are careful to distinguish the outputs we produce (our full responsibility) in 

contrast with an output produced by another department.  

PFTC produces planning guidelines and questionnaires, sets up a planning process 

and may compile a final document for the CEO from input from the departments.  

Line departments, in contrast, are responsible for making their program planning 

decisions and packaging them into a plan of action.  In other words  we 

coordinate, contract the use of consultants, give support, but we do not step in to 

do program planning or to write the plans of other departments.  

c.) 

 We maintain quality standards by working in teams and offering critique among 

ourselves.  We write quality standards into guidelines, TORs and contracts.   

PFTC uses these management tools to hire others and to monitor and follow up 

the quality of their work. 

Day One ended on the note that the department focus attention on Day Two on the 

outputs and deliverables it produces each year. The details of these tasks would be the 

basis for defining the organization of PFTC as well as formulating and agreeing upon the 

departmental annual work plan. 

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INTERNATIONAL RESOURCES GROUP