19 Jun 2014

Democracy and successful governance are built on the foundation of a competent public service, Permanent Secretary to the President, Mr Eric Molale has said.

Officially welcoming delegates to the third commemoration of the United Nations Public Service Day, Mr Molale said it was important for public service employees to celebrate the indelible imprint of service rendered to transform the lives of ordinary members of the community.

Mr Molale said the public service day should therefore be about reflecting on the public good derived from day to day activities and decisions that public officers make. He advised all to reflect on what has been done as a government to improve the public sector performance.

“We should never loose sight of the fact that the public service in any country provides the critical link between the government and the citizens of the country,” he said.

Mr Molale noted that the quality of services provided by the public officers had a bearing on the way people would perceive government, adding that the extent to which citizens would view government as being innovative is dependent upon the level to which each individual public officer exerts themselves.

He said government has over the years introduced different reforms geared towards improving public service performance, adding that these reforms have been in areas such as human resource management, public sector financial management and e- services.

“The public sector reforms on their own will not transform the public service but rather successful implementation of any change is dependent upon the day to day decisions of thousands of administrators, managers and operators,” he said.

He said improving the public service underscores the need for public officers to be innovative and be ready to drive change.

To realise this, he said, there was a need for public officers to grow in their ability to master the complexity associated with the public service. He said the main focus in managing processes within the public sector should be to institutionalise processes that better serve the customer and not the convenience of public or maintenance of the status quo.

“Our processes should assist in achieving speed of service and customer satisfaction,” he said. For his part, Directorate of Public Service Management (DPSM) director, Mr Carter Morupisi said the efficiency and effectiveness of government to discharge its responsibility is largely dependent on the calibre of the public servants in its employ.

Mr Morupisi who is also the deputy permanent secretary to the president said the conference came at the time when the public discourse was centered on issues of quality service delivery by government.

He said it was therefore vital to build a well-trained and professional public service empowered to deliver to the citizen.

Despite the numerous measures undertaken to improve the public service delivery, Mr Morupisi said recent past surveys indicated that the public impression of public service delivery was even lower than its perception on corruption.

In this context, he said he believed that there was need for the profiling of the public service image where public servants assess their role with a new pair of eyes and through a fresh lens to ensure that they rise to the challenges put before them with unsullied solutions.

“It is therefore important that we realise we should no longer be satisfied with service merely mediocre performance and leadership in the public service must demand a high standard of performance,” he said.

He advised civil servants to always challenge and stretch themselves and never be afraid of coming out with new ideas and approaches in order to continuously strive for high standards of performance. ENDS