01 Mar 2015

President Lt Gen Seretse Khama Ian Khama says government departments should come up with rational strategies if they are to effectively address the shortage of transport bedeviling them.

Responding to concerns raised by the chairperson of the Lentsweletau Village Extension Team, Mr Mokhandla during a public offers’ meeting on February 26, the president said government was concerned about the high shortage of official vehicles saying the problem could be stemming from lack of proper allocation of vehicles.

He promised that the government was doing all in its power to address work-related issues, adding that the government came up with the initiative of one vehicle per a village but budgetary constraints that started in 2008 affected its implementation.

Lt Gen. Khama however, announced that P442 million had been set aside for the purchase of 1027 vehicles to improve the backlog.  However, he said government was highly concerned by the lack of proper care of vehicles allocated to respective departments.

On the issue of teachers not taking sporting activities anymore, the president stated that teachers should be left to work their normal eight hours per day to enable government to engage more individuals for extracurricular activities as some made indirect salary increase which were not budgeted for through overtime.

He also advised the education ministry to ensure that ramps were constructed in Lentsweletau Primary Schools when responding to a call by teachers that the three schools were operating without such. 

The president further told the meeting about government’s decision to ensure that promotions would be based more on performance and experience as opposed to the current norm where best performers were disadvantaged by qualifications.

The president also bemoaned the high number of public officers saying they represented six percent of the country’s population and took 30 percent of the total budget; thus impacting negatively on the national budget plan.

He added that no new jobs would be created as the government was working towards rightsizing the public service.

Another area of concern as the president highlighted was the inadequate water supply that the nation was faced with resulting from inadequate rainfall that the country was currently experiencing. 

He therefore called for Batswana to intensify their prayers for rain and adhere to water restrictions set by the service provider. 

The president said the situation had prompted the government to go into negotiations with the South African government to allow sourcing water from Lesotho as the country’s water sources had gone down.

The water situation has also led to a decision to make Kasane an alternative water source although it will require huge sums of money, he said. 

Meanwhile, the Director of Public Service Management (DPSM), Ms Ruth Maphorisa stated that the government was busy addressing the problem of shortage of office space through the introduction of open halls across government.

Ms Maphorisa also briefed public officers about the SHHA programme saying it had now been extended to officers on D4 scale, and that the arrangement could not be implemented mid last year as there were no funds allocated to it.

She thus urged those who qualified to make full use of the programme and advised managers to ensure communicating the new policy of two days travelling for every five or more leave days taken by an officer.

She also stated that individuals should be made aware that they qualified only once a year and that the two days was not supposed to be carried forward.

The Kweneng regional education officer Ms Grace Motshabi-Rammekwa admitted knowing about teachers’ concern that promotions were concentrated in the Kweneng West while other areas were left out.

She said the decision was informed by the unfair conduct of certain teachers who accepted transfers to Kweneng West only to later advance ill health as reasons to reverse their transfers. 

She said teacher promotions were biased towards Kweneng West as a means to motivate those who showed devotion and commitment towards working in the areas others consider remote. ENDS