04 Oct 2016

Permanent Secretary to the President, Mr Carter Morupisi has called for smooth and seamless transition to ensure continuous quality service delivery, following the recent re-organisation and re-designation of government portfolio ministries.
Briefing accounting officers in Gaborone yesterday, he said a committee comprising permanent secretaries has been appointed to give direction to the ministries and departments on the new roles for newly established senior office bearers as well as issues of finances.
Mr Morupisi said the directors of departments would be taking care of staff re-deployments for proper placement, striking the balance between remaining teams and those that would be taking over new roles as well as avoiding duplication of roles.
“I want you to manage the transition, and I will give you a maximum of three weeks to tidy up what you have been doing and ensure that you arrange meetings for your take over, for smooth transition.
I also want you to be able to manage staff, cascade information so that we do not disrupt service to citizens,” he said.
He said staff would not be increased, while directors and human resource teams would rationalise staff across ministries.
Mr Morupisi further said ministries would accommodate each other, while proper office partitioning would be undertaken to create space. Office outsourcing would be avoided to minimise expenses.
He said ministries should be ready to share the available resources, be it human resource, office accommodation or transport.
Mr Morupisi said the appointed sub-committee would look into issues of housing and vehicles. The office of the Attorney General would oversee if there are any gaps or inadequacies in the process of transition.
He said ministerial tender committees would also be aligned to their new ministries and in the next financial year, all processes should be aligned to the new dispensation.
On other issues, Mr Morupisi said the change in ministry names was meant to emphasise government agenda.
For example, for the Ministry of Presidential Affairs, Governance and Public Administration, the emphasis was on proper governance.
Regarding the Ministry of Agricultural Development and Food Security, name change was meant for promotion of food security and to encourage citizens to increase food production locally, reduce food import bill and create sustainable long term productive employment in the sector.
It would also diversify the agricultural sector through high – value added manufacturing of local foods as well as building a culture of consuming local foods, as a first choice.  
Director of the Directorate of Public Service Management, Ms Ruth Maphorisa called on accounting officers to manage the transformation.  
She emphasised resource rationalisation, sharing and balancing of staff to augment each other skills as well as putting the budget intact. ENDS