22 Jun 2017

When the Minister for Presidential Affairs, Governance and Public Administration Mr Eric Molale awarded the Francistown District Administration Tender Committee (DATC) Secretary, Ms Gladys Abotseng the Minister’s

Special Award on June 2 this year, it was the cherry on top of an illustrious career.

Ms Abotseng is one of those dedicated public service employees, who serves willingly and always ready to go an extra mile to meet the exigencies of the department she serves.

She has been in the public service for 38 years now and issues of customer care and satisfaction as well as keeping up cordial working relations with other stakeholders is something she holds with high regards.

The integrity, transparency and commitment she has always given out while performing her daily activities has earned her positive recognition that most of the public service employees usually dream off.

She was the toast of the night at the glamorous awards when she was nominated as one of the top achievers and left with three commendable awards under her belt.

In addition to scooping the Minister’s Special award in recognition of her good conduct as a long service employee, she pocketed P3 500 with a trophy, instantly becoming the envy of her colleagues.

She was also given a Performance Based award and that of Excellent Service and cash prizes of P2 000 and P1 000 respectively.

Speaking to BOPA in an interview at the comfort of her office in Ntshe House, Ms Abotseng was over the moon about her achievement, saying through these awards, she now can attest to the adage that good things comes to those waiting.

She highlighted that she has always exercised necessary patience throughout her 38 years of service, adding that she always remained focused and has a strong believe in team work.

“Working with different individuals has its own challenges, however that was the least of my worries for I kept calm and encouraged the spirit of team work,” she said.

Ms Abotseng said these awards will be a motivation to keep soaring high and bringing in the desire positive results.

Relating her journey to the ministry’s awards nominations, Ms Abotseng revealed that it was by sheer and God’s grace that she made it through.

She said her award under Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Board (PPADB) 2016-2017 Performance Based and Behavioural audit was more of a gate way to these ministerial nominations.

“I got an award as the best performing DATC in the whole country under the PPADB Performance based and behavioural audit for the 2016-2017 at district level. I believed this also boosted my portfolio to be finally nominated at Ministerial level and hence the awards,” she said.

Although Ms Abotseng seems to have reached the peak of her career where she is completely fulfilled and now just sailing through an ocean of one’s pleasant events, she expressed that her career path has not been the bread and butter kind as she has not been spared from several challenges.

She started working as an assistant supplies officer at the Department of Geological Services at Lobatse in 1978 and had to serve longer before she could go for a Diploma in Supplies and Material Management at Botswana Institute of Accounting College (BIAC) in 1996.

Later on in 2013, she went back to the same institution for Higher Diploma in Supply and Material Management.

Ms Abotseng revealed that at times, she felt she did not perform up to satisfaction, especially before she acquired more relevant qualification.

However she said through the support she received from family and her husband, she kept going.

“I started work with no advance experience and with this I always found myself fearing the unknown and the office environment was a bit strange but with the necessary support, I kept my head high and strived for the best outcomes,” she said.

She also acknowledged that the appreciation from her different customers and that of her colleagues gave her much confidence.

Ms Abotseng’s career path also includes serving in different entities as the Chief Supplies Officer as well as serving in the Ministerial Tender Committee (MTC) in different ministries before she was appointed at the DATC in the District Commissioner’s Office in Francistown since 2009 to date.

She highlighted that some of her current duties entails keeping DATC records in an acceptable manner, advising committee members on PPADB procedures and other related activities.

Besides her recent awards, she has also scooped an award as the best performing employee under the then Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development in 2013.BOPA