27 Jun 2013

Public officers in the North West region have been urged to be a disciplined workforce and strive for excellence in service delivery.

Assistant Minister for Presidential Affairs and Public Administration, Dr Gloria Somolekae said this during a meeting with public officers on June 27. She encouraged them to be time conscious and adhere to work ethics, adding that experts who were engaged by government to look into customer care had indicated that there was still poor work ethics in the civil service. 

Dr  Somolekae said cabinet was concerned about complaints from the public regarding poor service delivery. She appealed to heads of departments and supervisors to lead by example to deliver timely and effectively.

The assistant minister urged officers to familiarise themselves with government policies and programmes so that they could be in a position to explain them to the public. “Lack of knowledge on government programmes is a concern and I urged you as front line officers to have full information to ensure proper implementation of the programmes”, she said.

She appealed to civil servants to change their attitudes and serve customers with Botho, adding that they should be watchdogs of public ethics. Dr Somolekae said there was a need to promote a new focus and emphasis on performance and results with a singular aim of quality service delivery and satisfaction of the public they serve.

She appreciated some of the challenges that hindered public servants to deliver to their best but encouraged them to do more with the little resources they had. The assistant minister also revealed that corruption was becoming a cause of concern in the country and the civil servants were not sparred hence the need to come together and fight it.

She advised public officers to watch their backs and refrain from corrupt practices to avoid disciplinary actions. On public officers’ welfare, Dr Somolekae said government was aware about such issues and efforts were being made to address them since they impacted negatively on service delivery.

She reminded them that government would continue to have public servants' interest at heart and greatly valued their contributions. For their part, employees complained about unfair working conditions such as lack of training, no progression, lack of accommodation and overstaying in one place and lack of transparency in transfers.

Mr Semagamaga Morula explained that he worked for over 20 years without progression as he was told that he had no qualifications. He also complained that they were denied acting allowance.

Responding to such concerns, Dr Somolekae indicated that issues of training and manpower were backbone of the government and yet they absorbed huge sums of money.

She said at the moment, government had suspended some of its projects due to economic recession, noting that since 2008, the revenues had gone down by 40 per cent and the country had to borrow funds from other countries and take some from the reserve fund.

Dr Somolekae called for patience from employees especially that government was experiencing financial difficulties. ENDS