16 Oct 2017

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry for Presidential Affairs Governance and Public Administration (PAGPA) Ms Kebonye Moepeng has called on civil servants to put more effort when rendering services to the public.

She made this call when addressing public servants from various departments that fall under the ministry on Friday.

 “Civil servants should work as a team to realise the objectives or priority areas of government,” she said.

Ms Moepeng explained that government priority areas included making job creation the number one priority, taking Batswana out of poverty, increasing education funding and eliminating mother to child transmission of HIV as well as to fight corruption in all its manifestations.

“I challenge you all to familiarise yourselves with the public service charter, ten point agenda, Vision 2036 document and National Development Plan 11 in order to do your job effectively,” she said.

She went on to explain that district commissioners’ office had been transferred to her ministry from the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development.

The permanent secretary said all departments that fell under the PAGPA such as the Department of Information Services, Broadcasting Services, Department of Government Printing, Poverty Eradication Unit report to District Commissioner’s Office in their respective area to enhance service delivery.

In this regard, she implored public servants in the different departments to work as a unit and share resources where applicable.

She also encouraged officials to go for further training to equip themselves with the necessary skills and knowledge if they had the opportunity.

Further, Ms Moepeng touched on issue of financial management calling on civil servants to avoid having zero salary payment. “Having a zero salary pay is a financial embarrassment and against the law. Those with such will be held accountable,” she said.

She noted that corruption must be uprooted and avoided at all cost.

She also explained that government was facing shortage of government fleet due to financial constraints. She called on departments to share resources such as vehicles to render services accordingly.

The permanent secretary also indicated the importance of Performance Management System explaining that every employee was responsible for being appraised.

“Performance Management System is used as a tool to gauge performance of employees, departments and ministry as a whole,” she said. Ends