25 Jul 2013

President Lt Gen. Seretse Khama Ian Khama is concerned that government drivers do not handle vehicles with care and caution.

Responding to comments raised by public servants during a meeting to appreciate their concerns, he said most of the vehicles at Central Transport Organisation (CTO) offices had been damaged by road accidents. In addition, he observed that the way drivers handled government vehicles  also damaged the mechanical parts such as gear boxes. Drivers were requested to handle the vehicles as if they were their own.

Meanwhile, President Khama informed employees that maintenance and purchasing of vehicles had been decentralised to ministries. He explained that ministries would now be responsible for taking their vehicles to private garages. He said this move would reduce maintenance delays.

On other issues, President Khama told employees that the task team, which was assigned to look into their conditions of service submitted a report last week. He said the challenges faced by public servants included shortage of accommodation, overstaying in one place as well as low progression and assured them that these issues would be addressed.

Earlier on, employees complained that lack of transport and personnel were the major factors that hindered them from providing services timely and effectively. They said lack of implementation of outreach programmes was due to poor maintenance of vehicles at CTO. They said civil servants were unable to provide excellence service to the public because of shortage of staff as some offices were manned by two to three officers which compromised some of the duties and led to poor service delivery.

In addition, employees said Okavango District was vast and at times, they were unable to meet public expectations and appealed to the government to address the issue of transport as a matter of urgency. They also requested the government to re-visit the issue of RASA, which had been suspended. They indicated that RASA was an incentive as some officers were reluctant to work in remote areas.

Responding to RASA, President Khama noted that Shakawe was better than other areas as it had electricity, roads and shops. He said in areas such as New Xade, there were no roads or electricity and as such “we do not consider Shakawe as a remote area because RASA is not based on distance”.

President Khama said if they could argue about the high cost of living in Shakawe, he would understand because they were on the same salary scale as their counterparts in towns and developed villages. ENDS