04 Mar 2019

Councils, which are the highest political authorities in local government, are critical to developmental  agenda.

Strategy management and reforms cordinator in the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Wazha Tema, said this during Tonota Sub-district excellence awards ceremony.

He said all the 16 councils were charged with the responsibility of building and developing resilient communities for attainment of sustainable livelihoods.

“This is made possible through community development, integrated waste management, infrastructure development, bye laws, local economic development, district and urban planning,” he added.

Mr Tema explained that local authorities should be initiators, coordinators and catalysts for rural development interventions.

“This is anchored on their statutory and expected role of creating vibrant, sustainable and equitable rural communities to achieve social cohesion and development through their community development functions,” said Mr Tema.

He explained that the public sector was the world’s largest provider of services and that any incremental improvement in public services positively impacted on millions of people.

He said the first step to delivering the customer promise was to know customers and their needs.

He explained that a challenge faced by many organisations was how to service its customers better.

“Traditionally, it has been seen as a passive vehicle for executing social policy mandated by legislation. Increasingly, however, accustomed to enhanced service delivery from the private sector citizens/businesses view the public sector as another provider of services for which they pay taxes,” he explained.

Mr Tema said to address this challenge, the public sector and in particular local government, must find ways of improving efficiency and effectiveness of its service delivery.

He said this meant providing value for money by improving quality of service as well as reducing costs involved in providing those services.

“Because the need for customer oriented focus coincides with tightening government budgets, providing value for money is a core concern today. This is prompting us at local government to explore sustainable models for service delivery-models that can improve customer experience and outcomes through enhanced service levels at the same or reduced costs,” he outlined.

To deliver on customer promise, he said the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development was dedicated to contribute to the building of a ‘connected government’ seamlessly aligning multiple government departments with customer journey needs.

“The customer promiser is part of the inherent agenda of governance for the public sector and sets out to the standards of service that government is required to provide to its customers,” he added.

On other issues, Mr Tema said in the endeavour to enhance organisational excellence and staff retention, government placed staff reward and recognition at the forefront and this was the reason for institutionalising rewards menu.

The area Member of Parliament, Mr Thapelo Olopeng also underscored the importance of local authorities, saying they were engines of rural development because they coordinated all government programmes and policies thereby bringing services closer to the people.  

Mr Olopeng, who is also the Minister of Tertiary Education, Research Science and Technology, said lack of implementation  worried government.

However, he said he was impressed by performance of employees in Tonota Sub-district and encouraged public servants to continue with the spirit of delivering service to the customers in a timely manner.

“Reduce the bureaucracy which is in the system without compromising the standards and the law,” he added.

However, Mr Olopeng cautioned the employees against the scourge of corruption, saying it had no benefits because it was detrimental to the future. ENDS