11 Feb 2014

The decision to review the Public Service Act was informed by the need to beef it up and make it more user friendly to civil servants, the director of the Directorate of Public Service Management (DPSM), Mr Carter Morupisi, said in Letlhakeng on  February 7.

When addressing civil servants, Mr Morupisi said DPSM noted with concern that benefits such as overtime were enjoyed even by civil servants in high scales, which was expensive for government. Therefore, he said, there was need to narrow such benefits to a few employees.

Mr Morupisi said the DPSM also noted that there was friction between the Public Service Act and other laws such as the Employment Act; and there was need for reconciliation. He said participation of civil servants in politics also needed more clarification in the Public Service Act.

"We thought this was clear enough in the act, but of late we have noted a number of public servants taking part in partisan politics such as the recent party primary elections, so we then found that there was a need to make the act clearer,” he said.

On other issues, Mr Morupisi said despite government facing challenges of resources, which hampered service delivery, research indicated that poor service delivery in the public service was mostly as a result of challenges that did not need money nor resources.

He said poor service delivery was found to be as a result of poor work ethics, poor responsibility as well as lack of guidance and sense of proper response to enquiries.

“Most people who come to your offices to seek assistance are ordinary people who do not know the difference between government departments, so it is up to you as civil servants to ensure that you go an extra mile to connect them with the offices they need,” he said.

Mr Morupisi said issues such as conditions of service and salary increment were still at the negotiation table. He urged supervisors to make it a habit of resolving employees’ complaints on time because failure to do so resulted in complaints flooding his office.

He said issues such as transfers needed consultation between an employee and their supervisor as sometimes refusal to be transferred was just because the issue has not been properly presented by the supervisor.

He urged the civil servants to share the little resources they had at their disposal, although he admitted that resources such as vehicles shortage were still a challenge. ENDS