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Appointing politicians as permanent secretaries is scandalous – Sakeni

Appointing politicians as permanent secretaries is scandalous – Sakeni
Written by Ernest Chanda and Moses Kuwema
Tuesday, January 27, 2009 5:33:37 AM

PRESIDENT Rupiah Banda's recent appointment of some politicians as permanent secretaries is scandalous, former Luapula Province minister Kennedy Sakeni has charged.

And Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia (EFZ) executive director Bishop Paul Mususu said there is need to have qualified people in the civil service for it to tick.

Reacting to the recent appointment of permanent secretaries, who include MMD deputy national treasurer Jazzman Chikwakwa as Luapula Province permanent secretary, Sakeni said the move would derail morale in the civil service.

"I have worked in the civil service before for quite some good period of time and I know that even if you start as a clerk, your hope is to be Permanent Secretary someday. Now the appointments we have just started witnessing in this government are scandalous," Sakeni said.

He said the appointments reminded Zambians of the UNIP days when some cadres were given civil service jobs.

"We are not saying the people being appointed have a bad character, no. All we are saying is that they are coming from a wrong sector of society. In this case, we are not helping civil servants in any way. Levy tried to move away from this culture but Mr Banda has taken us back to those old days," Sakeni said.

"I can tell that already there is a lot of frustration in the civil service because people do not know what to aspire for. There is a provision in the civil service where you reach a ceiling of director of something, thereafter you look up to the position of permanent secretary. So instead of blocking civil servants who are more conversant with civil service matters than we are, let us give them hope by leaving such positions to them."

Sakeni accused the MMD government of trying to stamp its authority on every department.

"As a politician, I can imagine the appointments as a strategy to hold on to positions until 2011. In any case, this will not revamp the party in the province because there are other MMD members in the province who have expressed displeasure with the appointments," Sakeni said.

And Bishop Mususu said the civil service should have its own arrangement where people graduate to be appointed into higher offices than getting people elsewhere.

He said appointing politicians into the civil service would be the same as 'cadrerism'.

"For the civil service to tick, we need qualified people who can deliver, because politicians come from a biased group, so you don't expect them to be professional in carrying out their work," he said.

Bishop Mususu said the civil service should be allowed to nurture its own people who should then graduate and take up higher positions.

"A civil servant should be able to embrace everybody, but if you have politicians working in the civil service, you will not be getting the services you need, and also this will be hindering the junior civil servants from graduating in the ranks to higher positions," he said.

Bishop Mususu called on the appointing authority not to treat the appointments of civil servants as a way of rewarding themselves but to look at the qualifications.

Bishop Mususu also said checks and balances would not be there if more politicians were appointed into the civil service.

And Women for Change (WfC) executive director Emily Sikazwe said if the government was serious about poverty reduction, it should desist from appointing politicians into the civil service.

"If we want professionalism, then we should not be appointing politicians into the civil service because doing so will result in the nation not being served professionally," she said.

Sikazwe called on all political parties to desist from interfering with the civil service's performance.

Labels: CIVIL SERVANTS, EFZ, EMILY SIKAZWE, KENNEDY SAKENI

posted by MrK @ 5:33 AM