Maravi

UNZA don codemns NCC's stance on PSs

UNZA don codemns NCC's stance on PSs
Written by Mwila Chansa in Kitwe

IT is totally irresponsible for the National Constitutional Conference (NCC) to aspire to have politically inclined permanent secretaries, a University of Zambia lecturer has charged.

Commenting on the NCC's rejection of a clause in the Mung'omba draft constitution that calls for the appointment of career permanent secretaries, Phineas Bbaala, a lecturer in the department of political and administrative studies said it would be dangerous for the country to have a politically inclined public service.

He noted that the trend in most progressive countries was that permanent secretaries were professional people.

"It is important to make laws that will ensure the neutrality of the public service. There is a connection between the neutrality of the public service and continuity of the public service," said Bbaala.

"Continuity of the public service depends on political neutrality and if civil servants are appointed on political lines, you will find that each time there is a new party in power, top civil servants will be losing their jobs."

Bbaala observed that although it may be argued that even in advanced countries such as the United States a number of top civil servants lost jobs when there was a new government in place, this was not good for a small country like Zambia.

He said for development to be realized, permanent secretaries were required to guide politicians in ensuring that there was continuity in the implementation of development programmes.

Bbaala said failure to maintain continuity in the civil service would cause serious disruptions in implementing development programmes.

Last week, the NCC rejected a clause in the Mung'omba draft constitution that calls for the appointment of career permanent secretaries and subject them to ratification by the National Assembly.

After a heated debate, members that were against the clause argued that the President should be allowed to appoint people whom he wanted to work with.

Labels: CONSTITUTION, NCC, PERMANENT SECRETARIES, PHINEAS BBAALA

posted by MrK @ 2:55 PM