Maravi

Selfish officers denting image of public service, says Dr Kanganja

Selfish officers denting image of public service, says Dr Kanganja
By Masuzyo Chakwe
Tue 13 Apr. 2010, 03:10 CAT

SECRETARY to the Cabinet Dr Joshua Kanganja has said the presence of some officers whose preoccupation is personal gain at whatever cost at the expense of service delivery is the challenge in the public service today.

During the graduation dinner for University of Zambia (UNZA) students of political and administration studies last Friday, Dr Kanganja said it was common knowledge that some of these officers had been involved in dishonest and fraudulent conduct.

“Regrettably, their malpractices have seriously dented the image of the public service,” he said.

Dr Kanganja said inadequate resources for operations and improving salaries and conditions of service to competitive levels both at national and regional levels were among the challenges in the public service.

He said a number of measures aimed at making the public service more efficient, effective and accountable had been put in place which included the code of ethics, the anti corruption policy, activity based budgeting, integrated financial management information system, service delivery charters, performance based systems and decentralization of functions to points of service delivery.

Dr Kanganja said being mindful of the size of the economy, job opportunities had remained limited despite the many efforts that the government and the private sector were making to create employment.

He encouraged the students to move away from the mentality of always seeking employment in the formal sector to that of creating employment in the country.

Dr Kanganja said the country looked up to the youths to make a difference by creating employment opportunities in the economy.

He implored universities and other training institutions to establish and maintain working synergies with the government and industry to enable them design and offer customer focused training programmes that were relevant to the Zambian situation.

He said as head of the public service, he was aware that it was currently a challenge for many college and university graduates to find jobs in the public service and the private sector.

“This is partly attributed to the fact that some programmes being offered by our colleges and universities are not adequately aligned to the needs and expectations of the public service and the private sector. Regrettably, this mismatch appears to be growing with the rapid increase in the number of colleges, universities and other training institutions in the country,” said Dr Kanganja.

Labels: CIVIL SERVANTS, JOSHUA KANGANJA

posted by MrK @ 2:42 PM