Maravi

Make DCs full-time civil servants, urges Father Chibuye

Make DCs full-time civil servants, urges Father Chibuye
By Ernest Chanda
Tue 04 Oct. 2011, 09:00 CAT

FATHER Patrick Chibuye has appealed to the government to revise qualifications for the position of district commissioner. In an interview, Fr Chibuye who is also Mpika Catholic diocese director of Caritas said President Michael Sata should also turn district commissioners into full-time civil servants.

"I appeal therefore to the new government to seriously scrutinise qualifications of district commissioners before they are appointed because this is a senior position equivalent to the position of deputy permanent secretary.

Let the DCs or whichever title will be for this district head of administration come from within the ranks of civil service and not what we have been subjected to whereby some DCs came through the window of political party," Fr Chibuye said.

"If this is done, there will be less abuse of public resources because there will be people and an organisation to do the checks and balances unlike the previous situation where DCs had allegiance to political party authority."

Fr Chibuye said it was important to stop district commissioners from giving allegiance to the ruling party rather than the people.

"I say this because the abuse of resources which has resurfaced after elections is as a result of political influence and inclination by the district commissioners.

If they were serious civil servants and appointed from within the civil service then the much talked about abuse of office would not have arisen because accountability would have been there," said Fr Chibuye.

"Due to lack of good system, some DCs have just realised that they have blundered by siding with the ruling political party and hence some have even moved out of their districts for safety.

This says a lot about how they conducted themselves and how guilty they are and
how they deprived development to the residents of their respective districts. In some districts, there is lack of qualification and understanding of civil service administration by district commissioners which has led to mismanagement of public resources."

And Fr Chibuye said President Sata's re-sizing of the cabinet is a positive move towards achieving development and good governance.

He said the move would help save national resources which were spent on a blotted cabinet in the past regimes.

"I say so because some ministries were irrelevant and to some extent they were formed to meet the needs of the few people instead of all Zambians. It will also help in cutting down some unnecessary expenses which actually should have been channeled to some areas where there are gaps in terms of social nets," said Fr Chibuye.

Labels: DISTRICT COMMISSIONERS, PATRICK CHIBUYE

posted by MrK @ 6:10 PM