Clean up Civil Service

Mon, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

CONCERNS of poor work attitude exhibited by civil servants in some government institutions is premised on a number of factors and the need for Government to take necessary action to enhance quality and efficient service delivery cannot be overemphasized.

Observations made by the Youth in Action for Sustainable Development (YASD) for the need to weed out all the cobwebs that have clogged the civil service, thereby sabotaging Government’s efforts in delivering quality service to its citizenry calls for reflection and decisive action henceforth.

The stark reality is that Government is, in some instances, failing to effectively implement its programmes due to having disloyal individuals in the system whose preoccupation is playing partisan politics with utter disregard to the adverse effects of such attitudes on service delivery to Zambians.

The Local Government Service Commission (LGSC) revelations of how some local authorities were found to have employed unqualified officers in specialised positions such as town planning and building inspectors is a tip of the iceberg

This state of affairs is not only akin to Councils but also actually what is prevailing in some government ministries.

How can a local authority expect to perform effectively if an officer with a certificate in typing is engaged as a building inspector? Defi-nitely, this can only result in poor service delivery and under performance in the local authority.

In some instances, local authorities have failed to offer quality services to the people despite generating enough revenue through vari-ous levies.

On this score, we think that efforts to re-align workers to positions that best suit their career in the councils across the country by trans-ferring officers who have overstayed in some positions and recruit-ment of technically qualified staff is a step in the right direction.

We think this is not only a practical way to enhance service delivery to the nation but also a guarantee to curb corruption that has engulfed local authorities through illegal allocation of land.

It is rather shocking that some officers at Ndola City Council have stayed in one position for as long as 35 years. This then explains why local authorities are known for inefficiency and under performance in this country.

 We note that though Government has appealed to civil servants to remain professional and non-partisan, there were still some docile and stiff-necked individuals who have devoted their time and energy towards using their positions to advance the political agenda of their paymasters, hence the need to rid the system of such individuals.

Civil servants who are working against Government in its efforts to deliver national development are not different from some disgrun-tled, criminal minded individuals behind a spate of arson and eco-nomic sabotage through destruction of public property because all they want is to see an ungovernable country so as to propagate their selfish motives.

Therefore, it is vital that Government ignores disgruntled individuals politicising the process because they are architects of insubordination and sabotage through cartels they have established in the govern-ment systems.