Northern Province PS to ring reshuffles

Tue, 18 Apr 2017 06:18:01 +0000

By CHINTU MALAMBO

THE civil service in the Northern Province should undergo reshuffles to move people who have been occupying the same positions for a long time to enhance quality service delivery, Provincial permanent secretary Jobbicks Kalumba has said.

Dr. Kalumba said no civil servant in the area should refuse to be moved from one place to the other because their duty was to provide service to the people regardless of where they were going to work from.

He said that workers’ performances could only be improved if they were given an opportunity to take on new challenges in different departments, away from what they were used to doing in positions where they had been for a long time.

He said reshuffles were going to start from the provincial administration where people thought they occupied permanent positions, noting that when people stayed too long in one position, they became adamant.

He said that reshuffling of officers was going to bring efficiency unlike the current situation where some officers had served in the same positions for over 20 years.

“A worker must be given new challenges for them to be effective. Some of these officers have served in the same position for over 20 years.

“I will start from where we are (provincial administration). Officers have overstayed and they think that these are their permanent positions because when people stay too long, they become adamant,” Dr. Kalumba said.

He said that some of the postings which would be instigated by the upcoming reshuffles could be a blessing in disguises because there were a lot of opportunities for civil servants especially for those that worked in rural areas to access government sponsorship for further studies.

“There are a lot of opportunities for civil servants; talk of advancing one’s education. It is easier to study further when one is working in a rural area,” he said.

He has since urged district commissioners in the province to reshuffle officers who had served in the same position for many years, saying transfers for officers who had served for a long time in a single government department were inevitable.