By GIDEON NYENDWA
APPOINMENT of permanent secretaries should not be done by the Presidency but strategically constituted committees in ministries to allow for highly qualified individuals to be appointed, People’s Alliance for Change (PAC) President, Andford Banda has said.
Mr. Banda said Permanent Secretaries were technocrats and positions need to be taken up by people who were qualified, not just mere acquaintances of the party in power.
He said if there were to be committees in the ministries that would be responsible for the appointments of permanent secretaries, there would be no need to be waiting for the President to be make appointments.
Mr. Banda said continuity was very important even if there was change of government because some projects that the government embarked on ended up dying after the person who was spearheading them was fired when the adminstration changed.
He said the minister was enough to foster political will in the ministry and the rest of the positions should be left to professionals.
“In that way, we can bring back sanity,” he said.
Mr. Banda said that if the appointments could be done by committees in the ministries it would save the president from being overwhelmed with appointments to make whenever there was change of government. And Mr Banda has also said the government should expedite the process of appointing permanent secretaries now that they have done their budget so that business transactions in the ministries can continue.
President Hakainde Hichilema on September 18th 2021 terminated the service of government officials at permanent Secretary and senior Government level.
