Ntsebeng Motsoeli
PRIME Minister Thomas Thabane says incompetent civil servants would be fired, while high-performers are going to be rewarded for their commitment.
Dr Thabane was speaking at the launch of performance-based contracts for principal secretaries on Tuesday this week in Maseru.
The premier said the purpose of the performance-contracting was to have a clear database which would help evaluate the performance of individuals and government departments.
“We hope that the initiative will help improve service-delivery in our various ministries. It is important that good performance is rewarded and non-performance sanctioned,” Dr Thabane said.
“Reward for good work is more work and for less work is a handshake and parting of ways,” he said.
Civil servants, he added, should remember that it was the people who entrusted them to deliver the country from being one of the least-developed nations.
“After the 2012 general election, government made an undertaking to improve the civil service. Now is the time to fulfil that promise,” Dr Thabane said.
Speaking at the same occasion, the Minister of Public Service, Motloheloa Phooko, said experts from Botswana and Kenya were invited to facilitate at workshops held this week for the principal secretaries and their deputies, on how they could improve their performances.
“The facilitators shared their experiences and helped the principal secretaries and their deputies understand what performance-management was all about. We are grateful for the present government for giving us the go-ahead to implement the performance-management system,” Dr Phooko said.
The minister further said strategic plans had been developed in retreat meetings, which would be used as tools to implement government’s development agenda.
“Strategic plans are effective in tracking individual and department performances. They serve as a roadmap for the implementation of programmes, help achieve results and assist us work towards a common goal,” he said.
Dr Phooko further said ministers signed performance-management contracts in November 2013.
In her address, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Resident Coordinator, Karla Hershey, said the initiative would make civil servants accountable for the service they deliver to the public.
Ms Hershey further said the “depoliticisation” of the civil service would make the initiative an even better success.
