THE newly sworn in cabinet has continued to prove it means business. In the latest unprecedented move some workers at the Ministry of Health, Social Welfare, Gender, the Elderly and Children found themselves locked out of their offices for reporting late for duty.
The lockout occurred at around 7.30 in the morning when the Deputy Minister, Dr Hamisi Kigwangalla, ordered the security guards to keep out all those who reported to work late until the minister endorsed the attendance registers for various departments.
The departments include Administration, Prevention Medicine, Education, Therapy, Control and Verification, Chief Medical Officer, Accounts, Policy and Planning, Nursing and Pharmacy along with Legal, Communication and Information Technology. The minister said he was keen on pursuing working discipline in terms of ensuring that the ministry’s employees are punctual at their respective departments and sections.
“All employees have the duty to be punctual at work. They should report at 7.30 am as directed by public service procedures and leave the office at 3.30pm. We cannot tolerate the odd behaviour of some employees continuing to misappropriate their employers productivity hours,” he said.“We have reported on time. The Permanent Secretary and myself as well as other leaders have arrived here on time while other employees have come late,” said the minister.
He added that they have set an example as leaders. Leaders always report for work early and leave the office late. He insisted that what was done yesterday was designed to ensure that the exercise of pushing for punctuality remains sustainable since employees are recruited to serve the people. He said such a follow-up will stop the tendency of some workers who report to work late and leave early.
Dr Kigwangalla said that employees should be ready to volunteer in their work because the nation and its economy will be enhanced by a culture of hard work. “The ministry’s leaders have set an example of being punctual,” he said.
Regarding those who were late yesterday, the deputy minister has ordered that they should explain the reason for reporting late and he should receive the explanations today, an exercise that will be supervised by the ministry’s Director of Administration and Human Resources, Mr Michael John.
Furthermore on the issue of controlling late comers, the deputy minister asked Mr John to explain in writing why his department has not taken action to adopt the biometric digital system which registers workers through finger prints or using smart cards. The practice makes it easy to determine what time an employee has come to work.
“I have reached this decision in order to curb this widespread culture of workers delaying to report on duty following complaints that the ministry was characterised by bureaucracy. But employees report at their places of work late,” he said.
In addition, Dr Kigwangalla has ordered to be given detailed information on the ministry’s employees countrywide including doctors, nurses, pharmacists in order to enable him to understand the system that is used to monitor if they are on duty or not and if they perform their duties accordingly.
Meanwhile, the Deputy Minister for Finance and Planning, Dr Ashatu Kijaji, has issued a one-week ultimatum to the Public Service Pensions Fund (PSPF) to pay their retirees.
Kijaji issued the directive yesterday in Dar es Salaam when she did a surprise tour of the offices. She said that the government had owed 177bn/- but it had already paid 154bn/-. The remaining amount of 70bn/- was issued between November and December this year. Ms Kijaji said it did not make sense to see that until December these retirees had not yet been paid.
“They continue to suffer even after the money has been remitted,” she said. “A retired person must be given priority. Instead of letting him or her make frequent visits, he or she must be paid as soon as possible.
I want this seven-day ultimatum to be implemented,” she said. PSPF Director General, Mr Adam Mayingu, said the delay in payment was due to late submissions of government employees’ contributions, adding that the fund is owed by the government contributions covering seven months.
He added that more than 444 cheques of pensioners for the period spanning April to October have already been prepared. He promised to issue the remaining cheques when the government submits the contributions.
The ministers and their deputies’ no- nonsense approach is in line with President John Magufuli who has challenged them to hit the ground running and ensure they live up to the expectation of the public.
/Daily News.
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