Do Our PSes Have A Contract With The People?

Do Our PSes Have A Contract With The People?

By: CHRISTOF MALETSKY

TOWNSHIP shebeens as well as that hub of political chatter, Herero Mall, are abuzz with discussions around whether permanent secretaries should have contracts.

This after last week’s revelation that President Hifikepunye Pohamba was offering some PSes new contracts while others have six months left before they part company with their air-conditioned executive offices.
Such talk is healthy and as I can’t be at every shebeen, mall, club or party section meeting (I’m a political gentile!), herewith my feelings on the issue.
There are several questions around contracts for permanent secretaries – the most prominent of which is whether jobs should be reserved for political party cadres.
I am for reserving jobs for cadres (note I used the word cadres and not comrades). It happens in known democracies such as the US and UK.
I think that even some people in the opposition will agree with me on this one.
When the National Council was discussing the performance of pa-rastatals in August 2002, former Swapo councillor Erasmus ‘Kaptein’ Hendjala argued that all strategic positions in Go-vernment and parastatals must be given to Swapo cadres.
He has since joined the Rally for Democracy and Progress whose manifesto says “the practice of jobs for comrades will end” when they take over Government.
My understanding of a cadre is someone specially trained for a particular purpose or profession. That means a cadre is someone skilled in the job he or she does.
Second, such a cadre must contest against other cadres or else cadre deployment in the public service could be challenged (as happened a few years back) in the courts of law.

CULTIVATING PROFESSIONALISM

If service delivery is to reach effective and efficient levels any time soon, it is necessary to put all our accounting officers – and not just some as is the case currently – on contracts.
That will cultivate professionalism, objectivity, accountability and responsiveness to the needs of ordinary people.
We need ethical top civil servants who are not answerable to political parties, who understand cadres as their representatives in cases of tenders and for jobs for kin and comrades. They must be transparently accountable in the constitutionally prescribed way (think freedom from discrimination).
So when I heard the news about new contracts for permanent secretaries, my immediate reaction was that it could not have come a day too soon.
Put all of them on results-driven contracts as opposed to which peacock has the brightest feathers or who attends the most party rallies.
President Pohamba must instruct the Prime Minister to draw up contracts that will force the permanent secretaries to keep producing their top game!
Why should ministers and their deputies be put on five-year contracts and be sacked if they fail to deliver but the same can’t be applied to people who are actually supposed to run the ministry or agency as chief accounting officers?
In fact the Prime Minister must have the mandate to do job appraisals on the PSes at pre-arranged intervals so as to keep them on their toes and to also reward them accordingly.
If there is a lack in performance measures, we risk facing what happened in South Africa – if it has not happened already.
A year ago that country’s former Finance Minister, Trevor Manuel, told the ruling party that the practice of promoting party loyalists beyond their competence was a major reason for poor service delivery.
In what was seen as a blistering attack on the ANC’s ‘jobs-for-comrades’ approach, Manuel criticised fellow MPs of failing to perform their oversight job of ensuring that taxpayers receive value for money.
I would take it further by suggesting that the Prime Minister sets in motion benchmarking on performance contracts for not only PSes but also for heads of parastatals.
The Swapo Party Election Manifesto Implementation Guide of 1999, initiated by Pohamba when he was still Secretary General, calls for the “appointments of long standing tested and capable cadres in the strategic positions in Government and parastatals”.
I say let’s appoint ‘cadres’ with the right qualifications and with a clear mandate.
President Pohamba, you have five more years to change things around. There will not be a better time than now.

* This article first appeared in The Namibian.