Performance contracts in civil service to up service delivery – Hamududu

LINDA SOKO TEMBO writes

GOVERNMENT’s intension to start employing civil servants on performance based contracts was welcome because it would help improve service delivery in the public service, Party for National Unity (PNU) president, Highvie Hamududu, has said.
Mr Hamududu said the performance system was a welcome move as it would help improve the overall efficiency of the public service.
In an interview with the Sun, Mr Hamududu said Government was spending a lot of money through many agencies but they were no results to show for it or on how the people were performing.
He said that most government worker would up their performance if their jobs were tied to some form of performance assessment system.
“The performance system must not only involve government workers but every Zambian must have a performance system kind of arrangement so that whatever we do must be linked to results. Development is collective and everybody must produce results,” he said.
Mr Hamududu added, “Every Zambian, especially those in employment must be working with a clear performance threshold. The councils are not providing proper services because someone is not doing their job. People want to get value for the taxes they pay.”
He observed that all government departments needed to produce results because that was what the people wanted.
“The budget keeps going up every year without there being corresponding results,” he said.
Mr Hamududu advised Zambians to demand for a performance system for government workers so that they could get value for their money and that government works who do not produce results should be relieved of their duties.
“If you put in so much money in agriculture, you need to see results. Just like we need to see results if we invest money in various projects. Take tourism for instance, we need to see an increase in the number of tourists coming to Zambia if we are talking about results,” he said.
Mr Hamududu said, “Government cannot be putting money in a bottomless pit where we do not see results. If we Zambians don’t demand results at every level, we will never see and development.”
He urged government to come up with a workable performance-based contract system for its employees.