SEJANI CRACKS WHIP

By Jessica Mwansa

THE Local Government Service Commission will not tolerate incompetent Principal Officers derailing progress in Government’s quest to take development to all parts of the country, Local Government Service Commission chairperson Ackson Sejani has warned.

Speaking to The Scoop, Mr. Sejani said decentralisation was one of the tools used to roll out development to all parts of the country but noted that there were some staff who were in the habit of frustrating the smooth running of the Government programmes.

He said the Government was serious about the activities happening at local level as evidenced by the disbursement of the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) to all 116 local authorities.

He said there were a number of crucial steps taken that had demonstrated that the New Dawn Government meant business in actualising its decentralization policy and that it had identified CDF as the main tool to deliver services to the people and that those who were in the habit of derailing progress will be dealt with.

“We have made heavy investment in the two years of office financially, emotionally, and physically and because of that, no factor will be allowed to stand in the way of progress whether that factor is human, administrative, legal or institutional; no factor will be allowed to frustrate progress made.

“There is also a need to change the way we assess the performance of the members of staff because the annual performance review is not working as it takes too long,” Mr. Sejani said.

He said in the Local Commission, works and projects had continued to slow down and had given principal officers a period of six months to complete their projects and bursaries disbursed to the intended people.

He said the move was meant to address the challenges in the implementation of CDF projects across the country adding that the Commission had come up with a document that will assess the performance of public servants and poor supervision that states offenses and their punishments to be given to culprits. 

“The Commission has come up with new methods of assessing the performance of its staff members which has resulted in changes on the utilization of the Constituency Development Fund among other things,” he said.

He said the New Dawn Government was serious about decentralization and that there were a number of milestones that show that decentralization was a game-changer.  

“There is a new focus of attention and things have picked up speed since the change of Government in 2021. We have created human resource committees in all 116 local authorities that have taken over responsibilities that the Commission had in terms of recruitment of personnel.

“We strongly believe that if meaningful development is going to occur in our communities, we must give power to the people. If jobs are going to be created within our communities, power must be handed to the people because that is the essence of decentralization,” he said.