Africa-Press – Botswana. Assistant Minister for State President, Ms Boitumelo Gofhamodimo has emphasised the need for the ministry’s leadership to prioritise the development and finalisation of 2024/2025 annual performance plans.
Speaking at a dinner hosted for the ministry’s leadership following a three-day retreat in Francistown on Saturday, Ms Gofhamodimo said finalisation of these performance plans would ensure that the ministry was able to set and track clear, measurable objectives.
She said having a performance plan in place was crucial for ensuring accountability and effectiveness in the public service.
The assistant minister further instructed the leadership to ensure that the finalised performance plans were aligned with the minister’s agreement by May 30, 2024, a deadline that emphasised the urgency of the task.
Ms Gofhamodimo said aligning the minister’s performance agreement was crucial for ensuring that they were all working towards common goals and objectives. She said this would enable the ministry to make a significant contribution to government larger development agenda.
“Furthermore, we must all develop and sign our 2024/2025 performance agreements and ensure that our supervisees have also signed the performance development plans by the same date,” said the assistant minister.
She also said a number of areas in the Annual Performance Plans (APP) were of significant importance. Ms Gofhamodimo said the first was the newly approved pieces of legislation, which should be implemented.
“The particular piece of legislation I would like to make reference to is the Access to Information Act.
Each one of us leave this place asking what is the next of action they have to take,” said the assistant Minister.
She proposed that the ministry start engaging with the legislation with one department taking a lead to appreciate what needed to be done.
Ms Gofhamodimo said the second issue was the number of legislations which they would be working on this year that include the legislation governing the operations of BIDPA, the review of the Disaster Management Act, Red Cross, Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC), and the Public Service Act.
“Kindly review and complete that those which can go through the July sitting of Parliament can, otherwise let us aim for the November sitting of Parliament.
I therefore implore those that will be working on the Bills to expeditiously pass them through the appropriate channels and ensure they do not miss this upcoming session of Parliament,” she said.
The third, she said was what they have to prepare as part of the ministry’s input into the preparation of the National Development Plan 12. Ms Gofhamodimo therefore urged the leadership to comply with the timetable for submissions as set by the National Planning Commission.
“As an apex ministry we must not only comply, but lead in the process of constructing a plan that is essentially a bridge towards a knowledge based, high income economy,” said Ms Gofhamodimo.
She highlighted areas of concern which required more focus and improvement as the ministry implement the 2024/2025 APP, that included overtime, grievances, high vacancy rate, and malpractices in procurement.
“I urge you all to take responsibility and demonstrate your leadership abilities to overcome some of the challenges that we have, and commit to improving our scores around all these areas of concern,” she added.
The assistant minister also reiterated the importance of team work and the need to take care of employees, which remained key ingredients in achieving the ministry’s mandate.
“It is imperative that we improve the time we take to address employee grievances so as to enhance their morale. Let us engage our staff on any transformation within the government to manage the change,” said Ms Gofhamodimo.
She implored the employees to serve the nation with pride, integrity, dignity and deliver the government mandate to the people, towards a ‘Prosperity for All.’ She further urged the ministry employees to embrace the principles of Mindset Change, Bofefo, Botswerere, Bothakga, le Botho as they serve the nation.
“Mindset change requires us to ‘STOP, START, and MAKE HARD CHOICES’ as necessary to effectively and efficiently deliver on our mandate”, said Ms Gofhamodimo.
In his welcome remarks, the Mayor of Francistown, Mr Godisang Radisigo thanked the ministry to have hosted its retreat in Francistown, adding that the second city continued to host important events which brought improve local economy.
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