Africa-Press – Botswana. Botswana Prison Service officers have been implored to always be mindful that they are ambassadors of the organisation.
Addressing an annual Reset Plan and Reporting workshop for the organisation’s senior management team in Mahalapye on Thursday, chief of staff, Mr Boyce Sebetlela informed officers that what transformation required of them was to understand who they were.
“As BPS what is the one service, one product that we are proud of in the market? What do we do well? That is basically what you need to ask yourselves,” said Mr Sebetlela, adding that first impressions at individual level were important.
Botswana Prison Service commissioner, Ms Dinah Marathe said the transformational phase they were currently undergoing required mind-set change and urged every officer to reset as they began a new financial year.
She explained that her noble service would be defined by building a high performance culture, and that for them to reach their destination, there was need to reposition and take their rightful place locally, regionally and internationally.
Ms Marathe said the prison service was mandated with safe custodial care of offenders with a view to achieving a safe and secure nation by 2036, as articulated in Pillar 4 of Governance, Peace and Security.
At the heart of every prison officer, there has to be a burning desire and drive to keep the nation safe by providing effective correctional services to offenders, Ms Marathe stated and noted that they would not win if they continued to do the same thing year in and year out instead of being innovative and come up with new initiatives to transform the prison service.
Ms Marathe said the workshop was one of the many initiatives meant to assist them to realign, and focus their efforts and resources in delivering their mandate.
Following the workshop, she said their results should be characterised by among others, improved agricultural production, increased revenue collection and provision of high quality, needs based rehabilitation and reintegration services.
She emphasised the importance of timely delivery of services to customers and encouraged officers to lead with excellence and dignity towards achieving a high performance culture.
The workshop was themed, Building a High Performance Culture; Repositioning, Realigning and Re-engineering the Prison Service to Achieve its Mandate.
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