Africa-Press – Lesotho. In an effort to divulge its services to the masses, the Ministry of Social Development held a one day forum with the members of the media, representatives
of the Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and the Public Relations Officers (PROs) on Tuesday this week in Maseru. Addressing the participants, the Ministry of Social Development Principal Secretary (PS) ‘Mantšenki
Sekete Mphalane said the Social Development portfolio is charged with the responsibility to address the needs of the vulnerable groups. She said when the
reporters are conversant with the systems and the operations of the Ministry they will be able to give a detailed reporting about it. Presenting the Ministry’s financial performance for the 2020/2021 fiscal year, the Director of
Planning ‘Mankhatho Linko said they have not fully executed their budget despite achieving 80 percent execution rate. The Director mentioned that their performance was ‘unsatisfactory’ highlighting that around M60
million of the money was returned to the public coffers as it was unused. She mentioned that these funds arrived in January this year and it was not easy to
utilise them given the short space of time which they could not have satisfied all the legal processes to use the government’s funds. These unused funds
according to the Ministry was budgeted for the school bursaries programme. One of the participants, Nthabiseng Mpanya said the forum has helped enhance her knowledge
of the services rendered by the Ministry. This knowledge she said will come in handy as she normally receive questions from her listeners about the services
in the Ministry of Social Development making an anecdote wherein during the lockdown she received the report of alleged incest act which resulted in the
sister falling pregnant allegedly by her brother saying had she known then, she could have pointed the ‘victim’ to some of the departments within the Ministry
to assist her with counselling. The Radio Maria journalist said she also learned why some people were not able to receive the relief assistance during
the lockdown period. Mpanya further expressed confidence that she is armed with knowledge to better assist her listeners when they request guidance. In order to improve the
service delivery, Mphalane said they will build a portal website which will enable feedback reports and interaction with their clients on the services that they render as well as the complaints.
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