MINISTER of State in the President's Office (Public Service Management and Good Governance) George Simbachawene has directed regional and district administrative secretaries across the country to supervise and monitor public service workers to ensure efficient service delivery.

This comes after a tendency whereby employees posted to certain areas are neither assigned tasks nor monitored to determine their daily performance.

Speaking yesterday during his one-day visit to Singida Region to receive a report on the state of public service delivery in the region, the minister said that a public service officer who fails to assign duties to an employee hampers the government’s service delivery as the employee is still receiving the salary.

"There are people who fail to assign duties and at what time an employee is supposed to report at his or her work station,” he said.  

He stressed that public service officers must recognise that  among their other responsibilities  include   assigning duties to any employee, ensuring they are productive from morning until the end of the working day. Otherwise, it is a loss to the government while the employee continues to receive a salary.

Simbachawene noted that some people wrongly think that matters related to public service are the sole responsibility of the Minister of Public Service, the Secretary-General of Public Service, and the Employment Secretariat. However, he emphasised that this is everyone's responsibility, and if managed properly, work performance and accountability will improve.

"The regional commissioner will receive an employee, but the employer refuses to assign duties. Research shows that some people are placed in positions but not task lazy workers," he said.

He also stated that regional commissioners should include public service matters in their development discussions, rather than leaving it solely to public service officers, some of whom mistreat employees.

"There is a lot of friction at the lower levels, but there are also very lazy employees who should not even be in public service, yet they are allowed to remain," he added.

Singida Regional Administrative Secretary, Dr Fatuma Mganga said that in the eight councils of the region, there are 11,690 employees out of 20,653 which is the workforce needed, leaving a shortfall of 8,693 employees.

She also mentioned that 4,497 out of 4,701 employees have been promoted, and the remaining 204 are still undergoing the necessary procedures for promotion.

Singida Regional Commissioner, Halima Dendego, assured the minister that all the directives he had issues will be dealt with accordingly without fail.