THE ‘CIRCUS’ SURROUNDING OPERATIONS AT MINISTRY OF HEALTH IS CREATED CONFUSION – KAMPYONGO.
…Because of too many promises, technocrats are not being respected and given room to work.
Wednesday, 30 March, 2022 (Smart Eagles).
Patriotic Front (PF) Shiwang’andu Member of Parliament Hon. Stephen Kampyongo says the ‘Circus’ surrounding operations at the Ministry of Health is a created Confusion.
Speaking when he featured on Diamond Live, Hon Kampyongo said the alleged organised confusion might be that the Ministry is headed by a Minister who has been misplaced and is not respecting the technocrats.
He said it is therefore shocking to hear statements from the Health Minister Sylvia Masebo that the Ministry’s work is being frustrated by alleged PF members in the civil service.
Hon Masebo’s statement raised echoes from some members of the Ruling party with some suggesting that the alleged PF aligned Civil servants be uprooted.
But Hon Kampyongo said the UPND Government should understand that the civil service moves in terms of policy implementation depending on what they are given.
“Most of the directors you see are well educated. Technocrats can be useful or useless depending on how you treat them. You can change the top notch, Permanent Secretaries but the cling of the civil service can adapt to any changes,” he said.
He said the civil service is not for people to play partisan politics but should be respected for the development of the nation.
“UPND are in Government today, they are not going to be in Government forever. So if you are saying that the civil service must be going with political parties as they come what type of a country are you going to have. The Civil Service is a system that can work and give you desired results if you pay attention to them,” he said.
Hon Kampyongo has also refuted assertion that the alleged disorganisation in the Ministry of Health was inherited from the previous regime.
“If the Ministry was disorganised as it is now how would we have managed to contain the pandemic.? We are ranked highly in Africa as one of the countries that have performed well in the pandemic fight,” he said.
With regards to the recruitment of Health Workers, Hon Kampyongo has observed that the Minister rushed to give numbers in the recruitment of 11,276 health workers from a position that is not informed.
He said there are some Health Facilities which were recently constructed but are yet to have an establishment to ascertain the number of health professionals needed.
Hon Kampyongo said it is for this reason that the Minister should have taken time and allowed the technocrats to do their work.
“Government has got establishments in all the sectors, be it Education, Agriculture or Health. When you are saying you need to recruit you need to understand the demand before you can recruit.
“You cannot just come up with numbers, which are not informed by the establishment . We rushed to give numbers…… Give the technocrats space to work. We are having these problems because maybe someone is Pilling pressure on these technocrats. Because of too many promises, politicians in Government have the temptation of wanting to see that which was promised to be done quickly. However, it is important to listen and get advice from technocrats,” he said.