IGANGA, UGANDA: Civil servants in Uganda have been asked to serve Ugandans basing on the four core principles of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) government; Patriotism, Pan-Africanism, Democracy and Social-economic transformation, instead of thinking that they do Ugandans a favour.
Speaking at an ideological engagement held on Friday at Mum Resort Hotel in Iganga District, Mr Nzeire Sedrac Kaguta, the national coordinator for Revolutionary Guards (RG), a political pressure group, says that civil servants should at all times sympathize with the public other than referring them to future dates even when they are in a position to serve them at a given moment.
The engagement which included youths, women, the elderly, people with disabilities, and various political leaders, among others was held under the theme; ‘guarding the revolution by enhancing knowledge, unity, culture and economic empowerment’
Mr Nzeire said as a pressure group and the NRM party, they are trying to fight such impunity, corruption and other things which have stunted government programs and services.
“These people in offices should sympathize with the public, people come to get services in public offices and instead of serving them, they for instance say that it’s not a day for meeting people. How do you expect someone from Iganga to have an appointment with a certain director or commissioner in a ministry, how do you expect someone from Namutumba or Luuka to be on appointment with a commissioner?” Nzeire questioned before saying that it has become a culture from gate man to reception.
“If he’s not seeing people then what is he doing in public office, those are the things we want to fight. You find one person disorganizing the whole ministry or local government yet they are paid by taxpayers’ money. Those are not your offices but offices for all Ugandans,” Mr Nzeire added before suggesting that civil servants need to be put on a 3-years contract which can be terminated in case of bad service.
He also rallied youths to work tirelessly and organise themselves to tap into government programs by joining cooperatives and SACCOs instead of engaging in subversive activities like joining rebel groups and thinking about changing the regime.
“We’re guarding the revolution, people fought to bring this revolution so we cannot allow other people to come and take it. We should have to guard it and benefit all Ugandans, so we call upon you to partner with us,” he said.
The national coordinator for Emyooga Programme, Ms Nawenge Ritah analyzed the performance of Emyooga funds in the Busoga subregion and it was evident that the performance remains poor since billions of money were disbursed to associations but millions have since been recovered.
She called upon youths and other members of the public to involve in government programs and as well tasked leaders like the resident district commissioners to play their part in following up on government programs.
One of the coordinators of this RG team in Busoga Mr. Meddie Gowa supported the suggestion from their national coordinator to have all civil servants on contract such that it can be terminated anytime in case of floating lawful ways of service. He said that some officials are corrupt and others are part-timing at work yet they are paid for all working hours of the day.
“It’s true, some government workers need to be on contract, sometimes people are coming from far looking for services but their hopes end up turned down by lazy civil servants. Some of them are corrupt and they don’t need to be pardoned just in case of failing to work according to their job descriptions,” Mr Gowa said.
The public relations officer for revolutionary guards in the eastern region, who led the organizing committee for the two-day activities, Mr. Sibo Fred called upon youths to avoid activities which are aimed at creating hatred but instead tap into government programs.
He also urged them to be patriotic to their nation by engaging in associations to benefit from government programs than engaging in unproductive activities like rioting and rallied people to join them for a patriotic cause.
The engagement was attended by some Resident District Commissioners from Busoga, political leaders from Busoga, and civic leaders, among others.
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