Windhoek
While it is no secret that numerous civil servants budget on working overtime to significantly increase their monthly salaries, the Minister of Finance, Calle Schlettwein, on Wednesday warned transgressors that “overtime is not a salary enrichment scheme.”
Speaking to ministry staff during their first general meeting for the year, Schlettwein cautioned that overtime cannot be claimed for work that is supposed to be completed during normal working hours. “Underperformance is not a reason to claim overtime. The only legitimate reason for overtime is additional responsibilities that cannot be done within regular working hours,” he said.
Therefore, he said, any overtime spending by any government ministry, agency or office must be justified and approved beforehand.
“We need to identify the main cost drivers of our operational budget and implement strict measures to control and monitor spending.
These areas would include conserving utilities such as water, energy and telephones in order to reduce utility bills; implementing better work arrangements and quality supervision for outputs to reduce performance of overtime; stemming unproductive use of government vehicles and limiting domestic and foreign travel to only critical commitments. Henceforth, overtime work should of necessity be limited to contractual overtime and work shifts. Domestic and foreign work trips should also be increasingly checked against our work priorities. The trips to be authorised are those that are deemed necessary and critical to the performance of core functions,” Schlettwein told his staff.
He said that the management of government assets has become a serious cause for concern in the public service. “We have lost the culture of caring for government property. Many a time we replace furniture even when there is no need to do so. Let us desist from this wasteful way of doing things and in the process safeguard the assets that have been put under our care,” said Schlettwein.
He noted that the same applies to the fleet of government vehicles, which have, at times, been turned into private transport.
“I am issuing a stern warning to all those who have been assigned cars for the performance of official duty not to abuse the trust bestowed in them. Take due care of the government vehicles so that maintenance and replacement costs are kept at the minimum.”
Schlettwein admitted that the finance ministry has not been rated well as an institution in surveys assessing the integrity of staff in the public service. This, he said, is especially in regard to staff in the Inland Revenue Department, Customs and Excise and the procurement division.
“There is a general perception that we demand bribes to do work that has been assigned to us and for which we collect a monthly pay cheque. In this regard, we need to redouble our efforts to provide and implement effective strategies that will diminish the perception of low integrity among government officials, specifically those employed by the Ministry of Finance, and to work towards eliminating actual occurrences of non-adherence to integrity,” said Schlettwein.
“It is essential that we understand what the reputational image obtained from the lack of integrity can cause to you as an individual, as an institution and our country.
“In this regard, I therefore urge all officials who have not submitted their declaration of interest to do so with immediate effect. Your declaration of assets could assist you in the long run, especially the officials who deal with revenue and procurement on a daily basis,” he said.