Public Service Staff Association Vows to Regenerate Morale

The newly established Lesotho Public Service Staff Association (LEPSSA) has vowed to regenerate high morale among civil servants, help retiring officers invest their gratuities and pensions wisely as part of its mandate.

In a press statement released recently, LEPSSA said it planned to find causes for the low morale amongst civil servants and come up with corrective measures to remedy the situation. Some public servants are driven into misconduct at the work place because of frustration and can be helped through a spirit of collegiality.

LEPSSA expressed concern over some senior civil servants whose management style was autocratic, saying " those who are assigned to manage others are expected to create support systems for their sub-ordinates so that they are able to perform to the best of their ability,” however, in most Ministries, civil servants are expected to perform without basic facilities and abuse is more prominent than support, it said.

The Association was also concerned about the plight of retiring  civil servants, whose gratuities and pensions are unsatisfactory. They should also be counselled to prepare them for retirement. Besides counseling, the Association will help establish an advisory body to help retiring members to invest their gratuities wisely.

LEPSSA raised its concern over a bill currently being debated in Parliament which seeks to transfer the powers of recruitment and discipline of civil servants from the Public Service Commission to the ministries concerned. The move was not in favour and interests of members and the country as a whole, the Association maintained.

The Association is an organisation bringing together public servants throughout the country and was formed in May this year.  It is currently under the guidance of an eight member interim committee tasked with  formulating a constitution in line with the provisions of the Public Service Act of 1995.           

  27 July 2004