The Secretary- Office of the President, Hajji Yunus Kakande has urged Undersecretaries to create a rapport with the political leadership and Permanent Secretaries under their respective ministries in order to be able to successfully fulfill their mandate.
“You must know how to work with your political leaders. I have worked with complicated people in my life but I managed to succeed. Someone tells you that I have failed to work with this person. How could you fail to work with them?” he wondered.
Hajji Kakande made the remarks today during the opening of a 3-week refresher training for Under Secretaries at the National Leadership Institute (NALI), Kyankwanzi. The training aims at enhancing their capacity to effectively deliver on their roles.
He advised the Undersecretaries that in order to succeed in the offices they serve, they should study their bosses by knowing what they want and work with them amicably.
“By the end, they will be able to trust you and get along with you. Here you will be able to make some decisions on their part. Make sure that your Permanent Secretary has no queries. If they are there, handle them on his/her part. That’s how you can make yourself relevant to some of these Permanent Secretaries,” he said.
On the other hand, Hajji Kakande called upon the participants to be hardworking, good time managers and be loyal to the government to make Uganda a better place.
“Work as long as work is there. I’m an old man but I’m able to execute my work well. I can stay in the office until 8pm while working. Give priority to your work and you should love it,” he noted.
“Performance should be number one, especially in this expanded mandate you have. The Undersecretary must be able to read. Don’t think that your Permanent Secretaries are going to do this, read and give them briefs, so that he can guide you.”
Hajji Kakande also tasked the Undersecretaries to engage the media to make the public aware of what the government is doing as far as service delivery is concerned.
“These are the issues that you must articulate to the public of what the government does for them. Why do you wait for the President to do that during his speeches? You are the core of the government, all government policies are running because of you. Playing your central role,by telling what the government has done, is not politics. Every year Shs1 trillion PDM funds are given out. All this information must come out,” he said.
“It’s you to make sure that the government moves from where it is to where it’s supposed to be. You are the Central engines of government, you must make things move.”
He however raised concern that some Undersecretaries are not up to task in terms of service delivery.
“I’m heading a program of Governance and security and now we have started budgeting but some Undersecretaries don’t come yet the role of planning and budgeting is yours but you don’t give it the attention it deserves,” Hajji Kakande said.
“You are not internalizing the etiquettes of budgeting and planning. You need to attend these meetings to ensure that the responsible entities like the Ministry of Finance give you enough allocations. You are not helping your Permanent Secretaries. Some of them are not traditional administrators like you. You need to help them, that’s your expanded role.”
The Head of Public Service and Secretary to the Cabinet, Ms. Lucy Nakyobe suggested that there is a need to start transferring the Under Secretaries on a rotational basis, explaining that this will help to overcome what she described as “patronage and kingship” among ministries.
“Some stay in some places and remain kings, I want to remove that kingship. The Undersecretary of today is actually different from the Undersecretary of our time. These current ones don’t want to be transferred. Why are we personalizing our offices?” she said.
“That movement helps you to enhance yourself. Let us put a system in place to remove that kind of patronage and kingship.”
She also advised the Undersecretaries to work in harmony with Permanent Secretaries to be able to effectively run their respective Ministries.
“Let us show these Permanent Secretaries that we are able and we can manage. It’s you to show them, don’t shy away,” Ms. Nakyobe stated.
“I’m calling upon you to walk the talk and become the Under Secretaries you are supposed to be. You are the next Permanent Secretaries, start behaving like them.”
Ms. Nakyobe further revealed that they have organised the training in order to make the public service better.
“You are the stewards of ethical governance and deputies of Permanent Secretaries responsible for the day to day running of the ministries.”
She also commended Hajji Kakande for loving and supporting public administrators.
“Hajji loves you people, he physically defends you.”
The Director of NALI, Col. Okei Rukogota underscored the importance of the retreat.
“From the ideological point of view this is a matter of survival or destruction. We need to see that Vision 2040 succeeds as we prepare to launch NDP IV. it’s incumbent upon us to see that we help each other to succeed,” he said.
Col. Rukogota further noted that NALI whose work is to support strategic leadership to achieve socio-economic transformation, will ensure that the deliberations of the training are achieved.
The Commissioner- Civil Service College Uganda, Ms. Savia Nankya Mugwanya thanked the Office of the President for organizing the initiative that is aimed at empowering the Undersecretaries.
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