Editorial: Public service needs dedicated and not absentee office bearers
Saturday, June 09, 2018

Fatehas caught up with the Executive Secretary of Ntarama Sector in Bugesera District and it could not have come at a worst time

Five couples were supposed to get married by the official but she was nowhere to be seen. The couple and their families had to wait for more than three hours before the local leader appeared.

She claimed to have gone to attend a function to welcome the new acting Mayor whose predecessor had just been unceremoniously shown the door for poor performance.

But as fate would have it, the new Mayor abandoned her like a hot potato; she did not attend any of his functions and had instead gone to attend to her personal business. He promised to come down hard on her.

This is a period when the government, under the auspices of Rwanda Development Board and Rwanda Governance Board, are on an all-out campaign to promote service delivery, not only in government agencies, but the private sector as well.

The Executive Secretary’s predicament also came shortly after President Paul Kagame had sounded a stern warning against leaders who abandon their posts to run behind some visiting senior official.

There have been never ending calls to public officials that public office is a calling, not somewhere to cool one’s feet at the expense of the taxpayer. Their core purpose is serving the people with dedication, in the absence of which they have no purpose to be there in the first place.