MINISTER LOCKS OUT LATE COMERS
…..Reporting late for work amounts to theft of public funds - Lusambo
FORTY FIVE civil servants at the provincial administration in Lusaka were locked out of their offices yesterday morning and sent back home by provincial Minister Bowman Lusambo for arriving late Mr for Lusambo work late after for said Zork the stipulated reporting 08.00 hours amounted to theft of public funds. He said civil service guidelines clearly stated that work started at 08: 00 hours but that he had observed that some public service employees were in a habit of arriving late for work which affected their work output.
“Civil service guidelines stipulate that work starts at 08: 00 hours but it is worrying that some civil servants report for work late around 09: 00 hours which frustrates the delivery of public services to our people and for me this is tantamount to stealing public funds.
“Since I was transferred to Lusaka from Ndola, I have observed a bad culture of reporting late for work among the civil servants at my office,´ he said.
Mr Lusambo personally locked the entrance to the Lusaka Provincial Administration offices on ,ndependence Avenue, sandwiched between Cabinet 2ffice and police headquarters, to ensure that the late comers did not access their offices. +e said he had observed since his transfer from Ndola the bad habit of reporting late for work among the civil servants at his office.
“I will now write to the Ministry of Finance to dock a day’s wage from the salaries of the 45 public service workers whom I sent home today,” he said. He has warned that as long as he remained Lusaka Province Minister, he would ensure that all public service employees worked for what they were paid, adding that “President Edgar Lungu has demonstrated hard work as he reports for work way before 08: 00 hours and as such, we should emulate his example.”