A group of newly trained supply chain and asset management practitioners from municipalities and government departments in Mpumalanga has been encouraged to become champions of the poor by delivering better services.
Receiving their official training certificates from the Department of Finance on Thursday in Mbombela, MEC Pinky Phosa said graduates were expected to fast-track service delivery in their constituencies and resist the temptation of corruption.
"We need to have strength to serve selflessly and become the champions of the masses of our people, especially the poor and the marginalised," she told the 28 graduates, who received training from the University of Pretoria.
Phosa added that her department had introduced measures such as strict staff rotation to discourage fraud within its supply chain unit.
"This system also encourages security vetting of all officials responsible for the state's procurement to ensure that we enlist the right people in this unit. We are also rolling out an electronic procurement system, which will indicate how many transactions took place on a daily basis so that we can immediately deal with deviations," said Phosa.
She told the graduates that her department trusted them with public assets and finances and urged them to make a difference in their working environment by improving public service delivery.
"We have empowered you so that you can improve our systems and help us deliver on our mandate. It takes patriotism and diligence, as opposed to the accumulation of wealth and material gain, to be in the public service," she said.
Graduate Meshack Mkhonto, Deputy Director in the Department of Human Settlement, said the training had been valuable and had definitely improved his skills.
"It was vigorous and taught us to be resourceful. We had to submit assignments, attend classes and perform our normal duties as well, but the support that we got from our department and our families made us see it through," he said.
"Now we need to implement what we have learnt - we need to turn theory into practice and action so that we can improve our service."
