Local Government Minister, Professor Nkandu Luo has with immediate effect banned the holding of workshops by local authorities in the country.
She has charged that the outcomes from these workshops are rarely implemented but only serve as a source of corruption.
Professor Luo has further warned Civic leaders to refrain from illegal land allocation regardless of the political party they belong to.
She was speaking when she installed PF Councilor, Davies Chiwala as new Mayor for the City of Ndola. Mayor Chiwala takes over from Friday Sikazwe.
Meanwhile, Mr. Chiwala has appealed to all civic leaders to seriously draw a line between politics and development. He says the people of Ndola are highly expectant of development from the new government. The new Mayor has appealed to Government to increase funding to local authorities for easy delivery of services.
Opposition UPND’s Lizuma ward councilor, Aggrey Nyekwa has been retained unopposed as Livingstone City Council mayor. While, his deputy is MMD’s Matthews Jere who also went through unopposed.
Livingstone City Council Town Clerk, Vivien Chikoti as returning officer declared the two duly elected as Mayor and Deputy respectively. Meanwhile, the PF in Livingstone says it did not contest for any position in a bid to probe the land allocation irregularities in the city.
PF Akapelwa ward councilor, Paul Sensele has accused many councilors in Livingstone of allegedly having benefited from illegal plots allocations. He has charged that corruption has hampered development in Livingstone.
In Kabwe PF councilor for Justine Kabwe Ward, Moses Mwansa, has been elected new Mayor for Kabwe Municipal council, while Ms Rachael Mwelwa also of the ruling PF is the Deputy Mayor.
Mr. Mwansa a former army officer and Rachael Mwelwa who both went unopposed in the elections were declared winners by the Town Clerk Maria Dias Neves in the Council Chambers.
The newly elected Mayor has pledged to work with Kabwe council administration and in collaboration with other councilors whose support he said he values to transform the face of Kabwe town.
He adds that he will work to revive Zambia-China Mulungushi Textiles and other companies that have since closed to create more jobs for the people of Kabwe.
MUVITV
Workshop country no more! Someone has woken up in a little country called zambia.
Good move. It is now time to implement what was learned from the workshops of yesteryears.
Ba Professor, if you ban workshops, how am i going to finish the house am building in Chalala? Please give us a grace period of 90 days!
as the saying goes …. it takes a thief to catch another thief
Its true nothing tangible comes out of these workshops, people just go there to get sitting allowances and finish miniral water.
This should be extended to all Govt depts and not just local government. It is damn near impossible to organise a workshop without allowances, no one will show up. This culture needs to change!
Does this include ICASA?
…and HIV too, workshops were breeding grounds for UBUCHENDE nabamukabene…
This is the best news ever.Workshops are a waste of money.How many poverty reduction and capacity building workshops are held in Zambia every year? I’m not a fan of Nkandu Luo but this is a good move you’ve made madame.Keep it up.
Too much taxpayers money wasted on workshops to teach people what they shoulf already know as holders of those jobs. The main focus is the allowances. I have seen govt workers get allowances for workshops held in their own towns. It was like govt was paying these thieves twice!
You’ve done well Madam Minister. Now they should get busy working or be fired.
You should also consider implementing a Performance Management System in some of these ministries.
I like this suggestion. This is what I have been advocating – performance management systems so that people can serve us. Insapato shatundama ukulasempela mu ma ofesi umwabula abantu!
“Iyo talipo, mukese mailo!” Really? Do you know where I am coming from pakuti utile ukese mailo? Everyone should earn their pay, no matter how small. They accepted the job in the first place didn’t they?
The mother of all workshops has spoken! She knows a lot about how to make money through workshops. There were plenty in the MOH culminating in ICASA!
Workshops are necessary because of the changes in the laws and statutory instruments that are published like confetti. Those of you who have never worked in senior government posts don’t know about this. There is nothing wrong withbworkshops, all they can do, is to hold them in-house, in boardrooms rather than fly to lake Kariba for a whole week and week end lounging in the sun and boozingvthe nights away. It is not workshops, it is how they are run that is wrong!
In fact this same method is rampant in so called NGOs. To run a single programme they first hold a 100 local and international workshops discussing AIDS prevention and poverty reduction. These organizations are filled with “programme directors” that have absolutely no genuine interest in seeing poor peoples lives improved. No wonder only a tiny percentage of donor money actually reach the intnded recepients. May be less than 10%. The rest is lost to administrative costs. What a waste. The foolish donors should just deliver medicines and much needed medical machinery directly to health facilities instead of paying “programme Directors”.
I wish the govt could put in place some guidelines for NGOs to follow and stop this daylight roberry of the poor.
way to go prof!
@The Saint,
You have a point. In addition to holding the necessary workshops locally instead of Siavonga and Livinstone, there should be no workshop allowances. Only subsistnce for the few coming from rural areas.
I have seen Lusaka based MOH workers attend a workshop at one of the local lodges and get “workshop” allowances! That should be immediately banned.
The workshops have been turned into gossip centres and nothing tangible has resulted from the same. Let this move be extended to all ministries . Good move Prof. sad news for mineral water suppliers as the market for the same will be small.
Madam Luo, we have heard of that before. Can you couple that announcement with an announcement increasing civil servants salaries! If civil servants were well paid, they could not be looking for every bit of survival strategies. And remember, do not wage war on those civil servants, you just rode on their backs to crawl to that ministry you are now minister of. Don’t fight symptoms, fight the root cause which in my view is poor conditions of service. I have no doubt that during your recent times in the wilderness, you most likely survived on those same workshops. So please be realistic, much as you have a duty to ensure prudent use of tax payers money. Wish you the best of lucky in your efforts to bring sanity to the system.
How does those who do not go to workshops survive, or are you saying everyone goes to workshop. should workshops continue even if they are not serving the intended purpose becuase they have been turned into personal benefit. what about the many poor zambian who do not even have the opportunity that you have.
She did the same at ministry of health but achieved nothing. TASINTA WOMAN.
Indeed its long overdue some officers not just in local government but government ministries and parastals such as Zesco ,ZEMA and NWASCO are earning a living from workshops through sitting allowances and out of pocket allowances.How can an officers boost that he doesn’t not even touch his salary because he is assured of K 8 million from workshops every month.
Whats wrong with workshops if they are really workshops?Workshops are needed and should be productive.Six months down the line they will be brought back!I dont know Nkandu Luo works?She seems to have a philosophy of a loser.Just watch the movie at local government!!GOD BLESS ZAMBIA.
nothing wrong with workshops but the way they are run
@Chinyemba,
Its about low salaries. Its a culture that even permeates NGO, Parastatals, commissions and regulators who are paid decently. Low salaries are NOT the root cause. Money is never enough. Its a moral problem that can only be addressed by putting in place rules that will enable civil servants to worry about job performance not finding ways to reap off tax payers money.
If you want a really high salary, leave the civil SERVICE and join private sector. If your performance is worth it, you will get your high salary. But with your attitude, I know you wont last a month!
Teachers dont get high salaries. Do they rob govt and shamelessly justify it?
Shame on you, Chinyembo.
This news is music to my ears. This move should be implemented throughout all ministries. This work shops is where those guys from Ministry of health were devising their plans. Good move for Zambia. Bravo Professor.
Its not the hardworking, frontline nurses who rob tax payers through fake MOH workshops.
Its not the hardworking, frontline teachers who rob tax payers through fake MOE workshops.
These deserve our admiration and praise for working under extremely difficult circumstances.
Its the “administrative overheads” most of whom sit in Lusaka who are busy abusing govt resources for their selfish ends. Clamp down on these thieves and nurses and teachers will have the resources they need.
@# Keen, I think you have somehow misguided yourself. If you objectively look at the comment I made, you will realise that I actually wish the prof well in her endeveours to tackle the issue. In my view you should have just added that there other factors other than salary issue. But you jumped on me like its something personal! Am afraid you are misguiding your otherwise useful energies. Try a cold beer to cool down, or maybe your pocket went under with schools fees and you only have access to your almost free black berry blogging time! Am actually sipping my Jack Danniels, come thru we discuss normally.
I meant @#21
she is used tothat so that she can buy another farmland i believe in Lusaka
@Chinyemba,
There’s nothng personal, mate. Looks like you got my point. I was hoping, though, that you could defend your laughable low-salary argument.
By the way, the status of my pocket is not my motivation. I’ m not like you.
I see the drink could have something to do with the weak thinking and lack of focus.
Remember to drink responsibly ! ( You drunks causing too many accidents over the weekends).
This is rhetoric, workshops are necessary in implementation of all gov’t programs like it or not. Apart from sending somebody to school, there is no other way of building capacity in workers & community members involved in implementation but workshops.
What amazes me whenever I go to government offices is the number of officials with big titles but who do nothing in a day. If you ask one of them what they have achieved in a day, they will look at you as if you are crazy. The land department comes to mind. They are so corrupt, I would just shut the whole department down and get fresh blood in.
but indeed workshops help us build houses and lodges,should atleast burn these in next year budget
This is the problem of getting people from the political archives as leaders. The United Nations General Assembly meeting is a workshop, so are SADC, COMESA sessions. But do they have lesser value? The problem is that during her days she only knew how to steal through workshops, and now the country should come to a stand still.
Luo’s radical soultions…..if a child has reccurent malaria, killing the child stops the malaria. very logical.
i don’t think you should ban workshops , workshops are important tools in development. What should be done is improving the efficacy of these workshops  and streamline the attendee’s  . The outcomes of these workshops are never implemented because most of the people that go there are there for the allowances and careless for the outcome. If anything a system of where a workshop is held and the allowances only paid when things are implemented successfully should come into place
Slumdog has a point.
What should be happening as well, is making people accountable after holding these so called workshops, by requesting reports from them and ensuring action will be taken by a stipulated period!…and not the usual, you travel for one, discuss issues, go back home and just go back to your desk playing Solitaire…. Not everyone in Zambia/Civil Service/Local Authorities are corrupt(thought frankly, they are few who are not) Controls are what are needed in this country,as without controls certain things just filter through and end up with resources wasted!
Luo acknowledges that worksops during ICASSA which she was head wasted lots of money. In Bemba we have an adage that Chawamila a chona kusuma a galu. Fili uko tuleya na ma pot holes in cities. Wait a minute, has the illegal land allocation in former Lusaka PF controlled council been resolved? or swept under carpert as PF is in power now?
Staff developed can be done in-house instead of workshops at hotels aimed at giving allowances to bosses. Way to go Nkandu
This is a great start madame minister. Some of those workshops were nothing, but conduits of corruption. Some people even built their homes through workshops.
.
Banning of works is a BAD IDEA. The minister should be doing is trying to find a way in which she can make the effective, eliminate Corruptions in the Civil Service and ensure money is not wasted. ( Maybe just ban allowances & hotels)
Its through workshops that people share ideas. Human beings do better when they interact to each other. It’s some times referred to as Networking.
In Corporate World, Governments, Leadership, Education, Technology, Science and so forth, workshops are used to:
1. Team Building
2. Empowerment
3. Training Modules
4. Motivating Teams
5. Creativity
6. Focus Targeting
7. Planning
8. Communication
9. Identify Bottleneck
10. Project Management
Cont..
.
Workshops should be used to ADD VALUE to our ETHICS & WORK CULTURE so that we can perform better, become creative and make a difference.
In the western hemisphere, most organisation when they send you for workshops they do not pay you allowance, because they expects you to come back with KNOWLEDGEBASE which in return makes you a better employer or performer.
In summery conduction workshops is what unites people to have a Common Go for national Development.
the reason people in the western hemisphere dont get allowances is because they get living wages iwe. Imagin UNICEF guy getting 28million kwacha in 4 weeks, do uneed extra pay? compare that with a 2million kwacha your similarly qualified civil servant gets. Nkandu u are being unreasonable FULL STOP
This is utter madness. when MPs are elected, they are run thru workshops for them to know the do;s and donts. Similarly Government officers need this kind of conjugation to keep up with new trends. Secondly, the COMESA summit in MALAWI, are there no civil servants in that meeting. I think Nkandu oh madam ICASA u are being overzealous and u will crush badly….. the reason is that you have not equally rewarded your civil servants with a living wage when standing on an anthill and strat banning banning………Ukokwine ala!!!!!!\:d/
way to go madam Luo
Errors # 39 & 40!
1. What the minister should be doing is trying to find a way in which she can make THEM effective….
2. In summery CONDUCTING is what unites people to have a Common Go for national Development.
I like the move. Its time we started implementing the outcomes of those workshops that were held in the previous government. This old woman does not know what she is talking about. I am very sure that time will catch up with her and those tumared lips will be black I tell you. Why cant she repaint buses in PF colours and not MMD colours after all she is a paint woman. At least thats what I know she can do now and not the crap she is talking about! I end here!
Bad news for the lodge owners and workers. Hope they wont have to lay off staff.
Dr Luo you are very good at talking and not acting or following up on your projects. I hope it won’t be the case this time around… Am watching you!
Ban time wasting workshops, encourage essential workshops aimed at planning for National development. Monitor implementation, evaluate achievement of targets, if targets not met in set timeframe, let responsible officers be answerable.
Build modern conference roosm within the ministry building. Team build meetings etc can be held there. Workshops at lodges with allowances etc can be expensive if the budget is tight.
#46 mind typo errors- Build modern conference rooms within the ministry building. Team build meetings etc can be held there. Workshops at lodges with allowances etc can be expensive if the budget is tight.
it will not help to cane civil servants when their wages are pathetic. right ban workshops, and you expect a worker earning 800k to be dedicated to his work. civil servants are terribly underpaid and asking them to fall in line while getting peanuts will be a futile excersise.
Considering the number of workshops she used to hold one wonders what she is saying I guess she will come up with a plan. Or will they all be booked at PF carde’s lodges?
To wholesomely ban all workshops is not a progressive decision at all. The developed world uses them to implement great recommendations. It is better to first find out how effective workshops are supposed to run and do away with those workshops that are just a money waster and only remain with those that produce results. Some workshops come short of their target because those who drew recommendations are not the same ones who approve resources. How many commissions of inquiry has Zambia had on the constitution and how many have born fruit? How much money has gone into these? Same way with some workshops the implementers boggle the system down through inertia and red tape. Get them to a bare minimum and run them efficiently!
they will now be called meetings and still do the same things!!!
I dont think its just a matter of banning all workshops but rather assesssing them before they can be approved…while i agree that some of them are just money making schemes alot of work actually gets done at workshops..only shallow minds would give this a thumbs up before looking at the other side of the coin…proper appraisal systems are the only way out if u think just doing away with workshops all together will solve the problem of corruption you may just get a rude shock
I know for sure, people (bosses) go to these workshops too often. sometimes they nominate themselves to one they have alrready attended to without realising so. Kapoko made a lot of money through the same and his court case is dragging on without end. people going to workshops must pass on the benefit or what they learnt to others but they come back quite and only talking about booze.
This ban should be government wide and include travelling to foreign countries for conferences. Undertake a comprehensive audit, before reintroducing foreign travel. In the meantime let our diplomats overseas attend the non essential conferences, this will save the country a lot of money.
we can do that inhouse, thanks madam job well done.and for you building that house in chalala sorry workshops are no more just get to the nearest bank and get a loan to finish your house you started using workshop allowances period.
A complete ban is not necessary because some workshops have actually produced result; it is the frequency and the manner of holding them that should have the point here madam Minister!
the person who will suffer most is your )_Permanent Secretary.
Good move Minister.The only minister independently working without waiting for the president to
announce anything in her ministry on her behalf.This ban on work shops should also be exteended to trips abroad where representatives go to attend AIDS or MALARIA conferences when
all they all do there is to sit with nothing to contribute or any papers to present.When they come back all they do is to spend the allowances and do not impart new knowledge they have picked up to their collegues.Please get involved in research as well instead of just waiting
for the Western countries to do everything for us.What is the point of having the National Scientic Resarch facility in Lusaka?
this is good news ba prof. you are thinking right
Thats great, Bachilamo, because they only think of when the next workshop is coming rather than work. Extend to other ministries as well.