By KEDIBONE MOLAETSI
The North West Department of Public Works and Roads said it will address challenges faced by districts with the view to improve on their performance in the coming quarters. This comes after the Head of Department, Moses Kgantsi held a session that was aimed at engaging on the operational plans and assessing performance of the districts.
Kgantsi said today they held the first quarterly review for the department’s districts. He said employees are the department’s strategic implementing agents.
“You are at the coalface of service delivery. So, getting your performance right means the image of the department will be enhanced. Having just received an improved audit outcome does not mean we have to relax, it should rather motivate us to strive to perform better in the coming audit cycle.
“This review will further help to identify strengths, areas for improvement and strategic priorities that will enhance the presence of the department in the respective districts that communities expected services from, especially in relation to roads infrastructure and job creation,” said Kgantsi.
He further said like all other departments, they have experienced budgetary cuts and this is bound to affect their performance in some way or another in the current financial year. Kgantsi added that this seems likely to continue over the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF).
“This then calls for us to plan smarter, going forward and set annual performance plan targets that are achievable, realistic and match the available budget.
“I challenged the districts to start reporting better on their achievements and producing portfolios of evidence in that regard as under-reporting may give the wrong impression that the department’s financial expenditure was high, while the performance was way low,” he said.
Kgantsi announced that district meetings will be held on a monthly basis going forward to enable them early detection mechanisms of their performance so that they can make the necessary immediate intervention, where needed, to achieve their goals and targets.
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