Address by the Minister of Home Affairs, Hon Pendukeni Iivula-Ithana at the Opening of the First Namibia Customer Service Awards and Conference. Director of Ceremonies; Honourable Ministers present here today The Rector of the Polytechnic of Namibia; Government Officials present; Distinguished Captains of Industry; Distinguished guests, Members of the Media, Ladies and Gentlemen, It is a pleasure for me to address The First Namibia Customer Service Awards and Conference. Ladies and gentlemen; The efficiency of service delivery is integral to a country’s economic, social and ecological progress. According to Vision 2030 “Creating an enabling environment is essential to attain sustainable development”. This worthwhile objective can be achieved through projects and initiatives such as Vision 2030 which improves service delivery in our country. It is important to mention that for an economy to flourish the environment needs to be conducive for growth in both the private and public sector. We therefore need to create and improve service delivery to attain a knowledge-based economy. Ladies and gentlemen; Recently Namibia dropped four places in the World Bank’s “Ease of Doing Business” ranking, from 80 to 88. We must admit that there is work to be done on important indicators such as trading across borders, access to electricity, permits and registration. Our role as the Namibian Government is to lead by example. I must make mention that the government of the Republic of Namibia has made significant strides in this regard. Our Constitution prescribes the fair and reasonable treatment of all our citizens and this starts with customer service. In fact, Article 91 of the Constitution states unequivocally that any inhabitant should be free from unfair, harsh, insensitive or discourteous treatment by Government officials. In the same Article the Ombudsman is tasked with taking action against public AND private enterprises which violate these rights, which we hold as fundamental and inalienable. Judging by the growing public outcry over bad service delivery across the board, it is evident that every industry from commercial to government needs to have a great deal more focus on customer service. Mechanisms have been put in place to support this cause. In 1997 the nine Public Service Charter Principles were launched to guide the behavior of the public servants. The Customer Service Charters that are developed in Offices/Ministries/Agencies (O/M/As) are also based on the Nine Public Service Charter Principles. Customer Service Charters highlight the basic rights of the public as to what services exist and are aimed at improving service delivery. The Charters give an opportunity to the public to complain if they are dissatisfied with the standard of service rendered. The purpose of Customer Service Charters is to enable the user of services (public/customers) to know: -the services that they can expect to receive from a service provider (O/M/As); -the standards of service users can expect to receive from specific O/M/As; -what to do or how to complain if things go wrong; and -the responsibilities of the customer to ensure that the service can be delivered With these Charters in place in different Offices, Ministries and Agencies may ask what have we achieved? These are the questions we need to ask ourselves? Each Office, Ministry and Agency is responsible for its own development and the Survey presented today shows those who tried to achieve excellence and succeed, those who have tried and failed and those who haven’t made an effort at all. Ladies and gentlemen, It is not a secret that the Ministry of Home Affairs has been under scrutiny for several years with regard to poor service delivery. Not too long ago, as the Minister of Home Affairs and Immigration, I promised the citizens of Namibia that we will deliver services better, faster and smarter with the aim of contributing to building a performance oriented Ministry and government as a whole. With the support of the President of the Republic of Namibia, His Excellency Hifikepunye Pohamba and my Cabinet colleagues, and guided by this important imperative - the Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration has put in place a range of initiatives to ensure that we have a public service delivery system that is effective and efficient and which responds to the overwhelming mandate we receive from our people. We have, however, taken the lead to resolve issues linked to this matter as it became a matter of national concern as gauged in the media and on other platforms such as social networks. After much consultation we launched an 18-month Turnaround Strategy in June this year. My Ministry is most probably the most engaged with its citizens on a day to day basis. We are a few months into this strategy and we aim to ensure reduction in head office turnaround times for key documents such as identification documents (IDs), passports and birth and death certificates. Our strategy is aggressive and we will endeavor to eliminate backlogs at all processing steps for each service; provide required tools and processes to manage programmes; reduce queue times; and develop processes and implementation plans. These are just some of the goals we aim to achieve with this intensive programme. Ladies and gentlemen, We have heard your needs and wishes - our citizens, we are evolving and this takes time. Reliability, flexibility and accountability is of part our mandate, that is why this strategy includes facilities such as a call centre and track and trace system; and improved border control systems. As a Ministry, we are fully aware that delivery agreements are just the first step in the process. The difference will be in the implementation, and for this reason we have elevated monitoring to the highest level. At this point in time, I am very happy to say that the implementation of the Turn Around Strategy is going according to plan and the Namibian public is singing the same song. This is a transformational change which aims to align people, processes and technology initiatives more closely with Home Affair’s business strategy and vision. We have a mammoth task ahead and I am proud to be part of this historic shift – Rome was not built in day. I must be very clear that poor customer service delivery is not an issue solely for the public sector, but also an issue that pervades the private sector. There are thousands of Namibians that are disappointed by service delivery in the private sector and the sectors failing are mentioned today. Ladies and Gentlemen; Let us not forget that customers are not a renewable resource, and just as a government without the support of its people is powerless, no corporation can survive for even one moment in an environment devoid of people willing to buy from them. People faced with appalling customer service, whether in the form of rude sales assistants or opportunistic marketing tactics, will ultimately vote – there are so many mediums nowadays where people complain and boycott your services. Boycotting of services is not what I want for any parastatal within the borders of Namibia. I therefore encourage you to either keep up the good work, or pull up your socks to meet the needs of every customer in Namibia. The Namibian Government, for her part, has realised the need for better customer service and invests time and money to solve these issues. At the Namibia Institute of Public Affairs Management (NIPAM), officials are drilled on the importance of a creating a citizen-centered Government and this is leading to a mentality change in the public sector. Several of our Ministries and parastatals have implemented turn-around strategies and slowly but surely we can see change happening at the counters of Home Affairs, the Ministry of Trade or Air Namibia. Colleagues and Friends; I am curious to know, however, what is the private sector doing for its citizens? This goes for the investors, the banking industry, insurance, manufacturing, retail and the list goes on. There are still many incidences of arrogant and exploitative market behavior, often affecting the most vulnerable and those without a voice in our country. How often do we hear the stories of people buying a product or service that doesn’t live up to the expectations? And how often have we heard of the supplier, not seldom in cahoots with industry partners, refusing to honour their part of the bargain, leaving the customer with a bitter taste in their mouths and leaving him or her feeling used and exploited, yet powerless to retaliate? Ladies and gentlemen; The Government plays an important role in consumer protection by putting in place robust regulation and enforcement, and by creating an enabling competitive level playing field for enterprise. I challenge the private sector to join us in this endeavor and subscribe to the basic principles of respect and decency towards their customers, our citizens. We look for partners that celebrate the principle of ‘Uukumwe’ or ‘Ubuntu Wabantu’: Togetherness. I am told that this event will launch the Customer Service Heroes and Heroines that celebrate people at the grassroots who continually deliver excellent customer service often overcoming bureaucratic obstacles in the process, doing their work quietly in far-flung corners of the country. We need to celebrate these people, and thereby catalyze a culture of excellent customer service. If a lady selling Kapana in Katutura can deliver a smile despite her hardships, why can I not get the same service from corporates? Ladies and gentlemen; At this juncture, I would like to applaud Harold Pupkewitz Graduate School of Business in The Polytechnic of Namibia for this initiative; through this survey we now have a baseline on which to measure our progress for both the Public and Private Sector. This is work in progress. As the Minister of Home Affairs, I am a civil servant; it is therefore an honour and my duty to improve service delivery for the people of Namibia. I thank you!
Posted on: Mon, 03 Nov 2014 12:00:03 +0000
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