Declaring that persons staying away from work affects productivity and hampers the Government’s social delivery efforts, President Irfaan Ali has announced that a closer look will be taken into public servants who abuse sick leave and doctors who are aiding them.

During a recent meeting with heads of the Health, Education and other departments, the President said a part from having human resources constraints at many of the offices, the officials have also complained about staff members who are submitting frequent sick leave approvals to stay away from work.

“They spoke about the abuse of sick leave and private doctors are being used in the process of aiding this abuse of sick leave especially for key and critical staff and they have asked that strong measures be recommended because this affects productivity and efficiency in the delivery of service,” the President noted.

The President said he has charged all Programme Heads to ensure whatever measures have to be put in place, be in place for the smooth delivery of Government services. He said the issue of sick leave cannot be able to continue unchecked.

“All the Programme Heads in the regions have been given a clear mandate, a clear strategy has been outlined and I made it very clear that they are going to be held accountable for the delivery of service to people, service that is efficient, reliable, transparent, accountable, open and ensuring that our systems work,” the President noted.

The President said although Government continues to make heavy investment in crucial sectors, it is still being blamed for not providing services, these he said are due to some bottlenecks and bureaucracy at the lower level, which the meeting was able to iron out.

“We have been able to look at the structural issues, the human resource challenges, and they themselves also spoke about indiscipline within the system like absenteeism for work,” the President said.

During visits to a number of communities, the President has faced complaints from residents about the poor delivery of Government services.

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