PSC set to roll out biometric system

THE Public Service Commission (PSC) is rolling out a biometric system to enable it to implement performance-based remuneration for Government workers.

Addressing more than 400 human resources practitioners that attended an annual human resources convention hosted by the Institute of People Management of Zimbabwe (IPMZ) in Victoria Falls on Friday, PSC secretary, Dr Rosemary Tsitsi Choruma said investigations into the civil service established that there were no ghost workers in the system.

She said the focus was now on fighting absenteeism and redundancy.
Dr Choruma said through monitoring working hours for Government workers and migrating from paper pay slips to e-slips, Treasury would be able to save millions of dollars.

She said the biometric system is already being piloted at the PSC head office with efforts being made to set up prototype public service offices based on e-technology where every employee’s data will be recorded.

Dr Choruma said Government service providers will also have a centralised data system which will result in citizens no longer being required to complete forms each time they visit a Government office to apply for documents and services.
She said there is a need to reform the public service into a modern sector and also change perceptions and attitudes of Government workers which over the years have been blamed for poor service delivery.

“The PSC engaged in an exercise to review who the Government workers are. The aim is to understand whether the people that we have in our database are exactly the same people who are working for the Public Service.

There were allegations of ghost workers and we worked with the Registrar-General’s Office to implement a biometric programme which made sure we identify all our workers. We completed that exercise and honestly, the commission can ascertain that we don’t have ghost workers,” she said. — — @ncubeleon