Ethiopian Postal Service to Become Corporation
The Ethiopian Postal Service is taking steps towards entering the competitive marketplace. After more than a hundred years of operation this signals a new era for the EPS.
The Ethiopian Postal Service (EPS) has completed a draft proclamation to be presented to the Council of Ministers for approval; the proclamation is to re-establish EPS, founded in 1894, as a Corporation.
The draft is expected to be presented at the beginning of the coming Ethiopian fiscal year.
According to the Ministry of Transport and Communication (MTC) the draft had been waiting for the results from the Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) undergone by EPS.
Now that the BPR has been completed, the outcomes will be included in pilot projects to be launched in the coming weeks. These will help to identify the weaknesses and strengths of EPS as well as indicate which staff to assign to what position.
The re-establishment draft states that when EPS is re-established as a Corporation, it will generate its own income from three different sources, which are: government subsidies, services it renders and any other source that it can access.
To generate new incomes EPS plans to start providing services such as bill collection, paying salaries and pensions to employees of different organisations on a commission basis.
Getnet Abera, Legal Services Head with EPS, told Fortune that the re-establishment conforms to the Public Enterprise Proclamation No. 25/1992.
The proclamation states, “Whereas as long as public enterprises have to stay under government control, it is necessary to create an organisational structure whereby they can enjoy management autonomy and thus enable tem to be efficient, productive and profitable as well as to strengthen their capability to operate by competing with private enterprises”.
In its entry into the competitive market, EPS launched international money transfers in collaboration with the US based, Roraima Cash 4 Africa on August 17, 2006. Currently, these transfers are limited to the main EPS office.
Getnet Abera added that though Labour Law has administered EPS’ employees since 1992, a board would now do this.
EPS has more than 840 branches throughout the country, with 54 located within Addis Abeba. In the last nine months EPS has collected 27,770 Br from the postal services it provides.
