Post Office to crack down on corruption
THE SA Post Office will apply strict financial controls and crack down on widespread corruption, after being given a generous subsidy by government this week.
CEO Maanda Manyatshe said yesterday the organisation was given R1,5bn over three years, one of the biggest allocations by government. This was a big responsibility, and postal employees had to ensure they continued working hard to turn the organisation around.
“This is no time to go back to the old ways (of doing business),” said Manyatshe.
As part of its medium-term expenditure framework, the national treasury said this week it would allocate R600m to the Post Office this year and R300m a year over three years. The move is a shift from an earlier government policy, which saw all postal subsidies halted in March.
Robert Nkuna, communications ministry spokesman, said the decision to reintroduce targeted subsidies was based on several factors. Millions of South Africans still had no access to postal services, the Postbank had to be recapitalised to become a bank for the poorest of the poor, and the Post Office needed to expand its services into outerlying, largely unprofitable areas.
Nkuna made it clear that the subsidy would be used to deal with the organisation’s universal service obligations to meet the needs of the poor.
Manyatshe said it was clear that the days of the Post Office getting a blank cheque from government were over. A meeting was planned with government on Tuesday to finalise the details of how the subsidy would be allocated in terms of the universal service obligations.
The Post Office had cancelled a range of contracts with outside suppliers where there were irregularities, such as companies claiming to be black economic empowerment entities, but with little real black representation.
Management was ensuring sufficient capacity in the Post Office to cope with demands, and was also making sure that front end employees were trained to deliver good customer service.
Management was ensuring sufficient capacity in the Post Office to cope with demands, and was also making sure that front end employees were trained to deliver good customer service.
by Robyn Chalmers
Copyright Business Day. Distributed by All Africa Global Media(AllAfrica.com)
