Prison warders introspect

GABORONE - Senior members of Botswana Prison Service (BPS) have been urged to allow professional competence to guide their everyday conduct.
Officiating at a one-day Leadership Workshop for members of BPS executive labour and home affairs permanent secretary Mrs Segakweng Tsiane said as they pursued discipline, they should be guided by the vision, mission and values of the ministry which they had helped formulate.
As members of a disciplined organisation, Mrs Tsiane said they were morally and legally bound to assist the process of building confidence in the countrys law enforcement agencies.
She said they could do so by practicing and observing the highest standards of personal and organisational discipline.
In this spirit, she said they needed to ensue more visible, more integrated management of professional relationships at all levels and to continuously dialogue with all officers so as to create platform for feedback and constructive criticism. Such environment is healthy for teamwork, alignment and trust, she said.
She also urged them to address themselves to the issue of corruption as there were growing perceptions that some of them had tendencies for corrupt practices that provided undue and unlawful benefits to the prisoners.
The workshop was also called upon to come up with ideas as to how they could improve the Prisons Department structural setup, pre-service and in-service training, conditions of service as well as finding ways of improving morale and motivation among their officers.
She expressed optimistic that the workshop which was organised by the commissioner would give them the opportunity to introspect.
She noted that it would be a wise move for the officers to evaluate the departments management systems, strategies, operational processes and meanifully plan for the future as one unit.
Mrs Tsiane noted that the officers should also aim to assure themselves of the relevance and quality of their leadership when they left the workshop, adding that they should however ask themselves whether their leadership style was the one that could build those that they lead or not.
She further challenged them to revive the vibrancy that used to characterise the Prison department, where it used to win prizes at the WITS and Public service Conventions, arguing that they can only achieve that if they can nature talent amongst themselves to become winners in everything they do.
The theme of the workshop was Transformation through Introspection and therefore Mrs Tsiane urged the leadership to allow virtues such as integrity, mutual respect, loyalty and professional competence to guide their conduct underpinned by the 4Ds with emphasis on discipline. BOPA