Govt recruits urged to respect confidentiality

Secretaries working with government institutions have been urged to protect confidential information from the public.

The secretary to the office of the president Deborah Katuramu said the need to protect classified information must be taken as an absolute imperative in principle.

"You have taken an oath of secrecy and to protect the classified information away from the public. In this office you will come across a series of information but please don't be reluctant with the information," she said.

She added that don't let government documents and information fall in the hands of wrong characters who would use it to fraud government and public.

 "Several ministries' documents such as the letter heads have been used by wrong people to fraud the public due to the carelessness of the secretaries. This should not happen again else you will face the wrath of the law," Katuramu said.

She made the remarks during the opening of the induction course for the newly recruited staff in government institutions at Sports View Hotel Kireka in Wakiso district on Wednesday.

She told the new staff that the induction will equip them with the basic skills of handling records since they are all records users.

"This calls for confidentiality since a lot of information is at your disposal. It also calls for co-operation with records manager who help in the creation, maintenance and storage of information so that we can have institutional repository protected for our day today work," she said.

She added that the training was aimed to equip the staff with information regarding rules and regulations, discipline and disciplinary measures in public service.

"You will know the values and culture of the office of the president. As you are aware this is the highest office and therefore it's very important that you know norms so that you can portray a positive image to the public," she said.

Annet Ingabire, the senior human resource manager at the Office of the President warned the new staff on customer handling at their respective posts.

"Customer care and public relations is paramount and you are expected to be exemplary in this regard, especially when dealing with the public and fellow colleagues at work," she advised.

To solve the issue poor customer handling, Ingabire said her office had developed a client charter that stipulates that staffs are accountable to internal and external customers.

Suzan Nyadoi a secretary at the Buikwe district pleaded with government to increase the allowances of the staff who work at upcountry offices.

"We need an increment in allowances because upcountry life is difficult and expensive unlike in Kampala," she said.

Irene Nakatte office attendant at Kalungu district headquarters told the secretariat that she was finding hardships in buying office materials using her pocket money.

"Madam Secretary, I have been working for three months now but it is me who facilitate the acquisition of materials in the office such as clearing materials among others," she said.