Khomas Council signs performance agreement

The Khomas Regional Council, one of the leading councils in the country entered a new phase when its staff recently signed the first-ever performance agreement to ensure a robust service delivery to the public. According to the agreement, the staff will seek to improve and provide a clear system for efficient public service that is performance-oriented and which is responsive to the needs of the people in the region.
Signing the agreement in Windhoek were the Chief Regional Officer, Dr. Bernard Mulongeni, Clement Mafwila, director general services and personnel, Gabriel Benjamin, director of planning, Martha Mutilifa, deputy director rural services, Loide Muttotta, deputy director administration, Alexander Sangwali, deputy director of finance and several others.
Chairperson of the Khomas Regional Council, Hon. Zulu Shitongeni said the agreement is meant to facilitate the effective delivery of strategic and operational goals of the council. He stressed that the agreement is not meant to punish employees but to increase productivity by using performance management processes.
“Khomas Regional Council just like other agencies will use performance agreements to define accountability for specific organisational goals and to help its management to align their daily operations with our programme goals. “Performance agreements, like performance appraisal plans, define individual employee performance expectations and establish results-oriented goals.”
“When the council aligns performance agreement with its goals, management can better understand the connection between their daily activities and the achievements of goals. In fact, this will clarify how unit activities contribute to the council’s goals and objectives,” he explained.
According to Shitongeni, the agreement is also an effective vehicle for collecting and communicating performance data on council progress. He highlighted the importance of  performance information to the managers and councillors. He said that the agreement will be used to track results, identify performance gaps and create strategies to achieve or deliver better quality public services in the region.
“By aligning employee performance appraisal plans with this performance agreement and directly communicating agreement goals to employees, supervisors can drive home how their performance impacts our strategic goals,” Shitongeni said.
In the same vein, the Chief Regional Officer of the Council, Dr. Bernard Mulongeni, said the Council has moved another step by developing and officially signing its first performance agreements.
Mulongeni said the agreement was made possible because the Prime Minister’s office is assisting government offices, ministries and agencies to implement the performance management system through the development of strategic and annual management plans.
“Therefore, Khomas Regional Council is no exception because we have been hard at work to go through and implement the performance management system that will not only hold staff responsible and accountable for the implementation of set targets, but also paves way for improved service delivery to the electorates,” Mulongeni added.
He concluded that the performance agreement will be honoured by all staff members as it forms the basis for their existence in the Council establishment.