Corrupt civil registry officials put on notice

Murewa (New Ziana) –Corrupt public officials, especially those manning civil registry offices, will be dealt with decisively as the government moves to ensure the seamless provision of public services to citizens, President Emmerson Mnangagwa said on Thursday.

Officially opening the Murewa e-passport office, President Mnangagwa directed the entire public service to always uphold the spirit and letter of the fundamental values and principles governing public administration.

“The trend where officials deliberately frustrate members of the public to enable the solicitation of bribes must come to an end. This culture which has been witnessed in places such as the Market Square, Makombe Registry Offices, must be dealt with decisively,” he said.

“High standards of professional ethics and patriotism, integrity, hard honest work, transparency, accountability, diligence and commitment to duty as well as the prudent use of public resources must remain at the epicentre of our public service.”

President Mnangagwa said the government was on an accelerated drive to roll out new civil registry offices in various parts of our country, such as the one in Murewa, Mashonalnd Esat province, which will also serve people of Uzumba, Maramba and Pfungwe.

“I challenge the Ministry and its partners to speedily establish more of these e-passport and bio-enrolment centres in other cities and districts in the shortest possible time.

“Traditional leaders and communities as a whole are called upon to work together to ensure that every child is facilitated to acquire a birth certificate and national identity card documents. This is more critical as the government scales up efforts to guarantee and protect the rights of children so that they ultimately realise their full potential,” he said.

President Mnangagwa said the government was working on clearing the backlog in the issuance of civil documents through the current mobile registration blitz.

To ensure that as many people get the vital documents, he said, the government had waived the demand for certain information and payment of fees under the mobile registration exercise.

Meanwhile, President Mnangagwa said the completion of the Murewa district registry building which had started in 2001, but had stalled, was a positive marker of the Second Republic’s work ethic.

He said construction of the office resumed and was completed under the Rapid Results Initiative championed by the government.

“The current work ethic has also seen the speedy construction of new and previously overdue national infrastructure projects across the country. I commend government departments and other stakeholders for their continued hard work which has seen the realisation of the goals and targets we set for ourselves in NDS1.

“The new results-oriented culture which is guided by our mantra “nyika inovakwa nevene vayo” has led to the delivery of high impact, people centred programmes and projects. These will undoubtedly go a long way towards the modernisation of our national infrastructure and systems as well as advance the broader rural development agenda,” he said.
New Ziana