A friend of mine, a journalist of course, and I were seated in a certain café one Friday afternoon and discussed life as well as the way how can we manage conditions accordingly. In the middle of our talk, we observed people at a vicinity of the café where they were pushing one another to secure a taxi. He escaped for a while to where I didn’t know and told me that he would have hardly led life let alone supporting his family members if the public Service Employees Transport service had not been put in place.
Taking his idea in mind, this writer started listening to the heart beats of all licensed civil service employees, civil servants in short. Almost all have shared the same feeling towards the service provision Public Service Employees Transport Service Enterprise (PSETSE) has been undertaking. Needless to mention, transport is a viable means to drive a development and growth wheel well and its incomparable role in fostering productivity especially in the urban context cannot be overlooked.
From those whom this writer talked to about the service, the significance of the schemes is really untold as it was framed with a view to easing the hardship and helping employees arrive at offices on time. Unquestionably, the presence of an efficient public transport system creates a safe, sustainable and equitable urban mobility. Yes, the extent to which the public transport in Addis Ababa, peculiarly that of the civil servants has an impact on the urban mobility of the city.
The government has followed the possible strategies to mitigate the worsening level of congestion that is seen in the city at present. This service actually is the very manifestation of government commitment to serve the society—especially the working class in public institutions. The meaning of what my friend told me became clear and plausible when I once missed the service and spent a lot of time waiting for a taxi, and as of that time on, words become scare to express the contribution the scheme has been making to the effectiveness of civil servants.
The service coming out of PSETSE is multifarious. To mention but a few, it is of paramount importance in fostering economic development and easing doing business, facilitating conditions for employees, civil servants, who are at the front line in meeting the targets the nation has set. Truly, it is an efficient civil service public transport system and the best way to maximize urban mobility, in reality this mode of transport has to be well acknowledged and the source has to be graciously thanked.
Though a number of citizens in the world of work especially the civil servants have encountered a number of social, economic and political problems, the issue of transportation had recently remained a daunting challenge. This unbearable hurdle had inked unmentionable spots on the board of economic trajectory through PSETSE. Cognizant of the fact that lack of transportation had caused dual hindrance, [decreases employees productivity and dwindles their psychological readiness and diligence for work], on the economic development of the nation, especially in the city of Addis Ababa, the government devised a lucrative scheme and got Public Service Employees Transport Service functional. This has become the lasting solution to the multifaceted problems the civil service operators had been facing earlier due to lack of transportation.
The free transport service for civil servants is part of the package the government is giving to its employees. The service is being provided to employees through dividing into three sorts: workers coming from the outskirts of Addis Ababa such as Sendafa are given a yellow identification card, those who reside under the circumference of the city with white ones and the federal organizations’ employees with pink/rose ID.
Even though civil servants are eager to discharge their respective responsibilities arriving at office on time, they could hardly do it earlier due to the severe transportation ups and downs. However, some are heard of saying this is the least the government can do for employees considering the service as a dime a dozen and a minor scheme as well.
This is an absolutely wrong perception. Honestly speaking, no one obliges the government to arrange such a promising move benefiting its employees; instead it can put employees in a stringent situation and take administrative measures accordingly whenever the latter infringes any point in the form holding job description upon employment. That is up to the worker to happen on time and carry out activities for which they are responsible.
Such an impressive scheme entails dual advantage indeed: enables the government itself to get activities at all levels accomplished and helps workers free from the trauma stemmed from stress growing as a result of lack of transportation. However, it could by means be compulsory for the government to do so as the vast majority of the employees/civil servants are a living proof passing a number of years in hustle and bustle scenarios in due course of arriving at workplace.
Apart from the psychological harm being late for work imposes on employees, the complaints forwarded from customers seeking their service coming for remote areas totally damages the revenue the nation can potentially earn and the rate of satisfaction the service provider can garner out of properly serving citizenry. In a nut shell, the government has to be provided with an audacious credit for the deed as it has been easing the burden of a number of civil servants and employees.
BY MENGESHA AMARE
The Ethiopian Herald may 11/2021
