President Danny Faure’s fourth live press conference |24 November 2017

‘Value your staff’

Work organisations need to value their staff and establish a communication line, and at the same time all workers should not cross the red line which means … trouble!

President Danny Faure said this in his fourth and last live press conference for this year yesterday at State House.

“All heads of organisations and agencies should make time to listen to their staff, give them the opportunity to express themselves, take them seriously. Politicians, on their part, should be realistic in their approach. For example, a 19-year-old lady came to me asking for a house and I had to explain to her why at such a young age she should wait a bit longer. I also told her that people who are older than her are still on the waiting list,” said President Faure.

Good governance … Don’t cross the red line

Using the analogy of referees distributing yellow and red cards in football matches for different offences by the players, President Faure said decision-makers and people entrusted with important responsibilities should not cross what he has termed the “red line”.

“Accountability, good governance and transparency are the three principles we all have to abide by. If decision-makers and people entrusted with important responsibilities don’t respect their principles, they are crossing the red line and this means trouble. As a result no one should cry out saying they are being victimised. If you want to make a lot of money you should not work in the public sector but in the private. And even the private sector has its golden rules. No one is allowed to pocket money which does not belong to him or her. As a result, you cannot continue to work for this organisation. There should be discipline in all sectors for the country to run properly. When a person leaves or is asked to leave a job, there are three others waiting in line to take up the post,” added President Faure.

Closing down the army

Asked for his reaction on the comment made by the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly, Wavel Ramkalawan, regarding closing down the army, President Faure responded: “Article 162 of the Constitution states that there shall be an army.”

He added that he took Mr Ramkalawan’s suggestion in a way as to reduce the size of the army, noting that the defence council had already started working on re-organising the defence forces.

Not satisfied with Mo Ibrahim Index

Although Seychelles has climbed from fourth in 2016 to second behind Mauritius this year in the Ibrahim Index of Africa Governance, President Faure is not satisfied with the ranking.

“I am not satisfied with the ranking. Seychelles should be ranked first and can be ranked first. It’s true we have made a lot of progress but it does not reflect the true worth of the country. We need to take the bull by the horn and work towards making Seychelles the number one country in Africa and even compete with and beat some European countries. We can do it,” he said.

Chief executives’ ability to manage people and their organisations

President Faure explained that chief executives and other organisations’ heads who have studied management don’t have problems managing their organisations.

“But sometimes, we have people who are appointed chief executives and they don’t have management skills. These people should be ready to follow training and heed advice. They need to work as a team to understand what they should be doing in different circumstances,” said the president.

Security in the country

Following a hike in the number of crimes in 2015, the number dropped in 2016 but picked up again as of June 2017 and President Faure has said this is linked to the drug issue.

“Crime is linked to the drug issue and people need more money to buy drugs. Recent reports show that the number of reported cases has dropped at the Central Police Station and this is because the station is functioning. The police needs more money and more men. I have met the new Commissioner of Police (Kishnan Labonte) together with the new Attorney General (Frank Ally) and the Designated Minister (Macsuzy Mondon) and we have discussed that some laws need to be amended. These laws will be tabled before the National Assembly in February next year.

“I also met members of the Crime Watch and they have expressed that they remain anonymous when they give information to the police. This is important as we need to give police commissioner Labonte and his team all our support as the police needs a makeover.

On the other hand, we must make sure that we don’t cry out about abusing human rights when the police track down suspects. Stealing is not a profession,” said President Faure.

Seychelles NATION will come back on other points the president spoke about during yesterday’s press conference in another issue.