TANROADS demands enhance productivity from local contractors

DAR ES SALAAM: TANZANIA National Roads Agency (TANROADS)’s Chief Executive, Engineer Mohamed Besta has called on government entities to enhance competence in all professions and fields, for improved productivity.

He also praised the sixth phase government under President Samia Suluhu Hassan for supporting the engineering sector, particularly local contractors by allocating projects for them to implement.

Speaking in Dar es Salaam recently, Eng Besta said the country would maintain and further improve productivity and stay competitive, if all its professionals and field men were continuously enhanced in skills and knowledge. He said professionals and other skills bearers should embrace continuous improvement of their skills and imbue a mindset of dynamism in their world of work.

This, he said will help them to succeed in pursuit for the country’s development.

“If we aim for growth and development in this evolving world, then employers and particularly public organisations must rethink on how to promote competency-based structures,” he said.

Eng Besta argued that the current trend which places emphasis on qualifications, rather than competencies should be redressed.

According to him, the imbalance between the two must be effectively addressed across the board in order to succeed in pursuit for development. “Under any circumstances, qualifications alone need to be further harnessed with meaningful actions in nurturing competencies,” he said.

He added that the overrating of qualifications criteria without consideration of skills and attitude to make up for competencies would result in ineffective delivery of services as anticipated. More, he said, a renewed drive for skilled development among organisations and government agencies must be devised to alleviate the diminishing levels of competencies in various professions and fields.

Eng Besta also asserted that there has been a decline in competencies required for a variety of specialties in support for growth in our country.

He mentioned the engineering sector as one of the sectors which suffered across the continent. “Unfortunately, as things are in Africa, we seem to have not tied our economic strategies with the imperative to maintain and develop innovative and progressive human resources in support of their economies,” he said.