This was only one of the few occasions that the president has openly rebuked the country's top civil servant.Sata, who campaigned on a platform of reducing poverty and prudence in the use of public resources, took the unprecedented step following the sitting of an induction seminar for permanent secretaries in the tourist city of Livingstone.He did not agree with that because it entailed quite a large group travelling and lodging away from Lusaka where most of them live. He ordered that the seminar be called off even though the participants had already travelled to the venue and the seminar itself was already in session. He insisted that there was no justification for holding it there and the cost implications were considerable.
He criticised the acting secretary to the cabinet who scheduled the seminar for seeming not to take into consideration the cost."I cannot see the justification of you taking all the permanent secretaries to Livingstone and yet Lusaka has more facilities than Livingstone and most of the permanent secretaries are Lusaka-based and have homes in Lusaka," said the president in his letter of January 17, which was subsequently made available to the media. He said he expected the acting secretary to the cabinet, who has a financial background, to be cost conscious and warned that he would not tolerate any extravagance on his watch. He pulled no punches.
