By SYLVESTER MWALE –
CENTRAL Province Permanent Secretary Chanda Kabwe has warned secretaries against leaking sensitive information that may compromise the security of the country or the institutions they work for.
Mr Kabwe noted that executive assistants by nature of their job received different kinds of information including sensitive one which needed to be handled with a high level of integrity and professionalism to avoid problems.
The Permanent Secretary was speaking in a speech red for him by outgoing assistant secretary Joshua Kamanya during the commemoration of the Professional Secretaries Day in Kabwe on Saturday. The day was commemorated under the theme, ‘professional secretary, moving towards a dynamic executive assistant’.
Mr Kabwe reminded the secretaries that Zambia had national values and principles as well as a code of ethics for government employees, which should always be the guiding principle in their duties.
“One such value we all need to consciously embrace is patriotism and national unity. As secretaries, I implore you to embrace this value in your daily work because without patriotism to your organisation and country at large, you can easily sell out or expose sensitive information which may bring problems to your institution or country,” he said.
Mr Kabwe said the commemoration of the day should remind the executive assistants about the importance of their offices in the promotion of unity.
He said noted that secretaries contributed significantly towards national development and urged the professionals not to underrate themselves in their duties.
Earlier, Professional Secretaries Association of Zambia (PSAZ) national secretary Grace Mutale noted that secretaries have remained critical to their supervisors despite the emerging technology.
Ms Mutale noted that statistics showed that the world had more secretaries today than it was in the past because the profession was evolving with more executive assistant becoming multi-skilled.
She also revealed that many secretaries in Zambia had enrolled in universities and colleges to acquire advanced qualifications beyond the secretarial profession.

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