‘MALAWI NEEDS A PUBLIC SERVICE POLITICAL REFORM’

On Sunday this week, Malawi commemorated Africa Public Service Day under the theme ‘Enhancing an ethical and productive public service’. But how productive is Malawi’s public service? EPHRAIM NYONDO spoke to Dr Henry Chingaipe, director of Institute for Policy Research.

What is the connection between a strong public service sector and a nation’s development?

A nation’s development experiences are mostly a product of the character of relations between the business sector and the government. On the government side, the nature of the public service is regarded as even more important than the group of politicians that oversee it at any point in time. The political economy of development in the so-called ‘developmental states’ of the world shows that the nature of the public sector shapes the character of the business sector and their investment decisions, the philosophy of economic policies and strategies, the content of social policy and the rules of the economy in a country. All these determine the outcome of development processes. Thus, the public sector can and do shape a country’s development for good or worse. But not all public sectors deliver development. The most successful public sectors that have spurred significant socio-economic development are those that enjoy operational autonomy and technical professionalism without being encumbered by short-term interests of the politicians that oversee the State.

What factors need to be put in place and practised for a country to experience effective service delivery in the public sector?

There are a number of factors, but I can highlight only a few. The first is that the public sector, especially those responsible for policy making and strategy formulation, should be accorded sufficient technical insulation from ruling politicians. Most importantly, the public sector should as much as possible be allowed to work according to the Weberian rules of public bureaucracies. These rules promote a framework of meritocracy and a career ladder in the service. The current scenario of ‘appointive bureaucracy’ makes our government bureaucrats and technocrats indebted to ruling politicians. We have to find a formula of insulating the public service from unwarranted political influences that badly affect the professionalism of the public service.

As a citizen, you have probably had an experience with the country’s public service machinery. Do you think the country is getting the best from the public service?

My experience with the public service is a mixed bag. However, overall my impression is that most of our public service is performing below capacity not because the people are unwilling or technically incompetent, but because of intrusive politics and working environments that are not conducive and remuneration packages that essentially mock their competencies. For intrusivepolitics, the problem is much worse because very often, the interests of the ruling politicians are not clearly spelled out so much that the bureaucrats have to keep guessing or groping in the dark in search of a silver line that can give them the comfort that they are doing what is ‘politically correct’. In such situations, technical soundness that we all expect from the public service does not, unfortunately, bring enough bread on the table. On the contrary, it is being personal retainers of the politicians or the regime that pays. Once this gets settled as the rule of the game, activities of bureaucrats can hardly be in public interest and will hardly qualify to be described as ‘service’. Public service gets replaced with patrimonial clientelism.

Goodall Gondwe spoke in Parliament last week of the need to let technocrats work freely and come up with programmes free of political interference. He said it is only after paying attention to the technical side of an issue that the country can successfully implement its plans. How do you assess his observation?

The honourable gentleman was spot on. A good practice in policy making is to let technocrats deal with the policy issue technically first and develop policy scenarios. The ruling politicians then consider the scenarios and make policy choices based on their political considerations. The problem these days is that politicians announce policies and programmes prematurely on political podia and only later do they pass them on to technocrats to work out the details. Given the level of patrimonial politics to which the public service is subjected, when such policies or programmes are found to be unworkable technically, the technocrats are at pains to inform the politicians who at this time will be basking in a new wave of popularity based on their wrong policy pronouncements. To keep their jobs, the technocrats will simply do their best on the policies announced by the politicians even when they are either unworkable or unsustainable. After all, the final buck in terms of accountability stops with the politicians.

Do you believe Malawi will one day have an effective public service system?

I am one of very few tough-minded optimists of the performance of the public sector. If we can get the politics right, chances are high that public service in Malawi can be rejuvenated for more and better socio-economic development. At the moment, my view is that there are so many informal rules operating within the public service that essentially undermine its capacity to deliver. These informal rules are mostly fuelled by narrow, short-term partisan politics. Thus instead of recruitment, appointments and promotions being based on merit, they are based on parochial identities such as tribe, perceived political affiliation and the like.

What needs to be done?

There are a number of things that can be done to improve the effective performance of the public sector in Malawi. Already there have been numerous waves of public sector reforms but they have all been concerned mainly with efficiency. What has not been done, which needs to be done to compliment all the preceding reforms is a political reform of the public service, especially in the higher echelons where public servants interface with ruling politicians. In the long-term, the loyalty of public servants should be to the State and people of Malawi rather than merely government of the day and the ruling party.