Editors PickNational News

Govt rates reforms success at 85%

Government has put the success rate on implementation and effectiveness of Public Service Reforms at 85 percent.

Speaking in an interview yesterday on the sidelines of the opening of a week-long Sectoral Conference on the Implementation of the Public Sector Reforms, Chief Secretary to the Government Lloyd Muhara said government was impressed with the progress made since the reforms were launched on February 11 2015.

Muhara: No one will be left behind

He said: “In summary, we have achieved 85 percent of what we intended to achieve. It is pleasing that the reforms have been well embraced by the entire public service and now we can see that no one wants to be left behind.”

Muhara said by December 2016, government had approved and signed performance contracts with all but two ministries that were initially targeted with the reforms.

He said government also approved and commenced implementation of the reforms targeting all parastatal organisations by October 2015.

Said Muhara: “Councils too have not been left behind on this journey; and as I speak, 35 district, town, municipal and city councils are in the process of implementing their own approved activities.”

But Muhara admitted that there are some pockets of resistance in some ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) in the implementation of the reforms.

He expressed optimism that the sectoral conference will play a pivotal role in thrashing out “issues” that are either enhancing or affecting progress within the individual sectors in a collective manner.

The Malawi University of Science and Technology (Must) has since been singled out as a star performer in the reform implementation and its ability to innovate and come up with programmes that respond to the current needs.

Leonard Kalindekafe, Must Ndata School of Climate and Earth Sciences executive dean and associate professor, said his institution built its success from the mistakes made by older public universities.

He said, in this regard, the institution came up with a number of activities to aimed to ensure that it is carrying out its business differently.

Kalindekafe mentioned the development of the strategic plan to guide its operations, appointment of personnel with impressive performance record and management of private research and consultancies, among others.

On the other hand, chief director of the PSRP Seodi White challenged Mzuzu University (Mzuni) and other institutions of higher learning to diversify their financial resource mobilisation areas so that they can achieve self-sustenance as espoused by the reforms.

However, government’s rating of the reforms as a success come against the background of an investigative story by The Nation on July 28 this year which found that the programme had lost momentum six months after the initiative was moved to the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) from the direct supervision of its political champion, Vice-President Saulos Chilima.

The Nation’s interviews with multiple sources—including local government councils, OPC and MDAs—showed little contact between the reforms unit at the OPC and implementing agencies.

Public officers interviewed decried the lack of direction and guidance from the reforms unit unlike when the initiative was under the Office of the Vice-President.

In its exit report, the Chilima commission recommended that the President should relaunch the Public Service Reforms Programme to raise its profile and visibility and to have the whole nation rally behind the reform and transformation agenda.

The OPC had previously failed to implements the reforms 79 times before.

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