Malawi VP lauds Singapore trip
Vice-President Saulos Chilima yesterday said his week-long trip to Singapore will benefit the nation as it enabled his delegation to tap knowledge on how to successfully implement public service reforms.
Chilima was speaking in Lilongwe on arrival from the South-east Asian country.
He said his delegation comprising Chief Secretary to the Government George Mkondiwa and Public Service Reforms commissioner Krishna Savjani, SC, travelled at the invitation of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Global Centre for Public Service Excellence (GCPSE) to discus public service reforms.
At the forum, international experts from Argentina, Australia, Germany and Kenya, among others, shared their expertise through a series of presentations, dialogues and discussions.
Said Chilima: “We learnt how other countries are running their public service and also how they are implementing reforms. We hope that if we adopt some of the best practices, the reforms currently under implementation here will benefit.”
UNDP, which is supporting the reforms implementation, funded the Singapore trip.
Chilima left for Singapore, a success story in public service reforms implementation, on March 10.
President Peter Mutharika launched the Public Service Reforms agenda on February 11 where some ministers signed contracts with the President promising to roll out specific assignments by December 2015.
Bwana Chilima, much hinges on political will. Please relay this information to president Mutharika.
Presidents have been responsible for making the civil service unprofessional by not following the procedures. Stop appointing people from outside civil service to be PS or heading government departments. They do not know anything.
Joseph Mwanamvekha was brought in from Malawi Savings Bank to be PS for Treasury. He messed up big time. He was making decisions that he was not supposed to make just because he does not know how civil service works.