Transport ministry tops list of MDAs performers

The Ministry of Transport and Public Works has topped the list of ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) that have performed well in terms of the performance contracts they signed with the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC).

The MDAs performed well in service delivery and financial management between July 1 2017 and June 30 2018, according to the chief director on Performance and Enforcement Department in the OPC Dickson Chunga.

Last Friday, OPC awarded the top performers in three categories, namely MDAs, institutional bodies and parastatals during the launch of Public Service Management and National Public Sector Reforms Policies in Lilongwe.

Government institutions that have performed well are Parliament followed by the Office of the Ombudsman; on parastatals, Competition and Fair Trading Commission (CFTC) came on top followed by Small and Medium Enterprise Development Institute (Smedi) and Malawi Bureau of Standards (MBS) and on MDAs,  Ministry of Transport and Public Works was on top seconded by the National Audit Office.

In an interview on Tuesday, Chunga said: “We have particular areas that we look at, the first area has to do with finance and stewardship, and this has to do with how finances are managed.

“The other category is service delivery, where we look at issues of service charter and ensuring that that those service charters are developed, disseminated and properly displayed and also launched. The other categories are financial and operations category.”

He said the assessment programme also looks at how MDAs, institutional bodies and parastatals have performed on financial stewardship where the main focus is on how they used resources that were allocated to them in the national budget.

Ministry of Transport and Public Works spokesperson James Chakwera, in an interview, said the decoration is an encouragement to other ministries to up their game.

“It gives us the strength that we are able, and at the same time, it also challenges us because being given that kind of award means that next time you are given a task, it becomes a bit challenging,” he said.

Earlier, Chief Secretary to the Government Lloyd Muhara said the policies were developed to transform the Malawi Public Service.

“The main key issues that need to be adhered to are service delivery, accountability and transparency,” he said.