We need a transformation in civil service
I have been pleasantly surprised to learn that there are a number of people who are deeply concerned about the situation in the civil service and wish something was done urgently to bring things back to normal. Here are two of the responses I got to my article titled ‘Malawi needs destiny changers’:
I just read your article this evening and found it so touching and thought-provoking! You can never really know that something is seriously wrong until you have had the experience.
The example of civil service work culture comes to mind with painful feelings of a lot of time wasted. I retired at director level in the civil service after 32 years of service, which I believed were well-spent and utililised. God forbid! Now that I am out of the civil service, I have just ashamedly discovered that I wasted my time. The work which I covered in 32 years could as well have been done in 12 months.
As I work in the private sector now, I am able to account for my time (and actually feel better psychologically for producing tangible results that I can point at, at no extra cost at all, let alone for the pay that I am entitled to.
The work culture in the civil service is disabling. No change whatsoever can come by if the trend is not reversed by a robust reform programme. Now, how do we change? Revolutionalise the civil service or attach pay to results?
If I had known I should have stayed out of the civil service. It corrupts work ethics and becomes too academic, which in turn becomes detrimental to development. Please write more on how you feel we can nurture destiny changers; otherwise, we are doomed to failure.
- Kilembe
Dear Joshua,
I totally agree with you that Malawi needs destiny changers. I believe our country is failing to develop because of lacking destiny changers. The future of our children’s children will obviously be bleak if the civil servants continue to render their services without the four suggested Ds by Giovanni Maninni, which you well explained in your article of June 7 titled “Malawi needs destiny changers”.
I believe Cashgate is still rampant in the civil service, but in a subtle way as civil servants continue to embezzle public funds by exploiting loopholes in the existing regulations. It is a pity that some officers can only do work if allowances are attached to that work. And when they make their claims, they present fictitious figures. They may work, say for 10 days and claim 25 ‘nights’ in allowances. Is this not systematic plunder of tax payer’s money?
I feel that it is my Christian duty to voice out that we need to uphold honesty at all times. I am not ashamed to declare that most civil servants that drive posh cars do not deserve them in the eyes of God.
If the civil service reforms fail to achieve the intended goal, then we must expect no development for another half of a century. I appeal to government to quickly revise civil servants’ salaries and abolish allowances; otherwise, the common people will continue to live in dire poverty because they do not benefit from their taxes at all.
Martin Ndovie, Kawale.
From the two letters above, it is clear that the culture in the civil service is sickening, to say the least. What is even more disturbing, in my view, is that many civil servants regard the “allowance” culture as perfectly normal. They will, in fact, get surprised and frustrated if their claim is turned down by a controlling officer and will quickly label such person as harsh or hard-hearted. I was once asked to give a messenger ‘two nights’ because he had done some general cleaning in somebody’s office. Such claims are the order of the day in the civil service.
By the way, night allowances are those that people claim when they travel, to enable them to get decent lodging and food. Let the financiers of government, the ordinary men and women who pay taxes on the commodities and services they purchase from time to time, judge whether I erred by turning down the two ‘nights’ for a messenger who neither travelled nor did anything outside his normal duties. n
