Public Service Reform Commission Recommends 13 Actions to Get To Efficient Civil Service

Public Service Reform Commission Recommends 13 Actions to Get To Efficient Civil Service

After six months of study, getting views from public and learn from other countries, jut to find solutions halting Civil Service, the appointed seven member Public Service Reform Commission chaired by Vice President Saulos Chilima has come up with 13 recommended actions that the commission says will end inefficiencies in public service.

Vice President Saulos Chilima announced yesterday in Lilongwe that President Mutharika has approved all the proposed reforms.

He said the commission will make submission of its final report in January but on 11 February 2015 government will launch the report together with other recommended actions that were in existence but need to be reinvigorated like Reform Programme, National Plan to guide development initiative; Vision 2020 and Organisation Performance Assessment.

Some recommendations gives President authority to chair and champion some reforms just to raise their profile, however other reforms have stripped off some OPC functions by moving other initiatives to relevant ministries so that OPC remains with its core function of Managing Civil Service.

The Commission in its preliminary report which the final report will be made available in January 2015, recommends and propose issues of restructuring, decentralization of services, instill discipline in civil service, continued partnerships with private sector and quick enactment of up to 16 outstanding legislations that have an effect in effective implementation of the reforms.

Presenting the recommendations Vice President of Republic of Malawi Saulos Chilima says the recommendations will be implemented because are necessary and nothing will stop government.

He noted that other recommendations have already been implemented.

Some recommended actions will involve crucial decisions particularly on resizing civil service to maintain current 40% vacancy rate following Mutharika decision to have a 20 Cabinet members led to reduction of government ministries.

According to Chilima the Commission recommends and an exercise that reduce number of Principle Secretaries by 56 from current 96 to 40, through a consultative process that is transparent in order to ensure fairness and credibility.

He said irrelevant portfolios will be deleted, some PSs will be deployed outside civil service and exiting those that may not be required, but with a decent one-off package, and similar exercise will be done in entire civil service in order to come up with “lean and vibrant organization.”

But on constitutional reforms the Commission recommends that “number of government Ministries should not exceed twenty and the size of cabinet should not exceed 25 including the president and the vice president”

Furthermore the commission proposes ten public positions to follow presidential tenure of office in order to prevent ongoing perceptions of political appointments and termination of contracts when new regime is ushered in. And National Vision be legislated to make it legally binding and avoid tendency by Ministries, Department and Agencies deviating from the countries plan and strategies so to keep such visions stand the test of time including any change of government.

Other recommendations include restructuring of Ministry of finance, establishment of School that train government workers, development of individual, Institutional performance contracts and strengthen Green Belt Initiative  by moving it from OPC and establish Green Belt Authority so that it brings to reality Malawi dream of becoming a producing and export nation.

The commission has selected 8 ministries and departments to pioneer the implementation of these reforms and promote service delivery and accountability in some areas. In addition it has also recommended that a permanent Reform Commission be created.