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.
