Performance agreements from top to bottom Nghidipo Nangolo Thursday, May 22, 2014 - 08:00 Off the Desk The government should be applauded for signing performance agreements with the top administrators and accountants of ministries, namely permanent secretaries, this week. It has been long overdue that the performance of civil servants is at least on a par with accepted universal standards of governance, accountability and transparency. There is an obvious state of malignancy in which politicians show seriousness to the electorate to right the wrongs that impede excellent performance by civil servants. However, if the performance agreements with PSs is for improving the performance by top administrators, why did it not start with the top brass, down to permanent secretaries? As they say, it’s better to be late than never, and therefore the performance agreements with PSs is an admirable principled idea. However, in earnest, what message is it sending to the ordinary man in the street if the check and balances of the exercise are not spelt out clearly as to what will happen to any PS performing below standard? The bold step taken should include clear measures of consequences so that society can rally behind the new direction of performance in the civil service that has been the target of critics, especially on service delivery and effectiveness. One should agree that the idea is to avoid the situation from escalating to dangerous levels of an incompetent civil service. Sometimes, the citizens on the one side and civil servants as caregivers find it hard to the understand why they should support one another in a politically-polarised society, and that’s why accountability, transparency and performance appraisal become crucial yardsticks to create an impartial and competent civil service. With excellent service delivery and exceptional performance by government administrators, accountants and politicians, the poor people will comprehend why top civil service deserve to own mansions, farms, and drive those luxury cars, or warrant a hefty salary increment. But with poor performance and poor service delivery, the man in the streets will embrace the belief that top civil servants are there to milk the system for their own narrow selfish interests. While it’s a great investment for the government to guarantee superior performance, and by extension excellent service delivery to all citizens of the country, it should be convincing that the buck is not stopping with the evaluation of the performance of PSs. The State should not be naive about the intellectual capacity of its own citizens, and therefore the performance agreements with PSs should be extended further to include MPs, ministers, national security leaders, and right down to the bottom. In fact, the citizens are still waiting to hear that all MPs have declared their business interests in parliament and that they are re-solute to act in the best interests of the nation. At the moment, the fine line between business interests, law making and politics remains blurred in the absence of the declaration of commercial interests. It is commendable, though, that the state has signed performance agreements with PSs and that they are taking steps not to give the citizens ideas to accuse civil servants of betrayal by those they have entrusted with their lives. It is a step in the right direction to ensure that poor performance by top civil servants do not threaten the livelihood of people and the national economy. The ability to set targets and performance appraisals should justify investment and value in human capital. Most importantly, a country needs a thorough me- chanism to appraise performance and reward human capital to complement investments in social programs.
Posted on: Sat, 24 May 2014 09:00:01 +0000
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