REPUBLIC OF MALAWI PUBLIC SERVICE REFORM COMMISSION, A LOOK INTO THE FUTURE 18th December, 2014. “Making Malawi Work: Transforming Malawi‟s Public Service” Malawi is at a crossroads and needs to transform and become a better country. Malawians are being called to action to make a choice to create a middle-income country as defined in the Malawi‟s Vision 2020. It is in this spirit that President of the Republic of Malawi, Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika appointed a Public Service Reform Commission chaired by the Vice President the Right Honourable Saulos K. Chilima. The other members of the commission are: i. Professsor Peter Mwanza ii. Mr. Thomson F. Mpinganjira iii. Ms. Evelyn Mwapasa iv. Rev. Howard Matiya Nkhoma v. Ms. Seodi V.R White vi. Mr. Bright S.M Mangulama vii. Mr. Krishna Savjani OBE, SC The aim of this Public Service Reform Commission is to facilitate the creation of an effective and efficient Public Service that will spur economic growth through the nurturing of a market economy that is foreign direct investor friendly, as well as one that will facilitate long-term investments in health, education and other social programmes. The Public Service Reform Commission recognizes that a transformed public service spurs economic growth and creates more jobs and businesses for Malawians. His Excellency the President is calling on Cabinet Ministers, the Public Service and all Malawians to support efforts to transform our public service and our country so that our vision 2020 of transforming Malawi to a middle-income country is met. Malawi‟s Public Service is a servant of the people of Malawi. RECOMMENDED SPECIFIC REFORM ISSUES: 1. MANAGEMENT PARALYSIS AND A STATE OF MENTAL SIEGE The Commission has noted with regret that: 1. There is a senior government management paralysis with regards to their supervisory roles; 2. Junior Staff continue to violate set rules and procedures, such as those relating to performance, time management, among others; 3. Principal Secretaries and other Senior Government officials continue to ignore such acts and/or omissions which have put government business in a state of paralysis. 4. The camaraderie, “buddy-buddy” relationships that exist between the Senior Government officials and their juniors, is responsible for a state of “mental siege‟ on the part of the senior government officials, and paralyses them into inaction. 5. Over and above this, the commission also notes that there is fear by Senior Government officials of their juniors as well as lack of respect by junior staff of their superiors. Recommended Action: Senior Government officials should exercise their mandates and discipline insubordinate staff without fear or favour, in line with Public Service Regulations. This will be dealt with at the OPC level by the Chief Secretary to Government as the Head of The Civil Service to ensure full compliance and enforcement. 2. PROPOSED CONSTITUTIONAL REFORMS The Commission has noted the public concerns on:- a) Unregulated establishment of Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) b) The perception that there is political interference in appointments and termination of employment of officers, especially in senior public office positions during regime change (No security of tenure of office) c) The presence of outdated legislation that does not support transformative reform initiatives d) The presence of many unfinished bills that are required to support reforms e) Gaps and absence of legislation is hindering progress towards transformative reform initiatives Recommended Action: The following constitutional and legal reforms: a) The number of government Ministries should not exceed twenty (20). b) The size of the cabinet should not exceed 25. This includes the President and the Vice President c) That the following public positions should follow the Presidential Tenure of office:- (i) The Attorney General (ii) The Governor of the Reserve Bank of Malawi (iii) The Chief Secretary to Government (iv) The Director General of Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (v) The Inspector General of Police (vi) The Commander of the Malawi Defence Force (vii) The Secretary to the Treasury (viii) The Budget Director (ix) The Director General of the Anti- Corruption Bureau (x) The Commissioner General of the Malawi Revenue Authority d) The Auditor General should report to Parliament directly, and not through the Minister of Finance, to ensure independence of the office e) Harmonise all the Service Commissions under the Malawi Public Service Commission f) The National Vision be legislated to make it legally binding, and avoid the tendency by Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) deviating from the Country‟s plans and strategies. This will ensure that the country‟s transformative agenda stays of course and stands the test of time including any change of government g) Commercial Parastatal organisations be given more autonomy to allow them to operate like companies and enter into joint ventures where necessary. This should be legislated accordingly in order to avoid conflicting with the existing in order to enable reforms h) The following should be given priority for enactment: (i) Public Service Act (Amendment) (ii) Public Service Remuneration Board Bill (iii) Public Finance Management (Amendment) Bill (iv) Physical Planning Bill (v) Local Government (Amendment) Bill (vi) Payment Systems Bill (vii) Electronic Transactions Bill (viii) National Local Government Finance Committee Bill (ix) University of Malawi Bill (x) Land Bill (xi) Insolvency Bill (xii) Mines and Minerals (Amendment) Bill (xiii) Communications Bill (xiv) Lotteries and Gaming Bill (xv) Political Parties Regulation Bill (xvi) Public Procurement Act (Amendment) 3. EFFECTIVE IMPLEMENTATION OF PERFORMANCE CONTRACTING The Commission notes:- a) The laxity in the delivery of public services due to the absence of a robust result-oriented performance system linked to agreed individual work plans that are closely aligned to organisational performance targets derived from the National Development Plan b) The disconnect between the roles of Department of Human Resource Management and Development (DHRMD) and Performance Enforcement Department (PED), where DHRMD only focuses on individual performance and PED only focuses on organisational performance. Recommended Action: a) The development of individual performance contracts between specific reporting levels, based on agreed targets as per Annual Action Plans; b) Review and implement effective enforcement of Organisational Performance Assessment (OPA), including the development of organisational performance contracts between the President and a Cabinet Minister, and the Cabinet Minister and a Principal Secretary. This will then be cascaded to the entire ministry c) The merging of the Department of Human Resource Management and Development (DHRMD) and Performance Enforcement Department (PED) in order to centralise and easily coordinate the assessment of individual officers as well as of Ministries, Departments and Agencies; d) Public Sector Reforms Management Unit to take the role of monitoring and coordinating the tasks undertaken, in an effort to accelerate effective delivery of public services and ensure continuity 4. PROVISION OF UNINTERRUPTED SERVICES The Commission notes:- a) That most absenteeism is not sanctioned and is contrary to the provisions of the Malawi Public Service Regulations; b) That such unregulated absenteeism is leading to serious disruption of services and has a negative impact on delivery of services in most MDAs. Recommended Action: a) In an event of death in MDAs, Controlling Officers should ensure that Government services are provided without disruption; b) Any absence from the office should be authorised, in line with the provisions and requirements of Malawi Public Service Regulations; c) All Controlling Officers be reminded that they have an obligation to enforce these regulations and ensure that Government services are always provided without disruption. 5. RIGHTSIZING THE CIVIL SERVICE The Commission notes:- a) That the number of Government Ministries was recently reduced to twenty (20) b) The reduction has created redundancies of Principal Secretaries in a number of Ministries as their number exceeds the current number of Ministries, and the need for their services c) There is need for an exercise to match the number of Principal Secretaries and existing Ministries, based on needs in the current number of Ministries d) Further, part of the transformative agenda is to reduce public spending through staff rationalisation e) The Commission also noted the high vacancy rate that exists in the Civil Service which is currently estimated at 40% Recommended Action: a) Reduction in the number of Principal Secretaries (PSs) by fifty-six (56) from the current ninety-six (96) to forty (40). b) This should be done through a transparent and consultative process in order to ensure fairness and credibility. This exercise will be done by deleting irrelevant portifolios, deploying some PSs and exiting those that may not be required within the system. A decent one-off exit package will be offered c) For the entire Civil Service, look at the total structure and delete all irrelevant positions in order to come up with a lean and vibrant organisation. d) Put a freeze on external hire in order to allow for re-deployment in the first phase in order to ensure best fit within the system. 6. ENSURING FOCUSSED UTILISATION OF COUNTRY‟S PRECIOUS FINANCIAL RESOURCES The Commission notes that although the annual budget is supposed to be the main tool of implementing Malawi‟s national development aspirations, one of the major impediments to success has been the absence of a disciplined effort to link the budget and actual funding to the projects in the national plans. Recommended Action: There should be utilisation of the budget as a critical tool to facilitate accelerated achievement of the goals in the Vision 2020 and MGDS II. To achieve that, there is need to: a) Rationalise the development budget prioritising projects which take into account impact on needed accelerated development b) Ensure disciplined implementation of the budget, ruthless adherence to the agreed plans, close monitoring and results of monitoring informing timely corrective actions, where necessary. 7. NATIONAL SCHOOL OF GOVERNMENT The Commission notes:- a. That in all the countries that are performing well, there are properly organised, focused and resourced Schools of Government; b. The key role this institution can play to enhance capacity development of Malawi‟s Public Service c. The absence of such an institution in Malawi. Recommended Action: a) Establishment of Malawi School of Government. The Malawi Institute of Management (MIM) and Staff Development Institute (SDI) should form this entity. The Malawi School of Government will act as an explicit instrument to build strong public service and drive public service reforms. The objective is to provide continuous essential training necessary for effective and efficient public service delivery. The School should also have compasses in Zomba and Mzuzu b) Government should make it mandatory that all MDAs spend at least 70% of the total training budget on training provided by the Malawi School of Government c) Induction and orientation of the Malawi Public Service Regulations (MPSR) should be mandatory again as was the case before. This should also form the basis for promotions and reward 8. STRENGTHENING OF THE GREENBELT INITIATIVE The Commission notes that the strengthening of the Greenbelt Initiative is one of the major keys to acceleration of Malawi‟s development. Recommended Action: The Greenbelt Initiative be removed from the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) and, in its place, the establishment of the Greenbelt Authority, as a separate and independent entity. This will facilitate our long term aspirations of becoming a producing and exporting nation and aid our export earnings growth agenda. 9. PROVISION OF CONDUCIVE WORK ENVIRONMENT The Commission notes the importance of providing a conducive work environment to all public officers in order to motivate them, safe-guard their health and welfare and improve service delivery. Recommended Action: a) Government should endeavour to relocate Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to more appropriate and convenient buildings, in order to foster conducive work environment; b) That Government should construct at least two multi-storey office buildings at the Capital Hill. A PPP approach is an ideal option for this activity 10. RE-LAUNCH VISION 2020 The Commission:- a) Acknowledges that it is mandatory to have a national development plan to guide development initiatives among all stakeholders; b) Realises that national plans provide a development framework and serve as a single reference document for all stakeholders; c) That Vision 2020 has been implemented using medium term strategies such as the Malawi Poverty Reduction Strategy (MPRS), Malawi Growth and Development Strategy I (MGDS I) and currently the Malawi Growth and Development Strategy II (MGDS II) d) That in the early years of the Vision 2020, there was a lot of enthusiasm amongst all stakeholders in making sure that the country moves toward the realisation of the Vision; e) That this enthusiasm was short lived, as evidenced by the lack of emphasis on the Vision; f) Believes that with six years to go to 2020, there is still adequate opportunity to re-focus the nation, and that this can be a turning point for Malawi to start moving toward the realisation of the Vision; g) That there is urgent need to revive the vision by embarking on massive publicity and awareness campaigns. Recommended Action: a) His Excellency the President to re-launch Vision 2020 in order to have the whole nation rally behind Vision 2020; b) His Excellency the President to champion the agenda and appoint a team to monitor progress and report on quarterly basis. c) The 2015/2016 budgeting process and subsequent planning processes should fund such plans 11. RE-LAUNCH ORGANISATIONAL PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT (OPA) The Commission notes:- a) That Organisational Performance Assessment (OPA) is a project and programme management tool that the Malawi Government developed to enhance performance in public service in a coordinated manner. OPA is supposed to help record planned strategic outcomes and outcome targets, Indicators, Output and output targets, allocated financial resources, and systematically collect relevant information for monitoring indicators and measure performance to track progress captured in the OPA report b) That although OPA is a key tool to achievement of national development, currently performance in the public service delivery is generally poor and the general perception is that OPA is non-existent c) That currently OPA is faced with many challenges, such as: i. MDAs do not adhere to the timelines set for submission for the strategic plans, OPA plans and reports ii. Some MDAs do not have strategic plans and most of those that have are poorly aligned to the Malawi Growth and Development Strategy (MGDS) iii. OPA implementation is confined to a few government organisations because most do not take the process seriously iv. There is weak coordination in the implementation of the OPA amongst the various MDAs; and the OPA system does not have clear incentives and sanctions Recommended Action: His Excellency the President should re-launch the Organisation Performance Assessment at national level, in order to raise its profile and need for compliance, and to have the public service and the whole nation rally behind it. This will give the people of Malawi the opportunity to see clearly how their public service works. On an annual basis, the President will sign these performance contracts with Cabinet Ministers. 12. RE-LAUNCH THE REFORM PROGRAMME The Commission notes: a) That reforms have been implemented in Malawi for many years but there is generally very little to show as achievement of the reform programme; b) that there are a lot of reform programmes going on in various Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), mostly disjointed and do not attain the intended objectives; c) That there would be greater benefit if the reform programme was centralised and made more visible. Recommended Action: a) His Excellency the President to own, champion and chair the reform and transformation agenda b) His Excellency the President to re-launch the Reform Programme in order to raise its profile and visibility and to have the whole nation rally behind the reform and transformation agenda c) Create a Ministry responsible for Public Service Reforms to enforce implementation and also offer Monitoring and Evaluation support for the implemented programs 13. SELECTION OF MINISTRIES AND DEPARTMENT TO „PIONEER‟ REFORMS AND ACCOUNTABILITY IN SERVICE DELIVERY In order to kick start the reform process in earnest, and to promote accountability in service delivery, it is necessary to select a few Ministries and Department that should pioneer/champion reforms and provide a benchmark for the whole public service. The Commission proposed that these Ministries and Department should be selected based on potential for high return against low investment. Recommended Action: a) The following seven (7) Ministries and one (1) Department have been selected to pioneer reforms: (i) Ministry of Finance and Economic Development Planning Reform Area: Government Financial Accounting, Payment and Reporting System; Strengthening of the internal auditing function in the short/medium term, by recruiting qualified auditors from the Private Sector to promote oversight role in financial management within the respective Ministries. (ii) Ministry of Home Affairs and Internal Security Reform Areas: 1. National Registration Bureau: - Introduction of National Identity Cards. 2. Immigration Department: - Improvement of Passport service delivery, through decentralization of printing. (iii) Ministry of Education, Science and Technology Reform Area: - Decentralisation of payment of salaries for teachers in order to achieve timely payment of salaries; - Enhancement of quality education. (iv) Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Infrastructure Development Reform Area: - Improvement of service delivery in the Road Traffic Department, Including provision of Drivers‟ Licenses and Certificate of Fitness; (v) Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development Reform Area: - Improvements in Chiefs Administration and Town Planning; (vi) Ministry of Energy, Mining and Natural Resources Reform Area: - Improvements in provision of energy, and extractive sector; (vii) Ministry of Health Reform Area: - Improvement in delivery of health services (viii) Department of E-Government - Improvement in ICT services to support efficiency and effectiveness in delivery of public services by MDAs. The above Ministries and Department have already been tasked to produce reform outcome areas and their Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to be achieved over an initial 12 month period. The Ministers responsible will make public commitments on their expected achievements during the designated period. At the end of the implementation period, the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) will be assessed, and their performance rating announced to the public, in order of level of performance. The Commission believes that this approach will provide a benchmark for public service performance and accountability as it is rolled out to all MDAs. CONCLUSION The findings and recommendations have already been presented to the Head of State His Excellency Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika, President of the Republic of Malawi and I am pleased to inform you that the President has approved all of them. Therefore we will be proceeding to formulate a detailed action plan for implementation including elements of Monitoring and Evaluation. WAY FORWARD 1. Action Plan for implementation Having concluded the 3 phases of its work, the commission will now close it work within the month of January 2015 prior to final submission of its action report in February 2015. During this period, the commission will do the following: In the first week of January 2015, engage Private Sector organisations to participate in the launch event scheduled for February 11, 2015 In the third week of January 2015, socialise its final report with all stakeholders it consulted during its working period in order to ensure complete alignment and ownership of the contents In the fourth week of January 2015, print the final report in preparation for its launch as scheduled 2. Creation of Permanent Reform Commission The commission proposes the establishment of a permanent independent Reforms Commission to play the role of a sounding board and also oversight of the entire reforms agenda 3. Re-Launch of the Reform Agenda His Excellency Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika, President of the Republic of Malawi will re-launch the reforms agenda including OPA, Vision 2020 on February 11, 2015. This will be done in order to rally the people of Malawi behind these important programs as we continue with our quest to develop our country further 4. Strengthening of the Reforms Unit into a Ministry of Public Sector Reforms. The commission recommends the creation of a Ministry of Public Service Reforms 5. Creation of Parliamentary Committee on Reforms The commission recommends the creation of a new committee that could be called “Parliamentary Committee of Public Service Reforms” We call on: 1. The Public Service – Reform or forget a better Civil Service 2. The People of Malawi – Transform or forget development
Posted on: Thu, 18 Dec 2014 17:00:24 +0000
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