As one way of ensuring efficiency in Public Service, Malawi President Arthur Peter Mutharika has directed all ministries and government departments to start giving an account for their planned deliverables to the public.
“I have directed that every fortnight at least one ministry and/or department must present an account for their planned deliverables to the public.,” said Mutharika in statement issued Tuesday.
Mutharika has also thanked all government ministries, departments and agencies that worked so hard in the last quarter.
“In the coming few weeks, Government will announce an outline of specific targets that each ministry and department will be pursuing in 2015.
“I encourage you, therefore, to directly interact and/or question the relevant ministry and/or department in line with their mandates.
“Together, our aim should be to double the economy by 2019 and I am confident that with consolidated actions we will achieve this goal,” said Mutharika.
Likewise, the Public Service Reform Commission is also inviting the general public to provide suggestions and feedback which the Commission will further review as one way of consolidating the recommendations it released last week.
On December 18 2014, the Commission recommended specific reform issues titled “A Look into the future” during a news conference addressed by the Vice President, Saulos Chilima in his capacity as Chairperson of the Commission.
However, the Commission will be sitting again in January 2015 for further review and consolidation of the final report hence the call for feedback and suggestions from the public on the released recommendations.
Members of the General Public are therefore invited to submit their alternative views and proposals in writing to the Commission’s Secretariat through the following address:
The Secretary for Public Sector Reforms Management,
Office of the Vice President.
In his national address on Saturday, Mutharika said his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) led government it inherited empty coffers, following the infamous ‘cashgate’ scandal that was perpetrated by the previous government.
The scandal was characterised by a huge pilferage of public funds due to organised fraud and corruption that consequently led to a withdrawal of development assistance that is channelled through the National Budget.
He also pointed out that Malawians the DPP government inherited huge domestic debt and enormous arrears owed to providers of goods and services to the government.
“High political aggrandizement, self-glorification, and massive corruption were characteristic of most of the period between mid-2012 and May 2014. Further, the pride and confidence of the Civil Service was fast waning off,” said Mutharika.
He then promised to promised, among others things, to fight under-development, economic and social injustice, inequality, corruption, and theft of public funds and abuse of power.
“We promised to keep Malawi on a sustained path to development, and not to stop, merely for political reasons, whatever constituted the good work of previous governments.
“We have since assessed the policies and practices of the previous governments, and resolved to retain the Automatic Fuel Pricing mechanism, the flexible exchange rate regime, the return of foreign exchange bureaus, and other monetary policy measures meant to entrench the role of markets in achieving sustainable economic growth,” Mutharika explained.
He also claimed that his administration adopted fiscal reforms that would support and deepen the previous reforms.