LILONGWE (Maravipost)–Malawi government has rolled out what it calls Organisational Performance Agreement (OPA) and Service Charters for public officers to “realise their core” objective of serving the people timely, professionally and with respect.
Through the OPA system, according to President Peter Mutharika, who launched the Public Service Reforms Programme on Wednesday, the government will be able to record strategic outcomes and outcome targets, indicators, allocated financial resources and systematically collect relevant information for monitoring and measuring performance to track progress captured in the OPA report.
Mutharika described OPA system as a crucial tool to achieving national development and that some selected ministries including the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, Ministry of Trade and Industry as well as the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development will pilot this initiative and at the end such ministries and departments will be assessed and their performance will be announced to the public.
“This approach will provide a benchmark for public service performance and accountability before it is rolled out to all Ministries, Departments and Agencies as we continue to build confidence in the public and dialogue with the people.
“The OPA framework will set out clear steps so that the Civil Service has the capability and capacity to perform at the highest level possible to ensure that our civil servants are fully accountable and the public know ‘who does what and to whom are they accountable,” said Mutharika, adding that the signing of these OPAs will be between him and the Ministers.
“The OPA system will be our way of doing business so that we know what results to expect and also be able to know which Ministers and ministries are performing to the expectation and delight of Malawians.
“This approach will extend to the entire executive and cascade to the Public Service as a whole. Days of doing business as usual are long gone!”, further said Mutharika.
The Public Services Reforms’ framework for change is made up of four key themes:
1. Professionalism – taking action to improve the level of professionalism in how the Civil Service operates;
2. Responsiveness – taking action to improve how the Civil Service is geared up to respond to demands from the public;
3.Open and accountability – taking action to ensure the Civil Service openly engages and accounts for what it does; and
4. Unity – taking action to ensure that the Civil Service works in a better collective way.
Mutharika also said his government will also establish a permanent Public Service Reform Commission through appropriate policy and legislative tools and bank roll new methods in recruiting Principal Secretaries and those from Grade 5 above so that they should be going through a competitive promotion system so that they hire the best as opposed to the current system that is deemed not to be objective.
“We will also manage our talent better to ensure that civil servants can continue to grow and develop, and to ensure that they have the opportunity to maximise their contribution.
We will engage better with our civil servants and use their experience and insights into how we can improve, including. through periodic perception surveys on how civil servants are performing,” said Mutharika.
