ZOMBA-(MaraviPost)-The much-touted public sector reforms, are unlikely to bear practical fruits if the current study on its practicality, is anything to go by. According to the report, the whole process lacks enforcement mechanism, innovation, among others.

The Political and Administrative Studies Department at Chancellor College, a constituent arm of University of Malawi, in conjunction with the Centre for Development and Environment at Norway’s University of Oslo, the under the Norwegian Program for Capacity Building in Higher Education, and the Research for Development (Norhed), released this week, the finding on the prospects of the reforms.

Published on its website, the research says the public reforms lack an implementation strategy for new ideas, and says they are merely institutional, without addressing the actual challenges.

The study is titled “Innovation and Thought Leadership in Public Sector: Reflections in the Context of Malawi’s Public Sector Reforms.” It identifies six challenges, including lack of innovations, failure to specify key interactions between stakeholders and ministries, failure to identify people pushing the reforms agenda, as well as public servants perceptions that the reforms are “an outsider’s thing.”

The finding highlights that there is no mention of “innovation” and “thought leadership” in the current reforms, which President Peter Mutharika launched in 2015.

President Mutharika appointed Vice President Saulos Chilima to champion the reforms for only a year after which, his mandate to push forward the reforms, expired.

According to the study, authored by Professor Happy Kayuni, described the absence of thought leadership and innovation, as implying changing the mind-set on how certain things are done and developing a sense of possibility, to allow adaptations to new ideas.

Professor Kayuni noted that during consultations prior to the formulation of the reforms, trade unions and donors raised the need to promote innovation, dynamism, and continuity in the public service.

Kayuni however, said the call was never followed up in the subsequent sections of the reform agenda, with many casting doubt that it will bear fruits.

The Public Service Reforms Unit’s Chief Director, Seodi White,  agreed with the research’s findings and said the reforms agenda was ambitious and of a bigger magnitude than anticipated.

But White was quick to disagree with the notion that the reforms are not innovative or thought led. She argues that with an implementation path that has clear reporting guidelines conducted quarterly. was one way in which the reforms were innovative.

She therefore, lauded the context of the reforms, including the introduction of national identity cards for all Malawians, and unbundling of thebElectricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (ESCOM) into two companies, which never was, means the reforms has made strides.

The public sector reform commission , intends to work with over 60 parastatals, 16 ministries, and 36 local government institutions to redefine and enhance their operations.

This is another stunning study within two months by the same institution which recently released another set of findings – the Afrobarometer Report, which Professors Kayuni, and Boniface Dulani authored, disclosed that the governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration, is losing popularity in Malawi.

The findings did not please President Peter Mutharika, who eventually criticized Dulani and Kayuni at a rally in Mangochi last month, and said the two had surveyed flies and not Malawians.

Subsequent to the report’s release, the Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA), invaded Dulani’s office in Zomba for alleged tax evasion. Many observers raised questions on over tax body’s conduct.