STATEMENT BY HIS EXCELLENCY THE PRESIDENT PROF. ARTHUR PETER MUTHARIKA AT THE LAUNCH OF THE PUBLIC SERVICE REFORMS PROGRAMME ON 11-O2-2015
AT BINGU INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE CENTRE (BICC), LILONGWE
• Your Excellency, Madam Gertrude Mutharika, First Lady of the Republic of Malawi
• Right Honourable Saulos Chilima, Vice President of the Republic of Malawi who is also the Chairperson of the Public Service Reform Commission; and Madam Chilima,
• All Cabinet Ministers Present Here
• Speaker of the National Assembly, Mr. Richard Msowoya
• Your Ladyship, The Chief Justice, Honourable Anastanzia Msosa
• Members of the Diplomatic Core
• Leader of Opposition, Dr. Lazarus Chakwera
• Chief Secretary to Government, Mr. George Mkondiwa
• All Principal Secretaries and Government Officials
• Commissioners of the Public Service Reform Commission
• All Traditional and Religious Leaders present here
• Members of the Press
• Ladies and Gentlemen
I am delighted to be part of this important day for our country as I launch the Public Service Reforms programme as part of my government’s quest to make the public service efficient and effective.
The Public Service is the centre of government operations and plays a key role in the social-economic and social well-being of this country. We must, therefore, have a Civil Service that is professional, efficient, and effective and ready to meet current and future challenges of this country.
When others say that the private sector is the engine of national development, I say that the Public Service is the OIL of the engine that has to be renewed periodically.
As you might be aware, there have been 79 attempts to reform the public service in the past but owing to a number of reasons the efforts did not produce the desired results. That is why I established the Public Service Reform Commission to help map out factors that have derailed the efficiency of the civil service.
As Albert Einstein would say, I did not want my government to fall in the trap of doing the same things the same way yet expecting different results.
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen,
And as the Vice President, who is the chairman of Commission has repeatedly said, this time around reforming the Public Service is not a matter of multiple choice. It will be done and it must be done. And it must be done now.
It will be done because the public, especially the young generation, wants change – therefore we cannot afford to pass over a country to the new generation when we are resistant to change. So the reforms will be done because the public wants them to be done.
The second reason the reforms will be implemented is because there is political will. And again as the Vice President has always said during consultation meetings, there is an OVERFLOW of political will. I dare to add that there is an OCEAN of political will to implement the reforms.
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is important to note that there are both public sector reforms which focus on optimal allocation of human resource and public service reforms which focus on improving service delivery.
In fact we have already seen some of the quick-win reforms that have already benefited the public like the reduced time it takes to print passports due to the decentralization of printing to Lilongwe and soon to Mzuzu.
The decision to make the Malawi Investment and Trade Center (MITC) a one stop shop has been highly welcomed by both the private sector and the business community as it has helped reduce cost and time for processing business registration.
We have also restricted senior government officials – especially Principal Secretaries – from attending political or presidential functions that do NOT relate to their ministries.
Apart from saving resources in terms of travel allowances and fuel, these senior government officials are now able to concentrate on their work in the office than ever before.
My fellow Malawians, this is the kind of public service I wanted to have when I ran for this office and this is the kind of public service that we, collectively as Malawians, should have.
I am, therefore, more than happy that as a government we are walking the talk and we are on our way of reforming the public service to make it professional, efficient, and effective.
As Margaret Chase Smith once said, and I quote: “Public service must be more than doing a job efficiently and honestly. It must be a complete dedication to the people and to the nation.”
True to these words, the reforms agenda we are launching today I believe will benefit the people of this country because those who work in the public service will have to renew their commitment in serving their country and the people being served will have to hold public servants accountable.
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen
Because of inefficient services in the public service, clients who know people at high places often put pressure on them to intervene in order to get a particular service. But the question is what about those who do not know such people in high places? Service delivery should be non-discriminatory and we should all work to serve our customers better, the people of Malawi.
Here is where the Organizational Performance Agreement (OPA) and Service Charters will come in so that public servants realize their core objective of serving the people of this great country timely, professionally and with respect.
Through the OPA system 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.
The OPA system is a crucial tool to achieving national development now that performance in the public service delivery is poor and the general perception is that OPA is non-existent.
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.
Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,
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’.
The signing of these OPAs will be between me and the Ministers. And to put it straight and clear, 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!
As we take on this public service reform journey today, at the heart of the reforms is a framework for change 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.
The reforms are, therefore, part of the Government’s commitment to restoring trust through increased transparency in the Civil Service and how it works. It is going to be our way of life.
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen,
I therefore invite you all to support the reforms as they represent an ambitious programme of improving efficiency and professionalism in the Public Service. This will be transformational and will meet head-on the various criticisms that we sometimes hear of the way the Civil Service goes about its business.
For the reforms to succeed there are a number of critical factors or enablers. Prime among these is CHANGE OF MINDSET by all Malawians. We all need to change our way of doing things.
We all need to tune our thinking into the transformational mode. We all need collective high level national leadership because these reforms are not for me or the DPP. They are for all Malawians. What we need is a shared national vision, driven by high level political and technical sponsorship. For political will, as I said earlier on, I will not only provide it but I will also own the reforms process.
Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Let me mention some key things that my government will be doing as part of the implementation of the reforms.
We will establish new structures to ensure greater focus on performance and delivery at the highest levels. The structures include a Parliamentary Committee on Reforms to enhance parliamentary oversight on reforms on behalf of the electorate.
We will also establish a permanent Public Service Reform Commission through appropriate policy and legislative tools.
We will improve how we manage our civil servants and monitor their performance to ensure that good performance is rewarded and poor performance is sanctioned appropriately.
We will introduce 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 we hire the best as opposed to the current system that is deemed not to be objective. This, as you might have read in the papers, means that I am trimming some of the appointment powers conferred on the President. Subsequently, the legislation providing such powers will be amended.
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.
Mr. Vice President, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen
As I conclude, I know there is no doubt that the exercise we have embarked to reform the public service is challenging. However, I also have no doubt that Minister, Principal Secretaries, Directors, managers and staff will embrace its implementation.
I wish to thank all of those who have shaped this reform initiative; the Vice President, Commissioners and the secretariat – thank you so much for a job well done.
I also wish to extend the same to all Malawians of good will who gave their ideas and suggestions to the commission during consultations.
To all the sponsors for the launch, the development partners I say thank you.
Finally, I look forward to leading the ambitious programme of change set out in the Reform Plan. I also look forward to seeing the positive impacts of the changes as they are delivered, and as we work to provide a selfless service to the people of Malawi.
Let us accept change, open up our fixed mind set so that we start a new and afresh in rebuilding our nation.
With these remarks, I declare the Public Service Reforms Programme officially launched.
Let us Make Malawi Work. May God Bless us all and our mother Malawi. Thank you.
