Uncle Harvest: PUBLIC SECTOR REFORMS IMPLEMENTATION

MALAWI: The Malawi News of Saturday, November 14-19 carried an article titled Spanners in Public Sector Reforms programme.

The article cites three major spanners in the Public Sector Reforms wheel: finances, shortage of expertise, and legal delays.

A read by a non-expert in Public Sector Reforms would swallow the truthfulness of these cited spanners as the reason behind the lack of progress.

Many times in situations where there is resistance to change, people come up with believable and seemingly credible reasons why change is not taking place.

First of all, Public Sector Reforms are a flagship programme of the Tonse Alliance. What this means, therefore, is that it must form the priority area of government funding.

We will never as a nation get to a position where we have all the resources and extra that is needed for the transformation of this country.

What is then required is for the Ministry of Finance to fund MDAs prioritizing the implementation of the reforms.

It is also the requirement of each MDA to prioritize the allocation of resources to reform programme aspects of their particular MDA.

The most amazing thing is, whilst reforms are not being implemented for lack of funds, at the end of the financial year it will be found that MDAs have not only spent their total budgets but even more.

The issue then becomes not lack of finances but rather lack of prioritization or indeed sabotage of the programme.

The issue of lack of personnel in Ministries to undertake the tasks that will facilitate reforms is also doable.

We are at a point where most MDAs have outstanding vacancies, it is a matter of filling them.

Malawi currently has masses of young people with prerequisite qualifications, ready and eager to land running once given the jobs.

Who is stopping the employment of personnel that would assist in the implementation of a government priority programme?

Decisions are not being made.

As for the Ministry of Justice, they have to find a balance between perfection ( paralysis of analysis) and efficiency. Lawyers are perfectionists indeed but need to learn the value of efficiency.

It is thus clear that the spanners in the wheels of the Public Sector Reforms are being created and thrown in there by decisions within the Public Sector itself.

The political leadership has to therefore introduce a pain management system that makes it uncomfortable for MDAs to remain where there were before they came in.

People are not implementing because nothing has happened to make it uncomfortable for them to remain at the same place.

There are risks, challenges, and dangers in implementing any change.

It is like plugging into the Sea of Doubt, where you are likely to face strong storms and sharks as you attempt to swim to the desired goal. Life has to be made uncomfortable for MDAs to remain in their comfort zones.

Yes, they will not stop issuing threats to you as political leaders. Afraid of not being voted for in the next elections you then allow things to remain what they have always been.

In short, there is a cost and a price to pay for any fundamental changes to take place.

As long as we are not ready and willing to pay the price, let us forget public sector reform and national transformation, period.