DELIVERED AT THE LAUNCH OF THE PUBLIC SECTOR PERFORMANCE CONTRACT SIGNING CEREMONY AT KAMUZU PALACE
LILONGWE
23RD NOVEMBER, 2020
Today is a great day!
In the annals of history, it will be remembered as the day we set and committed to measurable standards for implementing reforms in the public sector. For decades, this nation has been like a ship lost at sea, blown all over the place by every wind of political and
personal interest behind the sails of its public sector. As a result, Malawi’s state machinery has been left marooned on the islands of corruption, waste, and impunity, with no prospects of rescue due to lack of political appetite to spearhead the change needed.
There is a tragic component to the situation we have allowed to prevail. It lies in the fact that our resistance to reforming the public sector is depriving students in our schools of quality education; our resistance to reforming the public sector is depriving patients in our hospitals of medical supplies and personnel; our resistance to reforming the public sector is depriving farmers in our fields of affordable inputs; our resistance to reforming the public sector is depriving youth in our cities of job opportunities; our resistance to reforming
the public sector is depriving women in our
communities of equality of opportunity and dignity. In short, there is no deficiency of supply in the delivery of public service that cannot be traced back to deficiencies of demand in the implementation of public
sector reforms.
In fact, without committing ourselves to standards of reform as we have done today, we would be undermining the transformation that Malawians voted for five months ago. One of the main reasons our elections regularly produce a change of government without producing a change of governance is because
the public service is largely unresponsive to the will of the people. The entire state machinery is filled with individuals who are sworn to continue doing business as usual regardless of what the Malawian people vote to see happen in those public offices. There is a clear disconnect between the public members whose taxes resource the public sector and the publie servants whose talents run it. What we have done here today is an effort to close that gap.
If Malawians vote for a President and Vice-President who promised public sector reform, it is unacceptable for Capital Hill civil servants to respond by carrying on doing things as before. If Malawians voted for a
President and Vice-President who promised to end corruption, it is unacceptable for Capital Hill’s controlling officers to respond by digging their heels deeper into graft or letting it happen on their watch. IfMalawians voted for a President and Vice-President who promised a government of servant-leaders, it is unacceptable for Capital Hill Minister, Secretaries, and Directors to respond by continuing to lord it over those they serve. If Malawians voted for a President and Vice-
President who promised to unite Malawians and galvanize them to work hard and smart, it is unacceptable for Capital Hil’s work ethic to be lethargic, lazy, and partisan. To put it bluntly, for far too long we have had a Capital Hill and a public sector that does not respect democracy and the will of the people it promotes and empowers.
That is why even when Malawians vote tor change, no change comes. And when it comes to how government machinery works, anyone working to change it is seen as “munthu ovuta” or “munthu odzimva”, This attitude is frankly counter-productive and sick. The truth is that our approach to public service delivery over the
last 26 years has been inefficient and ineffective, driven by rent-seeking activities more than nation-building ones. The blame tor these dystunctions in our public sector belongs to al of us, and so the responsibility to fix it must also rest on all of us.
The place to start is with those of us who have
accepted to lead the change, and so we have come here to pledge ourselves not only to implement and enforce the retorms Malawians want, but to also live by them.
But I want to be clear: these are not mere documents that will be allowed to gather dust on the shelves of our offices. I want all of you who are members of my Cabinet to know that the terms of these contracts will form part of your evaluation during the first quarter of
the new year. Malawians have no appetite for keeping government officials who have no interest in effecting our reforms agenda. In this regard, I must thank you, Mr. Vice President, for your gallant effort and the diligence of those in your ministry to complete this important initial phase of our reforms agenda and furnish us with this contractual tool for its execution. I have no doubt that the next phase will be instructive of the pockets of resistance to change that must be excised. Now let’s go and make these reforms happen!
Thank you for listening.
www.avantmalawi.com