The Sunday Mail
Many Zimbabweans will recall that almost a year ago, the major talk across the country was about public sector corruption and the payment of huge salaries to executives at parastatals, State enterprises and local authorities.Most people were of the strong opinion that the pay packets were largely undeserved for two reasons: firstly, because service delivery was suffering; and secondly, because our economy simply could not afford to pay someone US$500 000 per month.
The anger was justified.
But beyond the anger, people wanted to see action being taken to normalise the situation.
Since then, Dr Cuthbert Dube was relieved of his duties at Premier Service Medical Aid Society, and Mr Happison Muchechetere met the same fate at public broadcaster ZBC.
And not much more happened.
Understandably, Zimbabweans were deflated. After years of suffering from poor service delivery and enduring the brunt of rapaciously corrupt executives, people hoped things would get better.
Some will recall that Government announced a raft of measures around that time to restore sanity, among them a review of the contractual obligations of public sector bosses.
Now Deputy Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet Colonel (Retired) Christian Katsande informs us that the new contracts are just about ready and should be given to heads of ministries, parastatals, State enterprises and local authorities in coming weeks.
They only await the President’s approval for them to come into effect.
The new contracts, we are told, make it clear that office bearers will serve on condition that they meet specific set targets.
Those who fail to meet the targets will either be redeployed or fired.
Experience teaches us that often times, failures — because they have been appointed to office by sometimes equally inept and corrupt ministers — are simply recycled.
We sincerely hope that this is not the case this time around and that those who cannot be redeemed are simply booted out.
And we also hope that they are not booted out with golden handshakes that only serve to reward the incapable and the corrupt.
The country requires a shake-up in the public service culture so that people understand that hard work is its own reward and anything short of giving your best results in losing office.
Another great aspect of the new contracts, according to Rtd Col Katsande, is that the Office of the President and Cabinet will not accept as an excuse for poor performance the unavailability of money.
While it is justifiable in some instances to fail to perform because resource allocation is anaemic, in many cases this is simply a fig leaf that unimaginative officials hide the nakedness of their inefficiency with.
It is the same case with sanctions: many officials blame their poor records on the Western embargo.
Does it mean that because there are sanctions we must sit on our hands and wait for the embargo to be lifted? Does it mean that because the Finance Ministry has little to work with we must pray for manna from heaven?
No!
If anything, public sector bosses should be at the forefront of coming up with innovative ways of circumventing the resource shortage, and in fact generating clever ways of finding new revenue streams so that performance targets are met.
The big hope we have now is that the Office of the President and Cabinet will ensure strict adherence to the new contracts so that we can move away from the culture of blaming sanctions and low resource allocation for our ineptitude and shortcomings.
Related to this, it is our fervent hope that the legislature will replicate this great step forward by the executive and fulfil its Constitutional obligation to come up with a code of conduct for all Vice-Presidents, ministers and their deputies.
These are early days in the quest to undo the rot of recent years, but we must lay a strong foundation for the future.
Editorial Comment: Hard work is its own reward
The Sunday Mail
Many Zimbabweans will recall that almost a year ago, the major talk across the country was about public sector corruption and the payment of huge salaries to executives at parastatals, State enterprises and local authorities.Most people were of the strong opinion that the pay packets were largely undeserved for two reasons: firstly, because service delivery was suffering; and secondly, because our economy simply could not afford to pay someone US$500 000 per month.
The anger was justified.
But beyond the anger, people wanted to see action being taken to normalise the situation.
Since then, Dr Cuthbert Dube was relieved of his duties at Premier Service Medical Aid Society, and Mr Happison Muchechetere met the same fate at public broadcaster ZBC.
And not much more happened.
Understandably, Zimbabweans were deflated. After years of suffering from poor service delivery and enduring the brunt of rapaciously corrupt executives, people hoped things would get better.
Some will recall that Government announced a raft of measures around that time to restore sanity, among them a review of the contractual obligations of public sector bosses.
Now Deputy Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet Colonel (Retired) Christian Katsande informs us that the new contracts are just about ready and should be given to heads of ministries, parastatals, State enterprises and local authorities in coming weeks.
They only await the President’s approval for them to come into effect.
The new contracts, we are told, make it clear that office bearers will serve on condition that they meet specific set targets.
Those who fail to meet the targets will either be redeployed or fired.
Experience teaches us that often times, failures — because they have been appointed to office by sometimes equally inept and corrupt ministers — are simply recycled.
We sincerely hope that this is not the case this time around and that those who cannot be redeemed are simply booted out.
And we also hope that they are not booted out with golden handshakes that only serve to reward the incapable and the corrupt.
The country requires a shake-up in the public service culture so that people understand that hard work is its own reward and anything short of giving your best results in losing office.
Another great aspect of the new contracts, according to Rtd Col Katsande, is that the Office of the President and Cabinet will not accept as an excuse for poor performance the unavailability of money.
While it is justifiable in some instances to fail to perform because resource allocation is anaemic, in many cases this is simply a fig leaf that unimaginative officials hide the nakedness of their inefficiency with.
It is the same case with sanctions: many officials blame their poor records on the Western embargo.
Does it mean that because there are sanctions we must sit on our hands and wait for the embargo to be lifted? Does it mean that because the Finance Ministry has little to work with we must pray for manna from heaven?
No!
If anything, public sector bosses should be at the forefront of coming up with innovative ways of circumventing the resource shortage, and in fact generating clever ways of finding new revenue streams so that performance targets are met.
The big hope we have now is that the Office of the President and Cabinet will ensure strict adherence to the new contracts so that we can move away from the culture of blaming sanctions and low resource allocation for our ineptitude and shortcomings.
Related to this, it is our fervent hope that the legislature will replicate this great step forward by the executive and fulfil its Constitutional obligation to come up with a code of conduct for all Vice-Presidents, ministers and their deputies.
These are early days in the quest to undo the rot of recent years, but we must lay a strong foundation for the future.
Share This:
More Stories: