The Sunday Mail
The Public Service Engagement Forum
THE Public Service Commission (PSC) conducted its Strategic Review and Planning Workshop between November 1 and 3 in Masvingo under the theme “Improving Service Delivery through accelerating Public Sector Digitalisation and Upskilling Capabilities at National and Sub-National Levels”.
The workshop was attended by commissioners, management, staff, tripartite partners — Office of the President and Cabinet; the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development; the Ministry of Information Communication Technology, Postal and Courier Services – and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) representatives.
The workshop sought to take stock of 2022, assessing progress, acknowledging successes, noting gaps and challenges as well as identifying emerging issues and opportunities for the future. The workshop also outlined and streamlined priorities, targets and strategies for 2023.
The theme of the workshop had two-prong emphasis: to improve public service delivery through:
Upscaled digitalisation; and
Capacitation and training of civil servants at both national and sub-national levels in order for their skills and competencies to be improved for higher performance and increased productivity.
In his keynote address during the workshop, PSC chairperson Dr Vincent Hungwe reiterated the need for the organisation to align itself with the national development imperatives as pronounced by President Mnangagwa; and as captured in the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1); and all this in the broader context of and the national journey towards Vision 2030.
“In this vein, we need to reassert and re-embed our institutional vision of an empowered public service, leading and propelling inclusive and sustainable socio-economic growth and prosperity for all citizens of Zimbabwe, and the mission to propel sustainable and inclusive economic growth and prosperity of Zimbabwe through an empowered public service into our national development ecosystem,” said Dr Hungwe.
In her inaugural remarks, new PSC secretary Dr Tsitsi Choruma assured participants of the leadership’s steadfast commitment to the vision and goals of the Commission and expressed hope that focus and unity of purpose would be critical going forward in implementing the vision.
“I am very clear about what the vision of this Commission is. I am actually honoured to be given this job to translate the vision and the strategy into real action, into reality and I am sure that with you, we are going to translate that vision into reality,” said Dr Choruma.
During the workshop, there were presentations by various agencies and departments; interventions by the chairperson, commissioners and the secretary; as well as plenary discussions.
2022 Achievements
The chairperson noted successes for this year as including, but not limited to, the following:
Performance management as a permanent feature of system public administration and management and implemented through the signing of performance contracts by ministers and heads of ministries, as well as by chief directors and directors (with plans to extending the new performance appraisal system to levels of deputy directors and below in 2023);
The finalisation of the Public Service Academy curriculum framework and subsequent training of civil servants in Programme-Based Budgeting; Strategic Planning; Public Sector Leadership; Disciplinary and Grievance Handling; Projects Management; Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning; and Public Sector Accounting;
The growth of the State Service Pension Fund owing to a diversified and resilient portfolio of investments that include residential, commercial and industrial properties; money market investments; and equity investments; including the ceding of assets to the pension fund by line ministries, and the impending purchase of gold coins;
The buttressing of a well-received Government Employees Mutual Savings Fund (GEMS) through aligning its inclusive and sustainable operations to changing market realities, and to ensure that it consistently addresses its core and mutually re-enforcing elements of a savings, providing loans to members and serving as an investment fund;
Participation and receiving of awards at several national and provincial exhibitions across the country, including the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair, the Zimbabwe Agricultural Show and provincial agricultural shows;
The conducting of a Citizens’ Satisfaction Survey and Baseline Survey on New Work Culture, whose findings combined to raise awareness and led to the sensitisation of senior public service leaders and civil servants to the need for work culture change; and
The launch in July 2022 of the Public Sector Sexual Harassment Policy
Way forward for 2023
In her closing remarks, Dr Choruma listed the following as priority areas for 2023:
The need for skilling and upskilling civil servants to engender higher performance and more productivity;
The acceleration of devolution through support to Ministers of State for Provincial Affairs and Devolution;
Increased support to Government ministries; departments and agencies through human capital support and other necessary and relevant support;
The capacitation of PSC’s own sub-national structures and institutions;
The roll-out of more programmes by the Public Service Academy; and
The digitalisation and digitisation of the public service;
Dr Choruma emphasised, among other things, the need for ensuring there was a common understanding of the devolution and decentralisation agenda; that there was value for money and due diligence always in procurement. She said there ought to be a crystal clear nexus between procurement and the Commission’s developmental goals.
She also underscored the need for high ethical conduct across the board; empowering and shared leadership; as well as the need for the public servant brand to be identified, promoted, advocated for and upheld.
This is part of a series of articles by the Public Service Commission aimed at engaging with and updating the public on matters of public interest that fall within its mandate. For comments, enquiries and questions, please write to: [email protected]. Call: +263 242 700881-3 or 793926. WhatsApp +263 788 584 848. For more on the PSC and its programmes, visit www.psc.gov.zw or follow on Facebook, Zimbabwe Public Service Commission or Twitter, @Public Service Commission Zimbabwe or LinkedIn, Public Service Commission Zimbabwe.
