Online Reporter
Zimbabweans pay taxes, and we all pay some sort of tax even if it is just VAT on things we buy, and expect value for the money that is collected and spent in their name by the Government, hence President Mnangagwa’s emphasis on evaluating the performance of those running the public sector.
This started in 2021 as part of the stream of reforms the President wanted under the Second Republic, to ensure that the targets and goals in the many plans, largely combined and integrated under the National Development Strategy, were not just words sitting in a dusty file on a shelf, but the living bones of national growth.
The measure is delivery, and even when there is a disaster such as arose from the drought last year, then making sure the delivery ameliorates the consequences and moves swiftly into recovery and resuming progress. Again what is required is effective action and this is what is measured.
The President wants to see an agile, innovative, responsive and resilient governance system, delivering what is needed, and that means overcoming setbacks such as pandemics, droughts, floods and the like with recovery programmes that maintain the advance, as well as sailing faster through calmer waters and exceeding goals.
Public servants who are complacent and seek comfort, that is chugging along, staying honest and keeping the files clean rather than solving the daily problems thrown up as you move forward properly and speedily come in for particular scorn by the President.
He is keen on his adoption of performance management moving right down the whole public service, with everyone held accountable for what they are supposed to do, what they do and what they do not do.
He has been making progress since he introduced his system and had the first performance contracts drawn up and signed, with these becoming more widespread and more detailed as the years go by.
Adding some spice to the evaluations are the annual performance awards by the President for the best performing minister, the best performing permanent secretary, the best provincial affairs minister of state and provincial permanent secretary, and the heads of the most critical commissions, authorities and agencies.
One of the most interesting results of these competitions has been not only those who tend to be highly ranked, but also the fact that a high level of teamwork produces a highly efficient ministry or office.
The results of last year’s performers highlights this.
The Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure Development won most of the big awards, Minister Felix Mhona taking the award of top performing minister, Permanent Secretary Engineer Joy Makumbe leading the high ranking officials, and ZINARA’s Dr George Manyaya being the chair of the best revenue collector.
The results of the Ministry’s work and performance are there for all to see, as this Ministry does the roads, among other major programmes, and we can all see if the roads we use are functional or non-functional, and just as important if there is some serious improvement month after month and year after year. A bad road should not be eternal.
But the Ministry has to not just have the work done, but needs to make sure that it is done properly and that when private contractors are used, as is common these days, they can be safely signed off as having done a proper job and given their own value for money under the contract. So the minister needs to set rational and implementable policies setting the priorities and making sure everyone is pulling their weight.
That needs to be backed by a Permanent Secretary with both the technical education and skills pertinent to the Ministry and the administrative ability to make sure everything is properly run and that each member of staff gives off their best. So Minister Mhona and Engineer Makumbe are obviously a tight team.
But development does need money, and that explains why a third winner comes from the Ministry, the best board chairperson of a revenue collecting agency.
A few years ago, Zinara was a byword for all the President’s list of ills: corruption, complacency, inefficiency, waste and very little service to the people of Zimbabwe.
Most of the money appeared to be spent on administration as executives padded their nests, and what was spent on roads appeared to be spent badly on the wrong roads.
The clean up has been spectacular, moving from an authority at the bottom of the heap to now one at the top, with squeaky clean audit reports, a high level of efficiency and low administrative costs, and supplying a lot of the money through its collection of vehicle licence fees and tollgate charges that is needed by its parent Ministry.
And having that money spent correctly and properly with the right priorities is where we return to the Minister and Permanent Secretary.
The ministry’s success needed everyone and every unit to be on the ball and doing its job, but doing that job together with everyone not just pulling their weight but doing so in the same direction and under the same plan.
We note the second placed Minister and Permanent Secretary, Minister Anxious Masuka and Prof Obert Jiri clearly form another tight team at Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development, and making sure that an innovative minister has a top-notch technical and administrative team in support.
Yet again this team was seen among the Ministers of State for Provincial Affairs and Devolution, with the Masvingo team of Minister Ezra Chadzamira and Permanent Secretary Dr Addmore Pazvakavambwa heading their lists.
They also saw their top slot as a result of having a strong team right down the line in their province, with everyone contributing and pulling their weight in the same direction.
A lot of performance contracts and performance evaluation is built around this double need of having first class people willing and able to do a good job, but doing so as a team with a set of common goals so that the individual efforts all add up to something far greater, and in the end in the public sphere a far better, more prosperous and fairer Zimbabwe.
