Shared vision crucial in Government

This meeting which this year was initially scheduled for Nyanga last week but had to be postponed due to other commitments, was finally held in Harare on Thursday. It is at this meeting that Government comes up with a comprehensive plan guiding the implementation of national programmes by the different ministries.
Addressing the meeting, the Prime Minister, Mr Morgan Tsvangirai, said co-ordination and integration of Government programmes could be made easier if every ministry developed achievable plans. He said it was important to harness all efforts in a collaborative manner if targets set out in the GWP were to be achieved. Earlier on when he officially launched the 2012 GWP, Vice-President, Cde John Nkomo said there was need for collective wisdom and shared vision in the implementation of the GWP.
Cde Nkomo said he had confidence that the lessons drawn from the 2011 GWP would prove to be an asset in this year’s programme. Both VP Nkomo and PM Tsvangirai are agreed that for government programmes to be implemented there is need for all those in Government to work as a team guided by a shared vision.
Those in Government when it comes to implementation of Government programmes should forget about their political differences and work as a team. We totally agree with VP Nkomo that Ministers and senior civil servants should draw lessons from the implementation of the 2011 GWP so that they can avoid past mistakes to ensure successful implementation of government programmes. PM Tsvangirai said ministries should generate realistic, attainable and measurable targets.
It serves no purpose to have grand plans on paper but come year end, very little or nothing has been implemented because the targets set were not realistic. PM Tsvangirai said the alignment of GWP, Medium- Term Plan and the budget created a sense of co-ordination in the management of Government programmes.
He said in the spirit of accountability, he will publicise all monitoring and evaluation reports to Zimbabweans through Parliament as a way of promoting transparency and accountability.
It is our hope that the proposed move will encourage Ministers and senior civil servants to work hard knowing that their success or failures will be made public. The new move, we want to believe, will also encourage competition among ministries as each ministry would want to come out tops thereby improving efficiency in the implementation of Government programmes.
We want to believe that the unnecessary disharmony in some ministries between Ministers, their deputies and permanent secretaries noted at the 2009 GWP meeting held in Victoria Falls no longer exists as such disharmony makes it difficult if not impossible to implement government programmes. At this juncture we want to implore Ministers and senior civil servants to ensure agreed government programmes are implemented to avoid situations whereby completion of projects takes too long or projects remain on paper for a long time.
A Government’s success is measured through its ability to implement its agreed programmes so the onus is on Ministers and their civil servants to ensure they measure up when it comes to implementation of agreed Government programmes.