Government names best performing MDAs
The Financial Intelligence Authority (FIA) and the National Assembly have emerged as good performers among government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) while the Competition and Fair Trading Competition (CFTC) is the best performing parastatal.
In an evaluation by independent evaluators, Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism, Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs and the National Audit Office (NAO) have been named MDAs with higher performance rankings.
In the evaluation, Ministry of Gender, Children, Disability and Social Welfare; Ministry of Finance, Economic Planning and Development; Malawi Law Commission and Office of the Ombudsman were recognised for showing improved performance from the previous financial year.
The evaluation followed government’s embracing of the performance contracts to improve delivery of public services.
Under the scheme, at the start of every financial year, controlling officers sign with the Chief Secretary to the Government a contract indicating the priorities intended to be achieved during the year.
In view of the evaluation results, government has challenged MDAs to improve on the delivery of public services to the nation.
Principal Secretary in the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) Cliff Chiunda made the call on Wednesday in Lilongwe where the MDAs performance evaluation results for the 2016/17 financial year were announced.
He said many MDAs are failing to utilise all their resources on planned activities and use resources on ad hoc activities at the expense of core activities that were planned in line with sectoral priorities.
Chiunda said some MDAs which have huge amounts of arrears, are not up to standard in tackling cross-cutting issues and are not satisfactorily delivering their services to the citizens.
Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development Goodall Gondwe, who presided over the event, said the civil service should be accountable to itself and the public.
Said the minister: “The country will be successful depending on what the civil service determines itself to be.
“There are some very good civil servants and we have a lot of those in the Malawi civil service. But there are some who are not concerned. It is like any other profession. There are some who are good and others who are not.”
In his remarks, European Union (EU) Ambassador Marchel Gerrmann said to improve public sector performance, government should pay more attention to public finance management and procurement processes.
He said: “Over the last year, progress has been made but these efforts will need to be broadened and sustained. Further public finance management reforms need to be carried through to improve the quality and level of service delivery, budget efficiency and disbursement.”
