POST OFFICES SET FOR REFORMS
Malawians will soon start accessing some government services such as application and collection of passports, registration of business names, application of drivers’ licenses, police reports and processing of land deeds through post offices.
The development is part of the public service reform agenda which will start with the refurbishment of Lilongwe and Mangochi post offices.
Stella Dean Gausi, director of reforms in the office of Public Sector Reforms Management Unit said the development aims to avoid delays and corruption that people experience in accessing government services.
She said refurbishment will involve face-lifting the post offices structures, rebranding and providing enough office space for the provision of services by designated government ministries and departments.
“The reason behind this development is to use post offices as one-stop shop citizen service delivery centres,” Gausi told Business News.
“These centres will provide citizens access to various public services and information. It will relieve the citizens from the burden of travelling long distances to various districts and cities to access the various services,” she explained.
Gausi said the one stop shop approach will involve merging related services within one post office building, effectively making it possible for service seekers to access services conveniently.
“This means that citizens will be able to get commonly sought after government services in an efficient way. This will avoid delays and corruption that people experience in accessing government services,” she said.
Gausi further disclosed that the post offices will still be under Malawi Posts Corporation (MPC) and usual postal services will still provided at the centres.
MPC, a statutory corporation established in June 2000, following the delinking of Malawi Posts and Telecommunications Corporation (MPC) provides postal, financial and any other services incidental to transmission of postal articles.
MPC says it has a network of 180 post offices nationwide and its postal network is further enhanced by 154 postal agencies nationwide which fall under the jurisdiction of district councils.
After refurbishment of Lilongwe and Mangochi post office, given next it will be Blantyre then Zomba, after that it will be Thyolo and Mulanje then Nsanje. After 10 years govt will be asking for donors to help with funds to refurbish Mzuzu post office. And you expect the country to develop and move away from being poorest grow its GDP? Never ever with such kind of strategy never.