Civil servants told to resist corruption

Malawi School of Government Mpemba Campus in Blantyre has urged civil servants to resist corruption and report it and work towards improving efficiency in the civil service.

The campus’ acting director Peter Muthete on Friday told 35 administrative officers from different ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) that underwent a seven-week induction course to bring back the good image of the public service.

He said at a time the civil service is tainted with corruption and inefficiencies, the initiated public officers must bring the much needed change in the service to earn the public’s trust.

Said Muthete: “It is common knowledge the world over that quality of service delivery depends on, among other things, its delivery by public servants entrusted with that responsibility.

“I am reliably informed that most of you are just new to the government machinery. Some of you have worked for less than a year which means this course has really been timely and beneficial to you as you have been introduced to the dos and don’ts of government machinery before you have been taken away by the defective systems in your respective MDAs.”

He said it was unfortunate that many public service reports show that public resources go into the drain due to ineffective and inefficient service delivery, which in one way or the other, is exacerbated by lack of well inducted personnel.

It was envisaged, he said, that at the successful implementation of the induction course, it would enable them to diligently perform their duties and in filling gaps in managerial competences.

“To be an effective administrative officer/professional officer, requires more than just technical knowledge. This knowledge needs to be supplemented by other skills such as people skills, among others.

“I believe this induction course has, therefore, transformed you the participants into well-rounded and seasoned public officers…you are change agents in the public sector,” Muthete said.

Speaking on behalf of the participants, Melanie Kachinjika-Kaonga, a human resource planning officer in the Ministry of Trade and Industry, said the group was trained by experienced lecturers and that the knowledge has transformed them.

Through established by an Act of Parliament No. 33 of 2022, the Malawi Government established the Malawi School of Government, a statutory corporation, by merging the Malawi Institute of Management (MIM) and Staff Development Institute (SDI), formerly Mpemba Staff Training College, as part of the public service reforms.

The school’s mandate is “to develop and deliver human resource development programmes to build capacity for the public service and the private sector”.