Public sector reforms to hit councils

The public sector reforms which the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration is implementing will soon be introduced at district council level in order to reach out to common Malawians living there.

Addressing representatives of the private sector at a meeting in Blantyre on Friday, Nwazi Mnthambala—principal secretary in the Office of the Vice-President responsible for public sector reforms—said the government is striving at making the reforms permanent in order to create renewed mindsets among Malawians.

“As part of our communications strategy, we have started engaging various councils for them to appreciate what we want to do. Within these there are districts, area and village development committees who are closer to the people we are targeting. The aim is to empower citizens so that they can demand improved services from various providers,” she said.

The public sector reforms team, which is led by Vice-President Saulosi Chilima, has over the past week been engaging parastatals to gauge progress on some targets they were given.

According to Mnthambala, most of the parastatals have made steady progress in improving their structures, operations and effectiveness.

During the interface, the Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) reported that its revenue collection efficiency had improved from 29 to 32 percent as 22 026 of its 43 200 post-paid customers migrated to pre-paid meters.

Escom has also replaced 27 047 conventional pre-paid meters against a total of 31 680.

In an interview, Escom ’s public relations officer George Mituka denied the allegations that the organisation was being discriminatory in installing the pre-paid meters by leaving out public institutions.

But public grain marketer Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (Admarc), which has recently been under the spotlight for failure to stock enough maize to cater for lean periods, did not give a convincing plan to improve its efficiency in terms of maize stocks throughout the year.

The Public Sector Reforms Commission interacted with the private sector to brief them on the progress and solicit feedback from the captains of industry. n