Public Sector Reform Management Department (PSRMD) has named health, education, water, transport and energy as the sectors which have registered commendable progress on implementation of reforms during the past two years.

In November 2020, Cabinet ministers signed two-year reform performance contracts to oversee implementation of reforms in their respective ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs). The contracts ran up to November last year.

In an e-mailed response, PSRMD spokesperson Suzgo Khunga said while financial and capacity constraints hindered progress and led some sectors to fail to achieve tangible results, other areas where remarkable progress has been made include councils, constitutional bodies such as Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) and legal reforms.

According to Khunga, some of the achievements in the transport sector include the construction of tollgates which are generating K4 billion additional revenue to the Roads Fund for timely rehabilitation of roads and construction of new ones leading to an improved road network for the country.

Health care workers enter patient data at Makhetha Clinic in Blantyre

She adds that councils and health sectors are now able to generate additional revenue through introduction of paying services.

In the health sector, Khunga gave an example of Central Medical Stores Trust (CMST) which she said established a unit where hand sanitiser, morphine and ethanol are being produced for use in hospitals.

Said Khunga: “Following the initiative, CMST expects improved product availability and sales increase when production increases to significant volumes. In the long-run, the initiative will lead to financial sustainability of the trust and less dependency on government subvention.”

In the energy sector, Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority (Mera) is said to be doing well in the promotion of gas for cooking as an alternative to charcoal which in the long run is expected to reduce deforestation.

The country’s water boards have implemented reforms to improve customer access to their services through introduction of customer mobile Apps and point of sale bill payment platforms. For example, over 20 000 Lilongwe Water Board customers have been provided with increased and diversified avenues for interacting with LWB without the barrier of physical distance.

Achievements on legal reforms include the enactment of various pieces of legislation that would facilitate implementation of public sector reforms and govern improved delivery of various services by respective MDAs, according to Khunga.

They include the passing of the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Act whose objective is to promote expedited and efficient implementation of PPP arrangements.

The other is the Public Finance Management Act which is a robust legal framework for the transparent, accountable, efficient, effective and responsible management of public resources.

But Khunga observed that government’s ability to effectively implement public sector reforms depends on the availability of a strong resource capacity.

“We are advocating for the implementation of a Comprehensive Capacity Development Programme in the public service,” she said.

Khunga also said there is need for MDAs to budget for reforms and identify other revenue streams so as to improve efficiency in public service delivery.

She said to this end, there have been efforts to create an Innovation Fund to support rolling out of innovations in all MDAs.

Some of the ambitious targets in the reforms agenda include plans to establish secondary cities, boost power and water supply and reinvigorate the agriculture sector.

In the agricultural sector, government intends to facilitate the establishment of a fertiliser manufacturing plant, turnaround the fortunes of the Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (Admarc) to achieve financial sustainability.

The reform areas in the agriculture sector also aim to increase volumes of fertiliser produced in Malawi while Admarc becomes a financially sustainable company which maintains its social objectives.

In the energy sector, the target is to make both Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi and Electricity Generating Company efficient.

In a telephone interview Parliamentary Committee on Government Assurance and Public Sector Reforms Noel Lipipa said: “As a committee we would want to see a purpose vehicle for service delivery in a competitive, cost-effective and timely manner across the board for tangible impact.”

Commenting on the performance of local authorities, Malawi Local Government Association (Malga) executive director Hadrod Mkandawire said the reforms have stimulated councils to be innovative and more accountable, leading to increased revenue generation.

The Malga boss who gave a score of 75 percent to councils, however urged government to fulfil some of its obligations by supporting councils.

Said Mkandawire: “They are

 brilliant and innovative ideas coming out of councils but government has to intervene and do its part. Councils need good roads, access to power to undertake some of their plans in the agricultural and tourism sectors, among others. For example, Mulanje council plans to introduce cable vehicles to boost tourism and they need to be supported to do that.”

Meanwhile, the department says it has developed new Public Reforms Agenda Contract Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation and Implementation Progress Reporting Tools ahead of the next cycle of public sector reforms contracts.

Khunga said the new tools have aligned the reforms contract period to the government fiscal year and aligned public sector reforms to the MW2063 national development agenda.

In November 2020, Cabinet ministers signed reform contracts which President Lazarus Chakwera said would be tied to reforms targets given to MDAs and also form part of evaluation for the ministers.

She said: “The new M& E framework will also be consistent with the national monitoring and evaluation framework for reviewing implementation progress of reforms.”

Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs Sosten Gwengwe while acknowledging the challenges said in an interview on Wednesday that government was working towards securing funds for reform projects.

Said Gwengwe: “The resource envelope continues to be too constrained. But we are coming up with measures under the Domestic Mobilisation Strategy to collect more and fund our infrastructure deficit

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