MUTARE- Women in Politics Support Unit (WIPSU) director has said there are deep-seated deficits in governments’ track record of managing public finances, which can only be corrected by a comprehensive public sector reform.
WIPSU executive director Sakhile Sifelani-Ngoma said reforms were an outstanding foundational problem whose effects have only been exacerbated by a lethargic Covid-19 Response, an indictment of the political establishment’s handling of public finances.
She said public reform has been neglected from the early 90s, before economic challenges experienced in the new millennium and has also subsequently fizzled out under the new dispensation which touted it as an agenda item.
Despite stellar efforts of some civil servants, Zimbabwe’s public sector was dysfunctional and intangible, in particular when it came to use of public resources, said Sakhile.
“There is an assumption that we have a strong public sector, or we have a public sector… but the public service in Zimbabwe it’s not tangible, which is why when we have money we can’t touch it, we don’t know where it has gone.
“One of the issues is that public sector reform has always been an outstanding issue, a national outstanding issue on the policy making arena from the late 90s and it’s an agenda item which had fallen off well before Zimbabwe entered the crisis of the 2000s.
“Even according to the second dispensation it had been an item on their agenda when they came in to office and it has subsequently fallen off the agenda.
“We need to bring public sector reform back onto the table, and when we are talking about public sector reform we are talking about the administrative, institutional and the operational arrangements that sit behinds the policy making,” said Sakhile.
She added, “We have a foundational problem of understanding the purpose and ideology of government, understanding what a public good or service means. One of the challenges that has been exacerbated by the Covid response is that the notion of what amount to a public good or service no longer exists.”
Sakhile said the notion of public goods or services needs to strengthened, as years of neglect has conditioned the public to accept mediocre services and a default position that government is always broke.
This called for introspection on the effectiveness and efficiency of government, which can be achieved through a public service audit, to compare service delivery to regional and international standards, said Sakhile.
The notion of a public good, decimated by years of neglect, is symptomized by a long going narrative in our society where political affiliation determines the quality of service one receives, she said.
“One of the critical things that we need to able to discuss is how effective and efficient is government, let us challenge the public service to do an efficiency and effectiveness audit, to see how effective is an public institution, how long does it take them to make decisions, how long do they take to provide the services they are meant to provide.
“If we are able to do that we can compare to regional and international standards, where I think in the court of the public domain it’s very clear that we don’t have an efficient and effective public service.
“One the biggest issues that we need to address is that continuously when it comes to Zimbabwe and resources the default position, even within the public domain at times, is that there is no money, but there is money,” said Sakhile.
“This type of approach to public finances creates a weak foundation upon which to activate the legal mechanisms that are available, upon which to activate the political will or to move the institution of political will.”
