President Lazarus Chakwera says officials from Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) who will be called into the newly launched delivery labs will be challenged to come up with new ideas of accomplishing the Tonse Government’s collective goals of job creation, wealth creation and food security.
Chakwera was speaking today at Capitol Hill in Lilongwe when he launched the Presidential Delivery Unit (PDU) and the four-week delivery labs. The labs are the main activity under PDU.
According to Chakwera, the delivery lab is a place for collaborating on action and not collaborating on talking.
He was speaking of ACTION as an acronym representing accountability, collaboration, troubleshooting, innovation, opportunity and necessity.
On innovation, Chakwera said officials from MDAs will be challenged to think outside the box.
“[They will be challenged] to come up with new ideas and methods of accomplishing our collective goals and not use the status quo or old ideas that no longer work or dysfunctional processes of government as excuses for not thinking of new ways for delivering jobs, wealth and food security faster and better,” said Chakwera.
According to Chakwera, on accountability, senior officials will be required to account for progress in implementing projects and programs designed to deliver Tonse Alliance goals while on collaboration, they will be expected to collaborate with other players on project implementation.
On troubleshooting Chakwera said: “In the lab, you can expect to be presented with obstacles that are obstructing delivery of jobs, wealth and food security and not be allowed to leave the lab until those bottlenecks are removed.”
Chakwera in his speech also likened himself to a minibus driver, Vice President Saulos Chilima to a mechanic and MDAs to a conductor responsible for putting goods on a minibus.
He said the respective measure of success for each one is not driving, fixing the minibus or putting goods on the minibus.
“The measure of success by which Malawians are evaluating our collective performance is whether jobs, wealth and food security we promised them are being delivered
“For that to happen, not only must each part do its work without fail but all the parts must work together to ensure that delivery is accomplished,” said Chakwera.
The PDU, which is headed by Ms. Colleen Zamba, is a special room in Chakwera’s office with a team of professionals working around the clock to ensure the key priorities he promised to deliver to Malawians are being implemented by the MDAs mandated to do so.
Under PDU, there is delivery lab as a main activity. In the lab, a team from Chakwera’s office will work with controlling officers and directors from specific MDAs to make sure that programs and projects in those MDAs are implementing the Tonse promises.
The first four-week delivery lab under PDU starts today and at the end the nation will be informed about what it has delivered for Malawians.
