President Lazarus Chakwera has urged the newly-appointed Secretary to the President and Cabinet (SPC), Colleen Zamba, to work effectively and to bring sanity and necessary changes in the public sector, without fear or favour.
President Chakwera said this today at State House during the swearing-in ceremony of the new SPC.
Chakwera said an SPC is instrumental to the implementation of government policies and presidential programmes across the public sector, as well as the efficient and professional delivery of public services to Malawians by the civil service.
According to Chakwera, to be an SPC is an enormous task and position of public trust.
“It requires a person of great courage, because you are tasked with changing a culture that many want to keep the same; even the people that praise and support you today do not realize that there are things in this country that need to change that they themselves will not want you to change, and that their applause may turn to attack when the day comes for you to effect the change that affects them.
“It requires a person of great humility, because you are tasked with ensuring that the outcome of all your actions is improved service to Malawians, even if it means becoming unpopular with those who are satisfied with delivering poor service to Malawians,” said Chakwera.
The Malawi leader noted that there are a lot of hypocrites who want things to change in public service but do not want to change themselves.
He added that the position requires a person of great honesty who has to tell public servants truths they do not want to hear and confront wrongs in the public sector whose underlying causes people refuse to be honest about.
“Wrongs like stealing from one’s employer, doing a bare minimum at work as long as you have a job, looking for more and more entitlements for oneself instead of opportunities for Malawians,” said Chakwera.
In her remarks, Zamba said Malawians should expect that her first assignment will be to re-align the country’s civil service with the vision of the State President.
She added th.at she will do her best to make sure that there is optimal usage of resources, both human and financial, in the journey to deliver the vision.
“There is no any vision that can be delivered without a civil service because that’s the centre nerve of the whole delivery mechanism of a vision and my main task is to make sure that the alignment is taking place through the senior management of the civil service.
“Change is normal there is normally resistance to change but there is also change management programs which you put into place, in the first place the first team to deal with is a senior management team of the civil service who are the principal secretaries.
“So, some of the things I will be instituting is to make sure we have monthly meetings of principal secretaries, setting up targets of performance and accountability to make sure there is accountability and definitely if one is failing to meet the target then probably is not fit for the job,” said Zamba.
Chakwera appointed Zamba as the new SPC on Tuesday. Until her appointment, Zamba was head of the Presidential Delivery Unit.
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