Goodall Gondwe dares civil servants

Tom Sangala January 25, 2017

385 1 minute read

Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development, Goodall Gondwe, has challenged civil servants in the country to take it upon themselves that their endeavours in their respective capacities should ultimately contribute to the development of the country.

There have been reports of some public servants who sometimes spend several days attending to personal businesses while others go to their workstations and knock off almost every day without doing anything in relation to their jobs.

Sometime back, the Budget and Finance Committee of Parliament argued that the country’s wage bill is not commensurate with the output of public servants “because the productivity of someone needs to be more than what they earn, but that is not the case in Malawi”.

Speaking in Lilongwe yesterday where he officially opened the Managing for Development Results Learning Week, Gondwe challenged every public servant to work towards a certain goal which they should be proud of.

He represented President Peter Mutharika at the opening ceremony where some ministries and agencies were also awarded for making strides in relation to the Malawi Community of Practice for Managing Results initiative.

Said Gondwe: “If you are in the civil service, you should ask yourself what you have achieved. Ask yourself what you have achieved which could not have been achieved if you were not there. You must be proud of the results that come out of your efforts.”

When we later caught up with Gondwe and when we challenged him that civil servants often claim that the absence of adequate incentives sap their will in their work, the Finance minister said the civil service is not for someone to get rich.

“In most cases, people say salaries should be increased. I was brought up to believe that if you want to be rich, the civil service is not the service to go to. You have to look for jobs which have high salaries.

“It is not the civil service that will make you rich. You have to look for other incentives because in the civil service, the best incentive is the pride that you have for the service you render to others,” he said.

African Development Bank (AfDB) Resident Representative, Andrew Mwaba—whose institution is helping with the implementation of the community of practice initiative—said the bank remains committed to ensuring Malawi achieves tangible development.

“The bank aims at providing development solutions for African countries and we are concerned with supporting projects that should ultimately propel socioeconomic development,” said Mwaba.

During the event, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Trade, the Competition and Fair Trading Commission (CFTC), the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), Lilongwe and Northern Region water boards were awarded for apparently making strides in public sector performance.