By Paulina Banda:
In early 2020, I contacted the then Ombudsman to request her office to review an unfair dismissal from the Malawi Defence Force. We are now going into the fifth year, and the case is still with the Ombudsman’s office.
When MDF fired me in 2010, I did not have the chance to provide my side of the story, and after years of digging into why they never contacted me to formally inform me of the military proceedings, one of the leading officers told me that people from my organisation and other higher-ups ordered him to ensure my dismissal from the force.
Some may wonder why I waited until 2020 to resolve my issue.
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The truth of the matter is that I sought legal representation as early as 2011 to get my case opened. But the person who took my case did not move it along, despite telling me it was being handled. After years of stagnation, a former superior counseled me to contact new legal representation, who discovered, as I suspected, that a docket was never open at the courthouse. He would have to start from scratch and take my case to the Attorney General, who could not do anything with my case as the statute of limitation of seven years had expired. The only option left was to submit my case to the Ombudsman’s office for review. I notified him that I had already contacted the Ombudsman’s office two years earlier.
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After an endless barrage of emails and WhatsApp messages following up with the current Ombudsman and the officer responsible, the case started moving forward at a snail’s pace. At least it was progressing.
In 2023, though, the case came to a standstill. The responsible officer received a response from MDF, and I had to follow up incessantly to get a copy. I felt optimistic that things were moving in the right direction. Then, suddenly, the officer started making excuses for why the case had stalled. You have all heard the excuses because most of you have encountered influential civil servants who feel no shame that their inaction costs taxpayers a lot. This cold and unfeeling attitude was what I observed from my interactions with the Ombudsman’s office. With every excuse as to why there was no progress, there was never a hint of remorse or sadness that their inaction was costing poor Malawians who could not afford it.
My case has now technically been with the Ombudsman’s office since 2020. It may shock some people, but due to public service inefficiency, taxpayers bear the brunt of these unnecessary delays caused by a lack of competent leadership and oversight. We need to start thinking about these delays in that manner. Do you want your hard-earned tax kwachas squandered in this manner? If the answer is no, please act now and don’t wait for someone to come and save us: no one is coming.
It is high time we sparked a social conscience revolution. Taxpayers must rise and demand better and more competent public services. Unlike other countries that have faced political turmoil, we have always been better suited to have functioning and responsive services that work for all citizens. So, what is our excuse for the current state of inefficient, incompetent, and corrupt services?
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Yes, public servants could use better salaries and benefits to motivate them to work efficiently, but we find ourselves in a chicken-and-egg situation. Does the country need more funds to pay people better because the civil servants in charge of collecting taxes and fines are ineffective, incompetent, and, in most cases, downright corrupt? The answer is a resounding yes. Do civil offices providing public services take forever to close a file, thus getting paid for the same work for years? The answer is also in the affirmative. We need to break this cycle and strive for a better future because we are being left behind.
I live abroad now and may have diminished credibility to complain about this, but I have lived in Malawi for much longer than I have lived abroad. Two key factors contrast our public services in Malawi with those abroad. These differences are indifferent civil servants and incompetent management. Most public servants in Malawi show up to work without fire in their hearts, with no passion for making a difference in someone’s life and no motivation to leave a mark in their place of employment. Their supervisors sit in their lofty offices without a clue about influencing and encouraging their people to make a difference in people’s lives. If you contact one of the public offices to follow up on a file, you will likely come across someone who does not care about what happens to your problem; they will often be rude, abrasive, and unperturbed by your suffering. Go to the hospital any day and see if the nurse is kind, thoughtful, or trying to put you at ease. Let’s say that by some fluke, your responding nurse or medical doctor is kind and caring towards you; there is no guarantee that these medical practitioners will treat all other patients who encounter them.
A long time ago, one of the commercial banks started a campaign for their workers to smile at customers who come through the bank for various services. Customers were encouraged to complain if the person serving them did not smile at them. I mocked the idea at the time because I was young and had no idea that good customer service starts with a smile. It is that simple. A kind and warm welcome can make us believe that the people in front of us care about our problems and will do anything to help us. In my experience from going to different public service offices, the public workers here, for the most part, have one thing in common: they do their best to make you feel like you are the most important person they have seen that day. Looking back, I realize that the bank in Malawi had the right idea; I wish the idea had spread to all public service offices.
While in the military, I used to believe that some of the problems stemmed from the “old guard.” I used to think that once the old guard retires or is pushed out, the new, younger officers would fix things and devise solutions to benefit all troops. I want to confess that I was utterly mistaken because, for one reason or another, the newer officers are just as indifferent to the problems plaguing the organisation. I believe this rot is present in almost all public sectors, and if we do not wake up and decide on a better path, it will take three to four generations to fix our country. All public services are interconnected; if one department is inefficient due to a lack of visionary and effective leadership, a domino effect occurs, and all departments pay a price, and taxpayers end up shouldering the hefty bill.
Ineffective leadership at the Ombudsman office ensures that the MDF and other powerful organizations or companies get away with unprofessional, unfair, unethical, and sometimes illegal practices. If we want our public services to serve Malawians, we must scrutinize all public services, especially those tasked with policing other organizations. Failure to fix this problem will leave us and our future generations in this situation for eternity. If such offices as the ombudsman, meant to be last resort lifelines, won’t do their jobs effectively and professionally, then who will look after the underdogs? Our country has many people who find themselves on the receiving end of a powerful but unethical actor. Who will speak on their behalf? We should not accept that this is how things are in our country.
Paulina is a former MDF captain currently residing in Canada. She has a Masters degree in Political Science
