Moving forward in Zimbabwe - Brooks World Poverty Institute - The ...

Moving forward in Zimbabwe
Reducing poverty and promoting growth
The Zimbabwe Water Authority faced challenges as it failed to deliver reticulated water to urban residents, resulting in
them using unprotected water sources, which contributed to the outbreak of cholera (Photo © Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi).
that emphasised process rather than results, and that they were
unable to think outside of the box in order to deal creatively
and innovatively with this new situation. The capability of the
bureaucracy was weakened as many competent and experienced
public officials left, either to new opportunities in the private sector
or elsewhere. Inexperienced and junior staff were left managing
public institutions in an environment that required strong leadership
and management skills to advance appropriate and necessary policy
reforms.
Most of these issues were nothing new and had been raised
in the late 1980s, when the government commissioned a review
into the state of the public administration and civil service
performance. The 1989 Public Service Review Commission
Kavran Report revealed, inter alia, a bureaucracy characterised by:
a lack of performance management culture; arrogance and poor
attitudes to work; high staff turnover; and a bloated, centralised
and secretive bureaucracy that was non-transparent, suffered poor
communication of decisions and was inaccessible to the public. It
further noted that the public service suffered from over-complicated
rules and procedures, overlap and duplication of functions –
facets not conducive to promoting a liberalised economy. These
characteristics led to delays in service delivery and in responding
promptly to public needs. Ineffective and inexperienced staff
undermined professional integrity and commitment to duty. The
emerging arrogance of civil servants compromised professional
standards. Corruption and underhand dealing in service delivery
also emerged. The hallmark of a professional civil servant was thus
undermined. The administrative machinery was now used at times
to service the interests of senior officials. State resources began
to be diverted for personal gain. Discipline and commitment to
duty were divided, as public officials now also engaged in illegal
private activities in order to supplement their meagre incomes.
Public offices became market places, where officials sold goods,
such as vegetables, meat, bread and trinkets, and services, such as
the issuing of licences, passports, placements for nurse or teacher
training, and entrance to tertiary institutions, to candidates with
inappropriate qualifications. There was therefore a definite need
to redefine the role of government to bring it in tune with the
economic liberalisation taking shape.
After the initial reforms, the public service commissioned a
customer satisfaction survey in 1996. Although this was nearly ten
years after the Kavran Report, the survey revealed that little had
changed. An image emerged of the public servant as an arrogant,
impolite and self-serving person, resulting in poor quality service
delivery, as if the public had no right to demand or enjoy a better
service. The perception clearly demonstrated the need for a
paradigm shift by the public service regarding the manner in which
they rendered services, managed public institutions and related to
the public.
The administrative restructuring that introduced cost-cutting
measures in order to reduce the budget deficit led to further social
dissatisfaction, as retrenched civil servants also joined the ranks
of the unemployed. The public became the victim, with public
services being rendered by newly formed companies that had no
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