The Public Service Commission is examining the roles,
functions and mandates of Government ministries and departments as part of a
process to come up with a new civil service structure.
Government is creating a leaner and more effective civil
service capable of delivering on President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s vision of an
upper middle-class economy by 2030.
To aid the restructuring, President Mnangagwa — in his
weekly column in The Sunday Mail — says a biometric register to flush out ghost
workers will be introduced.
More than 158 994 civil servants are on Government’s
payroll, with about 123 000 (23 percent) employed by the Ministry of Primary
and Secondary Education.
Secretary to the Service Commissions Ambassador Jonathan
Wutawunashe told The Sunday Mail last week that rationalisation involved
eliminating duplication of roles, abolition of vacant and non-essential posts,
redeployment of redundant workers, optimisation of departmental functions and
retirement of eligible staff.
Posts for clerks, executive officers, typists, data
capturers and dark room assistances have been abolished.
The new civil service structure will be tailor-made to suit
ongoing devolution of Government functions.
The Executive, Ambassafor Wutawunashe said, set the tone
for the restructuring via limiting the number of line ministries to 20.
“The second level at which the civil service will be
reduced entails a clearer definition of functions of Government ministries,
with particular focus on enhancing their capacities to drive the implementation
of the Transitional Stabilisation Programme and other blueprints that may
emerge so as to achieve Vision 2030,” said Ambassador Wutawunashe.
“The combined analysis of ministries and departments, the
optimisation of mandates, clearly defining function will also have an impact on
the structures of ministries to be supported by personnel and financial
resources from Treasury.
“This will be achieved through a core-functional analysis
of the new mandates of ministries and departments as articulated by His
Excellency, the President.”
The new structure of Government — which will be aligned to
enhanced mandates and functions of ministries and departments — will determine
the number of civil servants on the payroll.
Where appropriate, the commission will redeploy, reskill,
multiskill, reassign and capacitate some of the affected staff members.
But redundant positions have since been abolished.
Ambassador Wutawunashe said, “Clerks, executive officers,
typists, data capturers and dark room assistant posts were found to be no
longer relevant and were immediately abolished so there will be no new
recruitment into these posts.
“Members already occupying these posts are encouraged to
advance their skills and on attainment of higher and professional skills will
be regraded.”
The restructuring will be “sensitive to critical needs
areas”.
Personnel adjudged to be in excess of the requirements
might be redeployed to appropriate sectors.
In his weekly column, President Mnangagwa said Government
would use a biometric register to eliminate ghost workers.
“A time-lined raft of measures on that front will be
announced soon, including an exercise in developing a biometric register of all
civil servants on government payroll which should eliminate leakages through
ghost workers,” he said.
Biometric systems are increasingly being used globally to
enhance security, development ground-breaking systems and prevent fraud.
In India, some micro-finance institutions are using
biometric-enhanced authentication to issue loans to the populous nation’s
unbanked rural population.
Secretary for Finance and Economic Development Mr George
Guvamatanga on Monday told legislators that the 2019 and 2020 National Budgets
would cut the public service wage bill by $200 million and $130 million
respectively.
Human resources expert Mr Memory Nguwi said it was
heartening that Government acknowledged that the current staff-income ratio is
unsustainable.
“This is a step in the right direction as staff expenses
account for a huge chunk of the National Budget. I am happy that authorities
have realised that the staff cost-to-income ratio is unsustainable as it leaves
no room to fund critical national projects and important services.
“Whenever staff rationalisation takes place, those likely
to be affected will not take it well. What I want to assure civil servants is
that staff rationalisation is a normal process of running organisations. This
is happening every day in the private sector,” he said.
A 2015 audit report established widespread duplication of
roles in the public sector. Sunday Mail
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