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Mukudzei Chingwere Herald Reporter

Chief directors and directors in Government ministries, a group of 463 senior civil servants, yesterday signed performance contracts as part of the Second Republic’s policy thrust to ensure they are accountable and are monitored to perform within expectation of their mandate.

Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet Dr Misheck Sibanda and chairman of the Public Service Commission Dr Vincent Hungwe, along with Treasury representatives, witnessed the signing ceremony in Harare.

Representatives of the UNDP and World Bank country teams were also invited to witness as part of President Mnangagwa’s policy of transparency in governance.

Ministers, permanent secretaries, heads of local authorities, heads of State-owned enterprises and vice chancellors of State universities have already signed their contracts.

Dr Sibanda said in contemporary public sector administration, the performance of Government is no longer measured by many tasks and activities carried out by public officials, but by the results attained at the end of the service delivery value chain. Those results must positively transform the economy and people’s welfare.

“Performance contracting therefore becomes one of the strategic interventions of re-invigorating and re-inventing the public sector to aggressively manage for sustainable development results.

“The institutionalisation of a culture of high performance in Government, underpinned by performance contracts among other mechanisms is predicated on the policy pronouncements made by HE the President, Dr ED Mnangagwa, on the need to have a public sector that is manned by hardworking and committed by competent cadres, who pride themselves in delivery of quality and timely services.”

Dr Sibanda said the implementation of the National Development Strategy 1 demanded public sector innovation, high performance and an appetite to achieve impactful results. That is the hallmark that should be established by senior Government officials.

“Performance contracts for chief directors and directors are also designed to be part of the game-changer strategy focusing on inculcating a new work culture that promotes transparency, high performance and accountability for results among other virtues.

“It is expected, therefore, that through these reform measures we will develop senior public sector managers who venerate high performance and a legacy for results.

“The public service academy, which encapsulates all the public service training institutes will play a critical role in developing the requisite capacities and capabilities in this endeavour,” said Dr Sibanda.

“Let me re-emphasise that the Government as represented here by the tripartite is more than committed to steer the nation on this transformative trajectory towards an upper middle income society by 2030.

“Your signing of performance contracts here today is not only an agreement with Government in terms of performance, but with the people of Zimbabwe, who from now going forward would be assessing your delivery of services to them.”

Dr Sibanda said the internally driven performance evaluation processes of Government and constant feedback from the citizenry, an objective and fair measurement of performance will be obtained.

He urged senior civil servants to thrive to leave a legacy of performance and be innovative at a time the world was confronting the Covid-19 pandemic.

The PSC chair Dr Hungwe told the senior civil servants that they cannot do things the same way they have been doing before and expect new results.

“To get new results, the way things are done has to change. The new work culture which the performance contracts being signed today seek to define must be embraced in word and deed by all of us.

“A distinction between performance and non-performance that is as normative in its force as our moral recognition of right and wrong must be made at the beginning, in the middle of and at the conclusion of each and every working day by each and every one of us, and our eyes must be denied the luxury of sleep on any day we know we have not done our very best.”

Dr Hungwe said the attainment of vision 2030 vision “enjoins us as the public service to collectively and individually deliver services that are responsive to the developmental needs and demands of Zimbabwe’s citizens.

“The effectiveness, efficiency and efficacy of our delivery of those services is therefore of paramount importance.”

He said the PSC, working with other members in the Tripartite (OPC and Treasury), is fully committed to vision 2030 and is unwavering in its sanguine pursuit of accelerated public sector transformation.

“In the Commission’s strategic plan and consequently in the annual work plans that derive from it, the management of personnel performance is, as might be expected given our mandate, a major preoccupation.”