Civil Service Reform

Let me begin with this. I am not against civil service. There are many examples of excellence by civil servants working hard for the country. In many cases these civil servants work for little pay and are often not recognized for the work they do. All too often the guys excelling in very difficult circumstances are overlooked for political and/or personal reasons. However, lets be real, these guys are in the minority. At least over the last 8 years.

I begin looking at civil service reform because of the size and effects on the economy. Depending on which source you believe Zimbabwe's GDP sits at between $7.3 billion to $14 billion. So if that is the case the amount of money consumed by government is anything from 30%-50% of GDP. Such a statistic is very worrying. Let me put it in a simpler understanding. If you make a dollar, government will consume between 30 to 50% of that. This does not encourage enterprise nor does it encourage investment.

This is what government should do:

1. Acknowledge that at the current size of the government is not sustainable. We cannot expect to create opportunities for growth if the consumers of wealth (government) crowds out the creators of the same wealth (business). We thus need to note the need to reduce the cost of government too. That means drastically reducing the spending patterns of the state. We cannot afford to run so many ministries, and have senior officials driving fancy cars etc. If we measure roles in government at a total cost to company, it will show that we have too many fat cats enjoying the sweat of the masses.

2. We cannot afford the system of governance we have. There is a need to scale down cost by removing the senate and leaving one arm (parliament) to run the legislature.

3. Public accounting must go further that the usual white papers that come out during budget time. we need to delve deeper into a public accounts framework that focuses on greater accountability on the use of resources by the state. Disclosures of parastatal bosses earning ridiculous salaries shows the level of waste that has been allowed to happen 34 years after independence.

4. The ruling party needs to clearly define the succession of leadership as soon as possible. This remains the single most difficult risk to overcome for the economy. Democracy has no effect on GDP growth. What does affect it is the risk of transition. Even allies of the country cannot commit support to the country as they do not have confidence in our ability to create wealth without the risk of it being wiped away by uncertainty.  
5. Thus the planning process has to look at the short term goals and assume that no fund will come externally for these purposes. Thus government must look at scaling down consumptive spending and look to have these freed resources spent on capital projects. By doing this we begin to kick life into the economy from domestic savings on waste. There are a number of ways government can use the savings, but they must look at areas where the multiplier effect of the investment is the greatest.
6. The reform of the civil service should also look at areas where automation would have the greatest effect. Do citizens really have to spend time going through various offices at passport offices to get a travel document? Can the government look at ways to make this more efficient and effective? they need to look at this at all departments and they will be amazed the level of efficiency that will spill into the greater economy through less economic down time by players queueing for documentation and reduction in corruption that will see resources invested elsewhere by the bribing patrons.

The list above while not exhaustive looks at areas to begin to stop the rot. Further steps to address the stagnating of the economy will be closely linked to better corporate governance and more common sense. We will look at more of these issues in future weeks to follow.... Remember one thing.... This is just my opinion!