Harare (New Ziana)- Performance contracts that cabinet Ministers and other senior officials signed are assisting government departments to be focused on improving the livelihoods of Zimbabweans, President Emmerson Mnangagwa said on Thursday.
He was speaking at the signing ceremony of the 2023 Performance Contracts by Cabinet Ministers, Ministers of State for Provincial Affairs and Devolution, permanent secretaries, chairpersons and chief executive officers of Public Entities and Local Authorities as well as Vice Chancellors of State Universities.
President Mnangagwa said the signing of contracts demonstrated the irreversible course the Second Republic was embarking on towards ensuring that Government systems, processes and personnel were “fit for purpose.”
He said it was also a reflection of the determination of the Second Republic to deliver quality and timely services to the people.
“Our current national development epoch and Vision 2030, requires the entire Government ecosystem to be agile to achieve set targets, possibly, earlier than forecasted,” he said.
“To date, this initiative is proving to be an invaluable tool in the formulation, implementation and evaluation of Government policies and programmes. It is undoubtedly helping my government to be more focused and responsive as we seek a deeper understanding of contemporary issues and services required in this new national development epoch.”
President Mnangagwa urged public officials to deliver the best possible results for the benefit of the people.
“The indicators of good governance are provision of quality and timely services to the people, high performance, promotion of economic growth as well as the realisation of sustainable development. These can only be realised when Public Sector Officials have a high-performance culture and display commitment to wholeheartedly serve the people of our motherland Zimbabwe.
“My Administration continues to implement a raft of reform measures, including re-invigorating the performance of Top Public Servants. In this spirit and in keeping with the culture of high performance and accountability for results, today we are witnessing the second round of performance contracts,” he said.
He said the performance of Local Authorities as outlined in the assessment report however remained worrisome and a huge draw-back.
While Devolution Funds had gone a long way to accelerate infrastructure development, the neglect and failure by the majority of Local Authorities to focus on their core mandate of service delivery was not acceptable, he said.
“Equally, the performance of State-Owned Enterprises is disappointing, more so given the centrality of these organisations in aiding development and delivering public goods and services,” President Mnangagwa said.
He said it was pleasing to note that public sector reform measures had greatly improved the performance of Government in many sectors.
These included revamping of the National Registry Office, introduction of E-Passports as well as re-invigoration and modernisation of the Agriculture Sector, which led to the nation achieving national wheat self-sufficiency.
Meanwhile top performing Ministers and achievers in the parastatals were honoured at the event.
Anxious Masuka, Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development scooped the best performing Minister award while Foreign Affairs and International Trade Minister Dr Fredrick Shava was the runner- up.
Engineer Quinton Kanhukamwe Vice Chancellor of the Harare Institute of Technology (HIT) got the best performing boss award for public entities.
“We will continually perfect this Performance Contract system to ensure that all overlaps and conflicts of roles across the various levels are minimised,” said President Mnangagwa.
“Capacity leadership development, coaching and counselling will also be prioritised. The system should be further perfected before it is rolled down to the other levels within the public sector.”
New Ziana
