Mnangagwa to publish Ministers’ performance scores

President Mnangagwa is this week expected to announce how Cabinet ministers, permanent secretaries and heads of Government agencies and departments performed under contracts they signed last year when he presides over the signing of this year’s contracts on Thursday.

The President introduced performance-based contracts as a way of fostering a high-performance culture among office bearers to enhance accountability and good governance.

This follows the New Dispensation’s commitment to making public, the performance of Government officials as a way of promoting efficiency and transparency.

In a statement, the Office of the President and Cabinet said this year’s performance contracts signing ceremony would be broadcast live on national television on March 16.

“Guided by the nation’s (economic) blueprint, NDS1, the progress of each leader has been tracked and these results will be announced, with clear indications of those who exceeded their targets and those who did not,” reads the statement.

“To foster a high-performance culture across the entire public sector, the Government of Zimbabwe, will on March 16, 2023, sign performance contracts under the Integrated Results-Based Management System: with all Cabinet ministers, all permanent secretaries, all CEOs of local authorities and all CEOs of State-owned enterprises.”

The Office of the President and Cabinet said the performance contracts would all be evaluated on delivery, efficacy, management and implementation.

It also said the goal of having performance contracts was to make Zimbabwe a prosperous and empowered upper-middle income society by 2030.

“The Government of Zimbabwe wants to improve our quality of life as citizens of this country. Since 2021, performance contracts have been signed by Government agencies, to commit to a standard of excellence that will take us closer to the promises made by His Excellency President Dr ED Mnangagwa when he came into power,” reads the statement.

The Office of the President and Cabinet added: “This is all about accountability. It’s about vision 2030. It’s about improving the quality of our lives as citizens. What gets measured, gets done.”

Permanent Secretaries were the first to sign performance contracts in 2021 before the measure was extended to ministers and across to heads of local authorities, State-owned enterprises and State universities.

When the performance contracts were announced, the nation endorsed the move as an endeavour by Government to foster a high-performance culture across the civil service through yearly evaluations.

The evaluations are being done on the basis of the new adopted normal dubbed “more action, less talk”.

Government however stressed that the idea, though, was not to dig deeper into individual profiles with that malicious eye for the speck in the nook pointing out that civil servants, senior or otherwise, were only human after all.

However, there would be no glossing over of non-performers as citizens expected civil servants to deliver on their mandate.

Through this initiative, unlike in the past, citizens are given a chance to critique their leaders, with the results of how they would have performed being made public.

The Constitution also obligates the State to adopt and implement policies and legislation to develop efficiency, competence, accountability, transparency and personal integrity, among other virtues, at every level of Government. Herald