Value for money, public financial resource management and effective public service delivery in Zimbabwe

Public financial resources ought to be managed with integrity, transparency and accountability, all for efficient and effective service delivery, sustainable economic growth and development.Above all the "value for money" principle should be a guiding force, underpinned appropriate policies and choice of the most cost-effective interventions, which should be implemented efficiently.

At the level of the citizen, the impact of public financial resource management is felt through the quality of service delivery.

With the exception of a few countries in Africa, the experience of ineffective service delivery and resource management across government departments is all too pervasive. Likewise, Zimbabwe has suffered from ineffective service delivery and need for improved resource management. This issue has a financial dimension in terms of the inefficient deployment of financial resources from the Zimbabwe Treasury. The problem is not always that the public service is too big, but that service delivery tends to be poor. The reasons for, and solutions to, poor service delivery in the public sectors in cross-country experiences is a subject I teach in the Master of Public Policy Course at the University of Oxford, and have written about using examples from Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda, Tanzania, among others.

Here, I would note, a few salient points, starting with the need to cultivate a culture of effective service delivery. This will require acquisition of new skills by civil servants, in order for them to imbibe the value for money objectives and improve service delivery. An appropriate initial focus is with senior managers in the national civil service and municipal and local authority managers.  These managers would need to be better equipped through skill-acquisition programs to enhance their performanceand that of the teams they supervise. The training could begin with a Leadership program for Permanent Secretaries and Directors in Government ministries and Municipalities.  

When I was Dean of Wits Business School, many years ago, I launched a program jointly with Harvard Business School for leaders in the public sector. Such a program in the case of Zimbabwe could also be done through a partnership with both a local and international university, for joint certification. Furthermore, my experience from when I was Vice President and Chief Economist of the African Development Bank, informs me that the government could approach the African Development Bank, through the African Development Institute, to partly support the program. In particular, the African Development Institute, which I supervised, has developed various capacity development programs, and has the resourcesto assist in developing the type of leadership program that I am here proposing for Zimbabwe. We could also approach a government such as the UK or South Korea and seek retired senior civil servants for secondments to mentor Zimbabwe senior public managers, including at the Zimbabwe Treasury. These international secondees would spend a year or so and be funded through grant assistance from their home governments.

At the local authority and district level, again a skills program would support the "devolution" agenda that seeks to empower the Zimbabwe regions to deliver and to be held accountable.When I was Dean at Wits Business School, I developed a program for Municipal Managers on municipal finance. Thatprogram has trained over 3,000 personnel at the municipal level in South Africa, and one year it was cited by the South Africa Parliament as the reason why that year over 60% of the accounts from municipalities had passed the rigour of the Accountant General's assessment. In particular, Zimbabwe Treasury should require that the managers should have these necessary resource management and service delivery skills, for accountability on financial resources that it provides. All this would impact service delivery positively in the public sector and enhance the value for money objective.

Professor Mthuli Ncube is a financial, economics, investment, and public policy expert. He has vast experience and worked in the private sector, public sector, academia, and international financial institutions. He is the Former Vice President and Chief Economist, African Development Bank Prof Ncube is a Board Member of the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF) based in London, and with offices in US and Asia. OMFIF provides support and advisory services to Central Banks around the world and pension funds and other investors on monetary policy, macro-policy, investments and financial markets. He is a citizen of Zimbabwe.