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Tendai Mugabe, Harare Bureau
LINE Ministers and Permanent Secretaries should complement each other in their work to realise the upper middle income economy envisioned by President Mnangagwa by 2030, the Public Service Commission has said.

Following the appointment of Cabinet Ministers, President Mnangagwa two weeks ago appointed new permanent secretaries for almost all ministries paving way for serious Government business in the Second Republic.

Speaking during an induction workshop for permanent secretaries and senior officials in Harare yesterday, PSC deputy chair Ambassador Margaret Muchada said as accounting officers, permanent secretaries should work in harmony with their line ministers.

She said ministers were political heads and permanent secretaries should respect that and focus on implementing policy decisions as directed by their ministers.

“On the culture in the ministry, you have to earn the trust of your minister,” she said.

“The minister has to know and understand that he can not do things without your last word because if he trusts your judgment and trusts your knowhow, he will know that even if he was working with his junior or whatever, at the end of the day he comes to you and ensure that you are working on the same path.

You cannot afford to be reading from two pages in a ministry. The moment you do that you are lost.

“The minister is a political guide. He sets that agenda and you cannot take it away from him but we are saying you are our accounting officer financially and personnel wise and so that mandate you also have to explain to your minister so that the minister understands what your role is, how your role should be performed, where you need his or her assistance to perform your role. So I would like to urge you, this is your best assignment, develop that trust. You cannot afford to fight your minister. I remember speaking to a former commissioner who has been a permanent secretary in his own right, the moment I was made a permanent secretary, the advice he gave he said (Ambassador) Muchada one thing I can urge you, do not fight with your minister, you will never win that game. Do not also let ministers fight with junior officers. They (junior officers) are too weak to defend themselves. This is why we are saying the last word should be with you so that if a junior officer has made a mistake you are able to correct it. The junior officers are too weak to defend themselves.”

Ambassador Muchada said it was no longer business as usual and everyone in the civil service should play their part.

She said they were working hard to address issues of duplication of duties in Government and rationalisation. “Our expectations are high, very high,” she said. “The Government’s trajectory requires that type of a cadre and we come to you with this in mind. We are going to work together to restructure ministries accordingly because as you will realise the mandate has been adjusted somewhat. It is not going to be business as usual.

“We no longer tolerate those officers who just get to the office and leave their coats on the chair. Gone are those days. We will want to know that the cadre is there performing and at the same time we will be hard pushing for computerisation throughout because we would like to see online decision making.”

Ambassador Muchada added: “Devolution depends on online decision making. You can not expect an officer to wait for a decision of a permanent secretary who is on a trip for a week or who is away for two days and let the whole country wait. Some of those functions have to be de-centralised to that level. We have to set that machinery of devolution in motion. We want to be able to do more with less. Through computerised administration we want to do away with silos.”

Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet Dr Misheck Sibanda also spoke against “small wars” between permanent secretaries and their line ministers saying that should stop.

He said permanent secretaries should seek to establish good working relations with their political heads.