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NewsDay

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Firefighting in govt: Time to be strong and courageous?

Columnists
A business and political weekly last week reported that President Robert Mugabe was meeting his full Cabinet at least twice a week on Mondays and Tuesdays. The Monday meeting, it added, is also attended by security service chiefs.

A business and political weekly last week reported that President Robert Mugabe was meeting his full Cabinet at least twice a week on Mondays and Tuesdays. The Monday meeting, it added, is also attended by security service chiefs.

In addition, the President has his regular politburo meetings to attend to. A number of the same ministers too, attend the same.

This is a punishing and unnecessary schedule that, contrary to expectations, adds more drag and bureaucracy to government activities. In peace time, without any obvious external threat, the weekly joint meeting with security service chiefs may be a waste of time and money, if not inappropriate and maybe contradictory to the tenets of democracy.

Defence, State Security and Home Affairs ministers must hold meetings with their respective security service chiefs or jointly. In this forum, which from time to time may be chaired by the Commander-in-Chief, any suggestions the uniformed forces have to running the economy, or any questions they may have, may respectfully be raised or answered respectively.

Perceptions do matter. And both Cabinet and the uniformed forces top brass should appreciate the current situation will be seen as unproductive, if not destructive panicking. The world doesn’t need juntas running governments. But given the sector’s liberation credentials, its budgets, mandates and time on its hands, serious contribution, regarding combating vices such as corruption, poor regulations quality and government ineffectiveness is expected from the sector.

Regrettably, wherever retired top military brass have been deployed in the executive suites, board rooms and even cabinet posts, performance and ethics have not matched expectations. The Public Service Medical Aids Society (PSMAS) and Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) boards, that had to be dissolved for want of good corporate governance, are examples. And so are some diamond companies that are now bankrupt.

The state of the Grain Marketing Board and National Railways of Zimbabwe, recently managed by military personnel, does not help either. But that is not to say retired top officers are all incompetent. There are always exceptions. Ex-United States President George H Bush is an ex-Central Intelligence Agency director. Another former US President, Eisenhower was a retired general. Most retired Israeli generals run profitable companies and have been government ministers and prime ministers of Israel. But the ethos is: Retire first and get into academia, the speech circuit, business or politics on merit and based on your character and your ideas. Don’t sneak into Cabinet via the backdoor.

The “headless chicken” phenomenon now manifesting itself in the public sector is disturbing. A meeting a week for Cabinet sounds too much. Once or twice a month may be ideal, giving the Presidency time to interact with the, rather large number of, ministries on a ministry by ministry basis, besides other government institutions in between.

Ronald Reagan was a famously hands off US President. But he got the better of the more scholarly USSR general secretary, Mikhail Gorbachev. Reagan’s popularity at home also eclipsed that of the thorough detail man, Jimmy Carter. The key at the apex of public administration is not micro-managing issues, but proper selection of senior officers, mandarins and ministers followed by delegation.

service chiefs

The assumption to the above is budgetary control is the basic tool of public administration. That is why Parliament’s major duty is approving the budget and monitoring its implementation. None of these two tasks, however, seem to be taken seriously enough. If they were, the 2016 national budget should have been tabled in the house of assembly no later than end of September, together with actual expenditure for the first six months and the whole of the previous fiscal year for guidance alongside benchmark figures from other countries that exhibit best practice.

How much, for example, should be spent on defence budgets? The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) has a guideline for its members of at least 2% of GDP. But many rich countries under Nato struggle to attain that figure due to the need for prudence. China, despite its huge military machine, shows similar restraint. With two million men under arms, one in every 650 Chinese is a soldier. The ratio in Zimbabwe may be on the worse side of one in 325. Why should Zimbabwe, much poorer than Nato members or China, punish itself like that?

A question, too, must be asked on, how much of Zimbabwe Defence Forces’ budget may be spent on salaries. The answer: Not more than 50%. Two percent of Zimbabwe’s projected $15 billion GDP is $300 million. That should be Zimbabwe’s armed forces budget with a salary bill of $150m for an establishment of 12 000 to 15 000 armed men. An audit firm is not necessary to come to this conclusion. A defence review by the Defence ministry and approved by Parliament, would have established as much down to the one Major General, who should be Zimbabwe National Army’s top officer.

It may appear to outsiders that inadequate financial literacy may be a problem in the Executive and the legislature. But this is not the case. Recently Chief Secretary to Cabinet, Misheck Sibanda was quoted in a radio news clip saying the problem is a mismatch between the budget and government scheduled work programmes, between aspirations and a limited resource envelope.

And there is no more honest a statement than that. All it requires is the strength and courage to face the truth, not many meetings. “Be strong and courageous,” the army’s chaplain general read the Word from the Book of Joshua on Defence Forces’ Day this year. It is time for those in full metal jackets to listen to their man of cloth.

l Tapiwa Nyandoro can be contacted on [email protected] or [email protected]