Ministry of Finance trains Malawi economists on how govt systems work
The Ministry of Finance, Economic Planning and Development Monday started a six week long course for its newly recruited economists to equip them with knowledge of government machinery and its procedures.
According to Director of Development in the Ministry Peter Simbani, the induction course being offered by Staff Development Institute in Blantyre and is in line with the Public Service Reforms Programme aimed at improving service delivery by ensuring that the public service is professional, efficient and effective.
“The reforms want to ensure that the public service is able to respond to current and future challenges and I am advised that one of the lessons to be covered during this six weeks course will be key control measures and issues in dealing with government resources,” he said.
Simbani said the Ministry is hopeful that the induction course will help the economists understand their roles in the effective management of activities in their respective Ministries and Departments.
“The different modules in the course will help them appreciate the fundamental values of hard work, integrity and honesty that underpins public service and as such needs to be protected and upheld at all times,” he added.
One of the participants Wilson Nyasulu, an economist from Ministry of Finance, Economic Planning and Development said the induction will help them understand how government systems work and get insights of what is expected of them as they are fulfilling their duties.
“For us to work better, we have to know the rules and regulations in the government system and as planners we have to know what people expect from us, so the induction course will surely encompass all that,” he said.
The induction course which will run for six weeks and has 35 economists from various Ministries and aims at exposing them to government rules, regulations, procedures and ethics.
It will also sensitize them against all forms of corruption and encourage them to demonstrate diligence and commitment.
This is good. We need to professionalise the civil service. Hopefully these young men will not be frustrated as usual and meld into the existing civil service culture or seek greener pastures elsewhere. You also need to get on board more real accountants. I notice the bias is towards economists in Government. Whilst they are useful on the planning (policy) side, our real weakness is on executing the budget, which boils down to financial control in the public expenditure management sense. Ecomists are necessary for the upstream public financial management functions: Macro fiscal framework et al (forecasting and allocation etc)… Read more »