Zimbabwe’s Public Service Commission (PSC) has ordered senior Public Servants, including heads of Departments, to sign performance contracts, warning that non-performers would face the axe.
Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet, Misheck Sibanda said poor performance would not be tolerated at any level following the signing of the contracts.
“Your signing of performance contracts is not only an agreement with the Government in terms of performance, but with the people of Zimbabwe who from now, going forward, will be assessing your delivery of various services to them,” Mr Sibanda (pictured) said.
“Like any other performance management system, those who perform beyond target will be rewarded as much as those who perform below expectation will be sanctioned.”
He said heads of Departments and senior directors had an enormous responsibility for the attainment of results among immediate and lower-level workers.
“It is, therefore, the responsibility of senior Government officials, and no one else, to establish that hallmark of performance,” Mr Sibanda said.
However, a prominent Government critic, Effie Ncube said the initiative was a waste of time as the senior officials were supervised by incompetent Ministers who were failing to deliver.
“For people who are not delivering on their own contracts to then make other people sign performance contracts is just a complete waste of time,” Mr Ncube said.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa announced plans to introduce performance contracts in October 2021 at the official opening of the Fourth Session of the Ninth Parliament.
Harare, 3 April 2022
