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Stefan Leiderer et al. Box 12: Staffing situation in the District Education Office in Rumphi district The District Education Manager’s (DEM) office in Rumphi is a good example of existing dimensions of staffing problems. The structure of the office is split into three pillars: human resource management, financial management and the actual teaching staff, e.g. primary education advisors, head teachers, teachers etc. Each of the pillars has six hierarchy levels. In the three pillars positions at the upper four levels are all vacant. The financial management pillar gives the following picture regarding the chain of command: DEM → Principal Accountant (vacant) → Accountant (vacant) → Senior Assistant Accountant (vacant) → Assistant Accountant (vacant) → Senior Accounts Assistant (filled) → Accounts Assistant (filled). Although the accounts assistants might be adequately qualified, it is obvious that they probably have difficulties to cope with the workload. This has severe consequences for the efficiency and effectiveness of PFM in the education sector at the district level. In Dedza district, the situation is even worse; the office is only staffed with an acting DEM, a human resource officer, an accountant and a typist. Source: MoE (2005a); own compilation Consequently, evidence collected during the field study suggests the real problem is not the overall level of staffing but the lack of qualified staff in key PFM positions combined with insufficient financial resources and shortcomings in organisational and human resource management. Thus, these shortcomings are described in more detail in the following section with a special focus on the latter, while Section 6.2 elaborates on the causes and consequences of the lack of adequate resources for PFM. 6.1.1 Lack of adequately qualified staff in key positions There is a lack of adequately qualified staff throughout all government levels, in particular in key middle-level positions for PFM, e.g. accountants and auditors at central level or directors of finance or planning at local government level. Thus, it is common to find key positions filled only with “acting directors” and the like. Consequently, staff routinely perform key PFM functions without qualified technical skills and training in important formal PFM procedures Not only does this lead to work overload and poor performance, 90 German Development Institute
Public Financial Management for PRSP Implementation in Malawi but more importantly this situation causes uncertainty among other actors with regard to the distribution of responsibilities and the validity of formal rules and procedures. These capacity shortcomings have negative effects on the efficiency and effectiveness of PFM on all stages of the budget process and the use of public finances. While the capacity constraints may partly result from an insufficient supply of qualified candidates on the Malawian labour market, they are also due to a lack of financial resources and adequate equipment as well as shortcomings in organisation and human resource management, which are described in the following sections. 6.1.2 Shortcomings in organisational and human resource management High staff turnover High staff turnover is a very common phenomenon in nearly all government bodies in Malawi, both at central and local government level. Apart from qualified staff being lured away by private sector companies or donors, there is frequent reshuffling of staff between key positions in the public administration. Evidence suggests that this is not merely a phenomenon owed to the consolidation of a newly elected administration but a general feature of the public sector in Malawi. This, of course, has severe consequences for these civil servants’ functioning in the PFM system for different reasons: First, high staff turnover in government bodies leads to a lack of institutional memory. It is rare to find the employees working at the same government institution or even in the same department for several years, especially at central government level. Therefore, the majority of the staff is poorly informed about past reforms or decisions. A high turnover also leads to a lack of routine in working procedures. The research team found one common symptom during the interviews; many civil servants explained that they were new in their jobs and excused themselves for not being able to provide all details about their responsibilities since they were not quite sure about the regulations defining these. As a result, work efficiency is not optimal until the newcomers familiarise themselves with their work. Another important consequence of high staff turnover factor is the frequent loss of training efforts and effects. High staff turnover thus causes targeted capacity development measures for public sector employees to be largely ineffective, as individuals being trained e.g. in the use of specific PFM tools may soon be in a completely German Development Institute 91
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Public Financial Management for PRS
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Studies Deutsches Institut für Ent
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Preface The present study on ‘Pub
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4 The Case of Malawi 44 4.1 Why Mal
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Bibliography 151 Annexes 157 Tables
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Boxes and Tables in the Annexes Box
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DS EHP ESAF EU GBS GDP GoM GRF GTZ
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TOR UDF UNCDF UNDP UNV USAID VAP VD
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