TellZim reporter
MINISTER of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage Kazembe Kazembe has challenged heads of department and senior management staff in the ministry to prioritize efficient service delivery towards the general citizenry if ever the National Development Strategy 1 is to bear meaningful fruit.
Addressing staff at Clevers Hotel in Masvingo during the official launch of the ministry’s Enterprise Risk Management Policy, Kazembe outlined the need for value addition on everything the ministry offers if ever development was to be realized by ordinary people.
“In whatever we are doing as a ministry, let us ensure there is value addition and that will lead us to efficiency. This ministry is critical and central and thus the need to focus more on improved service provision as part of our mandate. Basically, how best can we achieve that? By adding value to the services we offer the population.
“Let us put our hands on the deck and ensure the successful implementation of this key management tool for the realization of the ministry’s mandate. Let’s improve the service and desist from dwelling on what does not matter most bearing in mind that whatever we do as departments should impact positively on the generality of Zimbabweans.
“How can people realize meaningful results if we work towards unrealistic targets and goals in the way we operate? Let us work with scientific information and move away from only using historically available information,” said Kazembe.
One of the participants however lamented what he termed ‘fail and proceed’ syndrome in line departments and the need to do away with such mentality.
“So far what I have realized is that we are having more of these ‘fail and proceed’ scenarios in our departments. We have a lot of challenges being mentioned during these reviews, but so far no meaningful solution has been offered and all we have done is ‘go ahead’.
“We have maintained this ‘fail and proceed’ over the past years and we are now nearing 2025 which is the last year of the NDS 1 but without any meaningful achievement. Review workshops are supposed to be having us introspect and unpack the challenges that we have, find common ground and possible solutions so that we score more,” said the participant.
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry Aaron Nhepera also weighed in saying risk management is not optional but rather a requirement for the ministry.
“It is critical to note that risk management is not optional but a requirement in terms of the law specifically the Public Finance Management Act Chapter 22 section 19 and Public Finance Management General Regulations Statutory Instrument 135 of 2019 provides that all ministries should adopt a concept of risk management.
“Therefore, this policy is not only in compliance with the above pieces of legislation but also ISO 3100 which is the anchor guideline as enshrined in the Zimbabwean Risk Management Policy guidelines for the public sector,” said Nhepera.
