Renowned governance expert Wonderful Mkutche says President Lazarus Chakwera’s engagement with Principal Secretaries will be a futile attempt if the president stays mum on Public Sector Reforms recommendation report.

The report which was produced by the Public Sector Systems Review Taskforce under the tutelage of Vice President Saulos Chilima submitted to President Chakwera on May 21, 2022.

Speaking during an interface with the Principal Secretaries on Tuesday at Kamuzu Palace in Lilongwe, Chakwera said he is determined not entertain any attitudes from the Civil Service that are designed to make his administration fail.

“The bottom line is that the Civil Service has been out of control for far too long, and you are the Controlling Officers I am trusting to help me change that. You will need to be tough with people, you will need to be honest, and you will need to be brave,” Chakwera said.

Despite commending Chakwera for having the interface, Mkutche said government’s reluctance to disclose the said report is raising more questions on the President’s expectations.

He said: “First of all these meetings are good for the President to lay out his plans concerning the Civil Service, the concern can also be understood because the PSs are at the center of government machinery.

“We are not hearing one message from government in what it is expecting the Civil Service to be performing, last year we had the reform which the document came out and then the public had no idea what is there.”

The expert has since expressed discontent on blaming the PSs when things are not working well in government citing that the leadership should blame itself.

Chakwera has since invited  ideas and submissions of what the controlling officers feel has gone wrong in the Civil Service in the past twenty years in general.