Pushing public servants
to actually serve the public

Substantial improvements in the way civil servants treat the public are promised under new rules which take effect on 15 January. The modernization includes clearer rules and procedures, ending many demands for notarized signatures, new time limits for decisions, encouragement of the use of e-mail, and an end to the long lunch period inherited from the Portuguese colonial authorities.

The Council of Ministers approved the new Public Service Regulations (Decree 30/2001) on 15 October. They apply not only to the civil service, but also to the 33 municipalities with elected assemblies and to autonomous public institutions.

The normal civil service working day will be 7.30 to 15.30. Workers will have only 30 minutes for lunch, which will be paid and be considered part of the 40-hour working week. But offices and public services must be open during the entire working days, and staff will be expected to ensure that they remain open to the public during the lunch period. Libraries, museums, schools, hospitals, etc will set their own hours, and staff will work a 40-hour week. In a concession to the power of provincial governors, they are allowed to change the working hours in their own provinces.

An important new concept is that every office dealing with the public must have a designated person with at least some public relations training and who knows the organization well enough to give basic information to a member of the public and to send them to the right person to respond to their request. Receptionists and telephone switchboard staff are also to be given public relations training.

The public face of the civil service is also to change. Grills and glass panels separating officials from the public are to be removed. In the entry area must be posted: information on where to go for different types of requests, a list of all fees, telephone numbers, and copies of all forms and standard letters (requerimentos e declarações). All staff must wear name badges. Lower level staff such as drivers, guards and receptionists will all have uniforms.

The new rules end the need for signatures and photocopies to be authenticated by a notary. Any form or letter which requires a recognized signature can simply be signed in the presence of an official as part of submitting documents; similarly, officials can accept photocopies if the original is shown. This service will be free and will cut out an expensive and time-consuming step in many bureaucratic procedures.

Another notable change is that all public services will be required to have a special telephone line, to be known as the "green line", to be used only for incoming calls from the public.

There will again be complaint and suggestion books, as there were in the first years after independence.

For the first time, there are strict time limits. Information requests must be dealt with the same day, or passed up to a higher level. Complaints must be responded to within 30 days and senior officials and governors have to report regularly on complaints and action taken. Unless other laws set other times, civil servants have 10 days to do all the paperwork on any request and pass it on to the person who must take the decision. Any request not dealt with in 15 days is considered automatically rejected, and the applicant can begin legal action. This should reduce the tendency for difficult problems to sit on desks indefinitely.

There has already been a move in some laws for items not responded to within the given time to be automatically approved (the opposite of the automatic rejection of the new regulations) and all state institutions have until 15 March to provide a list not only of where this is already established under other laws, but also of other areas which could be treated in this way.

All civil service units are expected to publicize their e-mail address and the regulations state the correspondence sent by e-mail has the same status as any other letter. Indeed, all applications and requests can be made by e-mail unless they require the authentication of documents or signatures.

There are strict conflict of interest rules preventing civil servants from taking decisions relating to families (including cousins) and their own businesses

Although the new rules say "transparency implies publicity for administrative actions", quite strict limits remain on what information can be given to the public and four levels of classification are established - state secret, secret, confidential and restricted - and every office must have an official "classifier of information".

And some things do not change. Any letter from a government official still requires a rubber stamp (carimbo do serviço) over the signature.

+ Procedures for registering land have also been simplified, with a standard form, a clear list of requirements (including evidence of consulting the local community), and a published list of fees. All applications for land use must be approved or rejected within 90 days.

 
Survey shows high corruption levels

Mozambique has one of the highest rates of corruption and crime in the world, according to a survey carried out earlier this year for the newly established Ethics Mozambique (Ética Moçambique). The survey of 1500 people in urban and rural areas in Maputo, Sofala and Nampula provinces (in the south, centre and north) showed that in the last six months 45 per cent had been the victim of corruption and in the past year 41 per cent has been the victim of an assault.

Demands for bribes were most common in the health services, where one person even reported the need to pay a bribe to obtain an anesthetic during surgery. The next most common demands were in education, followed by the police and then state and local officials.

Of money requested, 31% was for less than 100,000 Meticais ($6 at the time of the survey), 45% was between 100,000 and 1 million Meticais ($6-55), 22% was between 1 and 10 million Meticais ($55-555), and 4% for more than that. These are substantial demands when the GDP per capita is still under $300.

In a speech on 25 June, President Joaquim Chissano admitted that it has become common for state officials to demand payment to provide normal services - a school official demanding "a thank you" for enrolling a pupil, a nurse demanding a "small envelope" before treating a patient, or a policeman demanding a "beer" in exchange for giving the driver back their driving license.

Chissano argued that there is no difference between this sort of petty corruption and "grand corruption". But anti-corruption efforts so far seemed aimed mainly at petty corruption. In his introduction to the survey, Ética coordinator Abdul Carimo Issá points to the murders of Carlos Cardoso and António Siba-Siba Macuácua, who were both murdered to stop them investigating very high level corruption in the banking system.