Can public sector reform
beat corruption?

A 10-year public sector reform programme is being put forward as the way of beating corruption, as well as making the state apparatus more efficient and effective. President Joaquim Chissano's speech on 25 June 2001 to introduce the reform was largely devoted to corruption.

The process is being overseen by an Inter-ministerial Commission on Public Sector Reform (CIRESP - Comissão Interministerial da Reforma do Sector Público). The chair (presidente) is the Prime Minister, currently Pascoal Mocumbi, and the deputy is the Minister of State Administration, José Chichava; nine other ministers are members. Backup is provided by a technical unit, UTRESP (Unidade Técnica da Reforma do Sector Público). Public sector is taken to mean not just ministries, but also provincial, district and local government and public companies and institutions.

The process originated with the World Bank which is providing half the $85 million funding and the initial documents are very similar to those used by the World Bank in other countries. It has five components: public service provision, policy formulation and monitoring, professionalisation of public sector staff, public finance management, and good governance and combating corruption.

As in all Bank programmes, it includes some privatization and outsourcing of services. Stress is put on reducing bureaucracy, simplification of systems, and decentralization. But in two aspects, the reform programme differs from Bank programmes in other countries - it does not call for an overall reduction in the size of the civil service, and it does call for significant increases in salary for more highly qualified staff, in order to compete effectively with the donor community and private sectors. The programme also recognizes that low salaries have led to demoralization and absenteeism, despite some increases in real wages in recent years. A multi-donor fund is proposed to pay top-ups to higher level staff.

Training is seen as essential, with more than half of all civil service managers not having the educational qualifications their job requires. And it is clear that some people will be dismissed or retired. Agriculture Minister Hélder Muteia noted that in the past when a civil servant was not working well, the government simply put in an additional person, and sometimes a third, in the hope that "the sum of three incompetents might be competence".

The 10-year programme is divided into two parts, with the first three years aimed at what the World Bank calls "quick wins". Many of these are included in the new public service regulations. Others include simplifications of import rules for used cars and posting a list of charges in all health posts.

The initial hope was that this would be seen as a single programme to which donors would contribute, but donors are already forcing it to be broken into projects and there is already some duplication and competition as donors shape the projects to suit their own interests.

+ President Chissano's 25 June speech and relevant documents are published by Imprensa Nacional de Moçambique in Estratégia Global da Reforma do Sector Público 2001-2011.

 
Book Reviews

Mozambique: the Tortuous Road to Democracy, by João M Cabrita, Palgrave (St Martin's Press), Basingstoke (England). 2000. English hardback only, UK£47.50

History is always being challenged and re-written, and with this book Renamo makes its first serious challenge to the Frelimo version of Mozambican history. This book covers the 1960-1988 period (and thus not the stalemate, negotiations, end of war and subsequent events). Big chunks of the book are simply rhetoric, such as João Cabrita's basic assumption about "the totalitarian regime imposed by Frelimo" and his total rejection that Frelimo did anything good, even in health or education. But you get a sense that even Cabrita is not taking those parts seriously.

Where Cabrita has done new research, he is able to come forward with some genuine alternative lines - and some surprising agreement with the received history. He has used the US Freedom of Information Act to obtain 150 US documents from 1961-63 relating to Eduardo Mondlane, and showing his close links to the Kennedys and the US government.

Interviewing dissidents, he paints an alternative picture of the formation of Frelimo and of disputes in the late 1960s, including claims of "rampant tribalism", purges and even "summary executions".

The core of Cabrita's analysis is race and what he calls "ethnic group" (such as "Sena" or "Ronga"). He claims Frelimo's attempt to end tribalism and racism was nothing but "rhetoric" to serve as a cover for southerners to gain power, and he supports what he calls President Joaquim Chissano's "long-delayed blackening of the regime".

Cabrita is at his best on detailing Renamo's version of the setting up of the organisation and then its war against Frelimo. He is good on the ebb and flow of military control of areas, and the overwhelming impact on Renamo of Tanzanian and Zimbabwean troops. He confirms and details the centrality of Rhodesian and South African support. He underlines Renamo's strategy to control the countryside and force the government back to the towns, and the use of what Cabrita calls "horrific" ambushes on buses and trains to stop the use of road and rail. And he raises interesting questions about the government's inability to create an effective anti-guerrilla strategy.
 

African Adventurer's Guide to Mozambique, by Willie & Sandra Oliver, Southern (Struik), Rivonia, Johannesburg, 1999.

This is a guidebook geared to those expecting to make long overland trips through Mozambique, with an emphasis on fishing, diving and birdwatching. The coverage is good and there are not too many mistakes, although I personally prefer the Travellers Survival Kit reviewed in the last Bulletin, which is better on other types of tourism.