AN ANALYSIS OF DECENTRALISATION AND ITS IMPACT ON QUALITY PUBLIC SERVICE DELIVERY: THE CASE OF PASSPORT PRINTING SERVICE IN THE DEPARTMENT OF IMMIGRATION AND CITIZENSHIP SERVICES

Abstract

The Government of Malawi, like all governments, exists to provide social services to its people and to create a conducive environment for stimulating social and economic development. In order to achieve vision 2020, government has developed several developmental strategies to direct its efforts. An efficient public service is the medium term to achieve governments’ objectives. One of Malawi’s public service providers is the Department of Immigration and Citizenship Services (DICS) where several action plans have been developed by the government of Malawi to ensure quality service to the citizenry. The decentralization of passport printing services, for example, was championed by the public sector reform agenda as one way to reduce congestion and corruption at the Department of Immigration and Citizenship Services and ensure that citizens get quality service they require. This study concerned itself with analysing the impact of Malawi’s passport decentralized system on service quality improvement at DICS. Service quality analysis was conducted using both quantitative and qualitative data analysis as provided by the Service Quality model (SERVIQUAL). The study established that the decentralized passport printing services have done little to reduce congestion and corruption. The Department’s public image is still not good. There are so many challenges faced by the department which hamper smooth utilization of the decentralized services to ensure quality service to the citizenry. One of the practical implications of the study is that, there is need to address structural challenges inherent in the system. Government must always give enough funding to the department and procure adequate raw materials and consumables for making passports. The consumables must be supplied to decentralised centres according to need. New backup generators must be sourced to take up the operations in case of ESCOM power cuts in all regions. All decentralised passport printing regions must have their own servers to stop relying on head office. More importantly, employees must be trained to fix machines in case of breakdowns rather than waiting for Techno Brain network providers even in small breakdowns.