By nyasatimes
Africa-Press – Malawi. Government has unveiled yet another digital platform—this time the Public Sector Reforms Information Management System (PSRIMS)—with First Vice-President Jane Ansah declaring it a “turning point” in Malawi’s long-stalled reform agenda. But as praise filled the conference hall in Lilongwe, a central question lingered beneath the applause: Is this the breakthrough Malawi needs, or simply another shiny tool dropped into a reform ecosystem that has consistently failed to function?
Ansah described PSRIMS as the end of a “fragmented manual era” that has undermined efficiency across ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs). She argued that the platform will improve coordination, enhance transparency, and allow real-time tracking of reform progress.
“It is a decisive step forward… a tool that will help fix our broken systems,” she said.
Yet Malawi’s public sector reform history is littered with past “turning points” — each loudly launched, heavily supported by partners, technically sound, and ultimately abandoned or forgotten once political attention shifted.
A familiar pattern?
UNDP deputy resident representative Chika Charles Aniekwe hailed the system as a “public asset” with potential to accelerate transformation. However, governance experts warn that Malawi has repeatedly rolled out digital platforms with promise but without discipline — from procurement systems that were never fully adopted, to data portals that gather dust because officials simply stop updating them.
Governance advocate Michael Kaiyatsa voiced what many reform watchers were already thinking.
“A system is only as good as the commitment behind it,” he said. “If institutions do not keep it updated or integrate it into daily work, it will quickly become another abandoned tool.”
His remark strikes at the heart of the matter: Malawi’s reform failures have rarely been technical. They stem from weak political will, poor accountability, lack of enforcement, slow adoption, and a culture resistant to change.
Does PSRIMS address the real reform problem?
Another governance leader, Moses Mkandawire of Church and Society, called the digital shift long overdue, noting that manual systems enable corruption, delay decisions and erode trust. He emphasised the need for staff training, infrastructure, system security and skilled technical personnel.
But even that raises the deeper issue:
Has government demonstrated the discipline, investment and culture change required to sustain such a system?
If not, digitalisation risks becoming yet another layer of bureaucracy — not a solution.
Bigger structural questions remain unanswered:
Will officers who fail to update PSRIMS face consequences?
Will senior officials use the data to make or enforce decisions?
Will the public have full access, or will transparency stop at the press conference podium?
Will PSRIMS track reforms that politically powerful institutions prefer to ignore?
Can a digital tool fix a governance culture that has repeatedly resisted reform?
Without clarity on these questions, analysts warn that the platform risks becoming the latest example in Malawi’s habit of celebrating systems instead of strengthening institutions.
A test of political honesty
Ansah has framed PSRIMS as a cultural shift. But culture change requires more than systems — it demands leadership that confronts entrenched inefficiencies, nepotism, low productivity and lack of accountability.
Until government demonstrates that reform failures have consequences — and that digital tools will be backed by discipline, political toughness and enforcement — scepticism will remain justified.
For now, PSRIMS is a promising innovation.
But whether it becomes a turning point or just another expensive digital monument to Malawi’s unfinished reforms will depend not on the system itself, but on the people who must use it — and the political will to demand results.
Source: Malawi Nyasa Times
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