Charles Sokile

Charles Sokile recounts DFID’s role in financing and advising the Public Sector Reform Program in Tanzania. He describes some of the challenges faced in the first two phases of reform, including issues of harmonization, capacity, and linkages between the reforms and the President’s Office. He notes that the government made progress in attaining milestones it set for itself. Tanzania, in his opinion, was very successful in sustaining reforms. Sokile goes into detail about a number of elements of reform, including merit recruitment and promotions, performance and quality cycle management, and pay policy. He points out that the notion of pay policy has a lot to do with the compression and decompression of the pay ratios and challenges involved in getting these ratios correct. He discusses two major initiatives designed to use pay policy to attract civil servants to underserved areas and how the government has changed its policy with regard to allowances. He provides general thoughts on how the public has reacted to changes in pay for civil servants and details some of the pressures with regards to the total wage bill. He concludes by highlighting the importance of coordinating reforms and political awareness.