Furthermore, the level of efficiency of the public service is adversely affected by duplication of effort, unclear lines of responsibility and splitting up of skilled human resources as a result of having a) too many Government Ministries and b) Government Ministries and/or Departments/Divisions of a Ministry operating as separate silos. One example of this is when citizens get ‘run around from office to office or Ministry to Ministry to have a road repaired or a watercourse cleaned only to be informed that it is the responsibility of some other There would therefore be significant advantages of limiting the size of the Cabinet and consequently of Ministries.

In this regard, we propose a significantly reduced number of Government Ministries, Bureaucracy can be further reduced by changing the culture of decision making. For a start the number of decisions to be made by the Cabinet (e.g. through Cabinet Notes) should be reduced, thus empowering line Ministers to make decisions consistent with Government policy. Secondly, the management of Ministries has to be such that lower levels within the structures are given decision making authority.