The government should urgently review the role of commercial and regulatory statutory bodies for the speedy delivery of goods and services in the country.

The fuel crisis that hit the country recently and the abuse of funds in the Ministry of Health, which has been traced to the defunct Central Board of Health, all point to the fact that civil servants are not in control of delivery of strategic goods and services. The Minister of Energy Kenneth Konga was, for example, misinformed about a number of processes governing fuel and energy delivery.

The truth is that civil servants are no longer in control of strategic functions since the creation of statutory bodies that are at times not accountable to line ministries. Under circumstances like this Ministers find themselves in very awkward positions as officials who directly report to them do not have adequate information that can guide policy and the making of effective decisions.

The statutory authorities are currently managing huge sums of money from donors, licenses and user fees but when things go wrong, the ministers and civil servants remain answerable.

Given this situation, there is need to carry out a review about the impact of the existing arrangement and if there are any gaps, they must be addressed.

In addition, operations of statutory bodies should be re-aligned to government functions so that the role of civil servants is not compromised.

When that is done, we will be assured of strong systems to which Ministers are fully accountable.