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| Sunday, 4 December 2005 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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If Public Service Commission is to serve the public... The Citizens' Movement for Good Governance (CIMOGG) have called upon the new Government to take prompt actions to ensure efficient, humane and a fair Public Service in the country. In a press release signed by its President Dr. A. C. Visvalingam, and the Secretary General (rtd.) G. H. de Silva stated the 17th Amendment to the Constitution provides, inter alia, for the appointment of a Public Service Commission to be responsible for ensuring that Public Officers are appointed, promoted, transferred and disciplined according to the provisions of the law, including the PSC Rules, without being influenced by political or other unacceptable pressures. The first PSC appointed under the 17th Amendment has carried out these tasks most conscientiously for nearly three years and is to be congratulated for fulfilling its responsibilities under difficult conditions and, in particular, resisting some powerful but highly misguided attempts to influence it improperly. Poor service Although the PSC has performed its limited role in a satisfactory way, the general public continue to be very unhappy about the poor service provided to the nation by most sections of the Public Service and other State institutions. On account of the fact that members of the public perceive the PSC to be the apex body for ensuring that Public Officers work efficiently, humanely and in an impartial manner, they cannot understand why there has been no noticeable improvement in this respect after the passing of the 17th Amendment. Any benefit the public gets from an effective PSC is limited to the relatively minor indirect advantage arising from the fact that Public Officers are treated fairly and kept largely insulated from coercion by those who believe that they have the power to issue orders which are plainly illegal or grossly wasteful of public resources. Secretaries The responsibility for getting Public Officers to work efficiently, humanely and fairly is an altogether different matter and is, at present, solely in the hands of the Secretaries to the various Ministries. Regrettably, however, under the current constitutional provisions, Secretaries are appointed by the President largely on the basis of their expected commitment to the political program and personalities of the governing party, and not on any objective criteria regarding the efficiency of such appointees or their concern for the tribulations that members of the public have to undergo in almost every government or semi-governmental institution. Related issues In practice, most Secretaries spend their time trying to justify doing things for their Ministers or the President which they (the Secretaries) would not feel justified in doing if left to decide matters on their own. Thereby, the public is deprived of the competent, friendly and just service it is entitled to expect from Public Officers whose emoluments, incidentally, absorb a disproportionately high fraction of the massive direct and indirect taxes collected from hardworking tax-payers. Management The State spends large sums of money on sending Public Officers for management courses, seminars and workshops. The majority of such trained officers have no interest in actually applying what they have learnt to improve the performance of the Public Service because their sole motivation in tertiary education is mostly targeted towards getting a promotional advantage over other fellow officers who lack such qualifications. Even the rare officer who tries to put his hard-earned theoretical knowledge into practice is almost invariably stymied by outdated financial regulations, administrative practices and the lethargy of those in the higher echelons who cannot face the prospect of seeing their subordinates improving a system which they have tailored over the years to suit their own interests. In any event, after some time, most Public Officers appear to acquire a powerful inertia against trying anything new, however desirable it might be in the public interest. If it is the desire of legislators to limit the functions and powers of the PSC to what they are now, the least that they could do is to empower and finance the Council for Administration to ensure that it does not spend most of its time looking only into salary anomalies but also engages itself vigorously in setting up effective systems for monitoring the performance of Public Officers and others employed in the State sector, and additionally in formulating simple procedures for the public to complain about instances of inefficient and discourteous service by Public Officers. There is no point in waiting for some wrong to be done by a Public Officer and then punishing him. What is required is to have clear procedures in place to prevent such wrongs being done. CIMOGG, therefore, calls upon the new administration to take early and well-thought out steps to make our Public Service serve the public efficiently, humanely and fairly. |
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