An independent public service - a must for national growth

by Afreeha Jawad

For a little over a decade an oft heard utterance coming off political enclave is 'Put nation before self'. The great shock this writer encountered was the sudden thought of how could this nation be put before 'self' when politicization itself is all about self promotion. Understandably then, a reversal of such utterance - 'self' before nation would be most appropriate considering what has become of this once paradise isle.

We have in us one of the most politicised societies in the world. For some politics today is the most lucrative profession one could encounter and contains what entails 'big money'. It carries with it passport to tenders, commissions, bribes and a whole host of corruption one could think of. Following filtering process, it meets its equal in an equally corrupt bureaucracy. The bureaucrat's role model is the corrupt politician and at the back of his mind (I mean the bureaucrat's) is - "so what? when these fellows are up to all the tricks why should we be so honest."

The whole intent of politicisation for them, is a thirst for status, power and control, culminating in wallet expansion. Electioneering, winning, finding jobs for children whose fathers have painted street walls, pasted posters, screamed their lungs out promoting candidates, those that did those giant cut outs, climbed sky high in erecting such at every street corner, not to forget the ones that sat at some discreet phone canvassing for his pet political apple - these and many more are those that this politician is much obliged to, in times of post election victory.

Not surprising then the politicians' attempt into politicising the social whole. This then leads us to the wrong man in the right place and of course the right man in the wrong place type of situation which in turn hurdles national development. All kinds of 'nin-computes' find their way into authoritative post bootlicking politicians who themselves are pressurised - the pressure itself coming off an 'obliged state'.

Trying to get an interview in this connection with Colombo University's senior sociologist Professor S. T. Hettige, this writer almost ran into an unsuccessful bid as what could be heard over the telephone was a very indignant Professor who said, "Afreeha you are only wasting your time and mine. You keep writing on such matters and so do I. But of what use?"

Convincing him was hard. Yet social responsibility cannot be overlooked which explanation led the Professor in to green signalling the intended interview."Inefficient service providers have come about as a result of politicisation and we the public particularly those that deal with the public service institutions are at the receiving end. Take for instance when the electricity bill goes up - the ever green reply is of rising production costs due to costly inputs. Is this the whole truth? No, certainly not. It is because of a lack of human resource management. How could we have or even dream of such management when politicians recruit large numbers into such service providing institutions?"

"Public institutions", he bemoaned, "are over staffed. With every new minister, a new set of recruits follow and the huge bandwagon absorbed into these institutions are rooted in the respective minister's electorate. So recruitment is done without looking at the cost implication. When you recruit political supporters you are recruiting those without suitability overlooking credentials.

Private companies

"If it is a service delivery organisation one should be able to deliver that service at minimum cost. If the service is electricity it should be supplied at reasonable cost."

Referring to private companies that maintain standards following correct recruitment rules he said that it is only productive people one find over there.

These institutions run on their own funds unlike public institutions that run on state funds. Politicians are aware of this and dump their supporters into the public sector. As a result, we the public pay for their wrongs.

These public sector institutions irrespective of mismanagement and unproductivity remain that way and continue to be a burden on the people.

Professor Hettige sees the importance of human resource management as a way out of the current quagmire we have fallen into - nothing new anyway ever since we lost the independent public service reputed for its credentials. Through such management or (HRM) there could be improvement in terms of responsiveness to public need. Efficiency and cost effectiveness would invariably lead to public benefit. To do this what is most important is to give these institutions autonomy."

Talking of autonomy, there's nothing that holds good for the country's public service as long as it is politicised.

"It must be liberated from politicians' clutches and become very professional," he emphasised.

A de-politicised public service akin to the one that existed some decades ago, was the main theme in Professor Hettige's delivery - wishful thinking until politicians think in terms of 'self before nation'.

Space in public sector

Professor Hettige also saw the need for higher management to be professionally oriented with modern management principles. Secondly, these institutions must be free to recruit people on rational criteria and not on political recommendations.

'But, will the political leaders accept realities? Our experience has been 'They Will Not'.

Today these public sector institutions have a great space - one of improvement. However, these handful of politicians will not allow to fill that space. As a result, when people go to such places they are sent from pillar to post. The officers there expect some sort of bribe. When an organisation is ineffective, naturally bribery and corruption set in.

The third implication is wastage of funds in these institutions which could have been used for another public purpose. So we dump funds into these organisations which is a sheer waste. Ironically, despite this colossal funding, peoples' quality of life remains poor. For instance when the transport system, public hospitals and government departments are inefficient and ineffective the quality of life undermined. The direct and indirect effects are seen firstly in not being able to get proper service and secondly, there is large scale disorganisation.

Professor Hettige also sees the need for political consensus on human resource management. 'Political parties must realise that there can be no national development until and unless the management of public institutions are improved. This is why de-politicisation is needed and proper recruitment procedures adopted on rational principles.'

Sending out a warning note on giving employment to graduates he said, the public sector has to be thought of in terms of gaps. "These new graduates have to fill those gaps and not simply dumped anywhere and everywhere in an adhoc manner." The country's needs are those gaps. For instance, take the elderly whose numbers are increasing. Such youth can be trained as community development officers and channelled into their care. Deploying them into improving conditions in prisons will also benefit the country immensely. They can even be intermediaries between prisoners and their families," he said.

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