Published on the Business Today, issue 12th December 2007
A
big PR razzmatazz was drummed up four years ago when a White Paper
entitled ‘A Public Service for the 21st Century’ was launched. It
announced new public service charters. These would commit
departments to deliver on what citizens could expect the public
service to provide them with. Government services were to be
packaged as part of a consumer-oriented programme, in which the
taxpayer would be considered king, or at least be acknowledged to
have significant rights.
One cannot deny that improvements have surfaced after these attempts
to inculcate a service oriented culture. In his 2004 report outgoing
Ombudsman Mr Joseph Sammut, himself a former head of the civil
service, said there should be consistent, across-the-board
application of redress for misadministration in the public service
while he lamented of a general deterioration in the top-to-down
attitudes of certain departments. One typical example is the
seven-year delay associated with the planning and erection of a Ta’
Qali crafts village.
More remains to be done and it is not uncommon to hear about
complaints on the contemptuous ways by which citizens’ specific
requests are dealt with throughout a certain range of public
services. This is just as prevalent in areas where IT breakthroughs
are allegedly being made, as in more traditional sectors of civil
service activity.
Ironically work associated with the demolition and clearing of
Ricasoli site in preparation of the Smart City project seems to have
run amok of the usual bureaucracy. Yet even the minister responsible
for SmartCity has cast doubts whether we can inculcate effectiveness
in central bureaucracy when Smart City starts winning applications
from global investors to set up shop.
Down the years, one can thank God for little mercies and the
hard-won improvements in central administration but critics still
cry out that it remains a bloated service, grossly over-manned.
There is no prize for guessing that it is under-deployed. This is
not the fault of its 35,000 members.
The
hierarchy cocoons workforce made indolent by an assumption that
their post is a job for life. Now we hear this week that close to
two thousand part-timers have been assigned a permanent job status.
With an administration is in last days this gesture comes with a
whiff of electioneering gusto.
So why is the level of productivity not at par with that of the
private sector? The answer is multifarious one. Although wages
parity with the private sector has been reached in many grades, it
is a pity that productivity has not risen in line with the private
sector. Politicians have since independence been fearful of trailing
in political patronage.
This time the claptrap is for more efficiency which is our “Holy
Grail” to catch up in view of the arrival of investors alias
SmartCity where in Dubai by comparison it is reputed that companies
can be approved and licensed in ten days flat.
The e-Minister Dr Austin Gatt dreams to jettison the Service in the
rarefied air of cyberspace efficiency. We all wish him well. The
Opposition may well ask if this inertia on such an important part of
the restructuring agenda is not bare-faced prevarication.
Regrettably there is so much at stake. It is perplexing why we have
been papering the cracks rather than targeting the root of the
problem. This is an unsolved mystery. Certainly accountability for
management of the economy falls squarely on the government assisted
by the Service.
Typically, the workforce goes on half days routine reminiscent of
the balmy Colonial days. Sadly all this occurs at the apex of the
tourist and export season when it closes its shutters to the public
at 1.00 pm for 3 whole months.
Repeatedly
both FOI and the Malta Employers’ Association (MEA) called on the
government to spruce up the public sector rendering it more
efficient, through a planned and phased reduction in extra manpower
and for tighter control of expenditure in order to address the
fiscal deficit.
Both highlighted the need for the government to cut inefficient
expenditure and trim duplication in agencies and weed out alleged
conflicts of interest by political appointees wearing too many hats.
Many solutions are penned by different columnists. Principally they
plead for urgent remedial action to avoid.
A
big PR razzmatazz was drummed up four years ago when a White Paper
entitled ‘A Public Service for the 21st Century’ was launched. It
announced new public service charters. These would commit
departments to deliver on what citizens could expect the public
service to provide them with. Government services were to be
packaged as part of a consumer-oriented programme, in which the
taxpayer would be considered king, or at least be acknowledged to
have significant rights.
The
hierarchy cocoons workforce made indolent by an assumption that
their post is a job for life. Now we hear this week that close to
two thousand part-timers have been assigned a permanent job status.
With an administration is in last days this gesture comes with a
whiff of electioneering gusto.
Repeatedly
both FOI and the Malta Employers’ Association (MEA) called on the
government to spruce up the public sector rendering it more
efficient, through a planned and phased reduction in extra manpower
and for tighter control of expenditure in order to address the
fiscal deficit.
