Transfers in the public service - A colossal waste

BY DR. P. A. C. de Silva

IN Sri Lanka, the onus for the country's development lies in the hands of the Public Service.

All Public Servants are 'birds of passage'. They are never satisfied. Hardly a day passes without a strike, demanding higher pay to combat rising COL, permanency in appointments, better working conditions, payments of arrears, strike-pay etc. etc. etc.

How on earth can our country develop with such a dissatisfied public service?.

Recommendations

a. All appointments to the public service should be non-transferrable, either permanent or on contract as in the UK and other developed countries.

b. All appointments should be advertised in the daily papers on a particular day or in the gazette by the local authority and not the central government Selections should be made by the local authority and not by the Minister in Colombo.

c. Government servants working in remote areas must be placed at a higher point on the salary scale, than those working in Colombo and other cities so that there will be job satisfaction.

d. For posts where there are few or no applicants, the local authority must have the power to negotiate the salary with suitable prospective applicants so that there will be job satisfaction.

e. Incentives like housing loans, priority of school admissions can be offered to suitable appointees.

f. There should be a probationary period of 6 months during which the appointee could resign if dissatisfied or the local authority could terminate the appointment due to unsatisfactory service.

A record book indicating the appointments held should be issued to all appointees.

Advantages of a non-transferrable public service to the public servants

a. There will be job satisfaction. Government servants will be able to plan their future, build their own houses with all facilities and decide where they and their families will spend the rest of their lives.

b. They will be able to spend their leisure profitably with the family partaking in home-gardening, agriculture, poultry-keeping, diary-farming to boost family-income, supervise the work of children, find suitable employment for the wife.

Then the family income will increase and COL reduced. Under the present system, leisure is wasted in clubs either drinking, standing round of drinks, watching cricket matches, chatting and discussing politics and cricket.

c. Several thousands of public servants spend - 5-12 hours a day or even more travelling from home to the place of work sometimes over 100 miles away daily.

At the end of the day he/she is tired and not able to concentrate on the days work, demanding over-time to cover arrears of work. Very often there are buses and train break-downs causing late=arrivals. Many leave the place of work early to 'catch the train'.

d. For a vast majority of public servants, routine transfers are not required. A few may need transfers for security reasons etc. Many public servants may opt to forego promotions for the sake of being with the family and establishing themselves in one place.

Advantage of a non-transferrable public service to the State

Advantages to the State are enormous. Budget-deficits will eventually fade away.

1. Ministers will be able to devote their time planning the development of the country, rather than spend time on transfers and matters arising from transfers. Time will not be wasted on travelling.

2. The State will be able to prune the enormous expenditure on the transport system. - buses, trains, private buses, private school buses and vans.

The floating population in Colombo is over one million. No necessity for 750 new buses every year. No competitive speeding and considerable reductions in road accidents. Considerable savings on hospital care, compensation and insurance.

3. Work output will increase as the government servants will be able to put in 8 hours of work daily.

4. There will be no arrears of work and necessity for overtime pay. It is well-known that unscrupulous railway employees (Railway pilots) fabricate 'break-downs' to collect over-time. No speeding, damaging rail-tracks derailment.

5. As most government servants will be residing at home close to their places of work, the necessity for 'holidays' will be minimal.

6. There will be dramatic reductions in the costs of living (COL) and no strikes.

7. All categories of public servants will pool their heads and resources and make desperate attempts to improve the hospitals, roads, bridges, bus-stands, schools, school-buildings and other public institutions which are in a state of utter dis-repair.

8. Hospital doctors and other staff will get expensive electro-medical and other hospital equipment repaired, and made usable rather than be piled up to be condemned and destroyed after a 'Board of survey'. No floor-patients in hospitals.

9. Expensive pharmaceuticals will not get 'out-dated' and destroyed as is happening now, as pharmacists are also 'birds of passage'.

10. Teachers and other professionals will harness their efforts to develop the schools because all their children will also be attending local schools.

11. The ferocious scramble for primary school admissions will fade away and there will be no bribery and corruption on school admissions.

12. Local residents will all work as members of one team, and bribery, corruption and nepotism will have no place.

13. Water, air and environmental pollution will be reduced and thereby bowel and respiratory infections, communicable and non-communicable diseases will reduce.

14. Farmers and fishermen will get a ready market for their produce and boost their incentives to improve the industry. The 40 percent wastage on paddy, fish, vegetables, fruit etc. will be a thing of the past.

15. The huge mass of people migrating from rural areas to the cities in search of employment will soon disappear.

16. The housing problem will be solved and urban-slums will be minimised.

17. The local authorities will be able to plan out schemes for the management of the elderly, disabled and deal with the problem of beggars.

18. There will be dramatic reductions in unemployment.

19. Private medical practitioners who are now piling-up in urban areas will start moving into rural areas improving the health in those areas.

20. Subversion, drug-peddling and manufacture of kasippu will disappear because the police will detect the hide-outs of criminal elements.

21. The reliance on foreign aid for our survival will fade way.

22. Debating on the cost of war, Sir Winston Churchill said in 1938:-

"It is better to die standing on ones' feet than live on one's knees." Today with a huge unmanageable population, we are dying on our knees.

23. The problem of disposal of garbage in Colombo and principal towns will ease off. Lesson fly-borne diseases and stench.