Moving towards public service excellence

Lionel WIJESIRI

President Mahinda Rajapaksa's recent advice given to public officers should be an eye opener to all concerned. He said that all public officers need to ask themselves whether they carried out a service worthy of their salaries. Few weeks ago, the President also referred to a report and said the daily productivity of the average public officer is much less than 50 percent of what is expected.

There is no gainsaying that the public service plays critical role in galvanizing a nation and its resources to development. On the other hand, its inefficiency can constitute as one of the heaviest millstones round the neck of developing nation. Since it is the vehicle and machinery of public policy formulation and implementation, the service has a very critical role to play.

Today, our public service is facing a number of challenges, such as those of achieving professional competence, coping with public expectation and change and behaving ethically and maintaining constitutional order. The truth is that all these problems are inextricably linked to failure of the public service to play its rightful role in system maintenance and continuity.

Can this trend be reversed? Can our public officers be cultivated to act as agents of economic consolidation in Sri Lanka? I believe that we can. And, for that purpose, there are a number of steps to be taken.

Values

To begin with, what really is an efficient public service? Many voluminous books are written to answer this question. My answer, in layman?s language, is that an efficient public service is one that carries out its functions in the best possible and least wasteful manner. This means always working to improve the way things are done. In the absence of market force incentives, the public service has an even greater obligation to make good use of resources and available instruments in doing its work. It must innovate, learn and improve. Common values, strongly held, are a critical aspect of a competent and efficient public service because public administration relies on judgment.

The public service is expected to act in the public interest, and to be politically neutral, anonymous, impartial, dedicated, professional, and loyal to the government of the day. It is expected to provide efficient, effective and fair service to individuals, groups and society. There are inevitable tensions between some of these values. For example, there is a tension between fairness to society and responsiveness to individuals, and similarly, between due process and efficiency. Yet the essence of a public service is defined by these expectations. It must manage these tensions and still follow high standards of professionalism and of service to elected officials and to citizens, even under conditions of rapid change. The values of the public service give it continuity over time and stability.

Questions

In the search for the systems and procedures to achieve the excellence in public service, first of all, we need to clarify a number of questions that need attention and discussion: What kind of public service does Sri Lanka want? What part of society's work should be done in or by the public sector? What set of values should govern the provision of public goods and services? Should the public service focus exclusively on efficiency, or also satisfy other societal goals such as, for example, being representative of the existing Government as a whole in its composition? What should be the criteria for the migration of public service functions to the private sector?

These questions about approaches to public service and public management deserve debate with all stakeholders in order to agree on the nature of the Sri Lankan public service as it evolves toward the future.

The approach needs reviewing and assessing their activities and programs against some guidelines: for example, does each program area or activity continue to serve a public interest?, is there a legitimate and necessary role for the government in this program area or activity?, what activities or programs should or could be transferred in whole or in part to the private or voluntary sector? If the program or activity continues, how could its efficiency be improved? Is the resultant package of programs and activities affordable within the fiscal constraints? If not, what programs or activities would be abandoned?

These questions demonstrate the two main thrusts of the initiative: first, to redefine the program responsibilities of the government; and second, to reduce their cost. The correct answers will reinforce the message that there were limits on the government's ability to undertake new programs and initiatives.

Responsibility

The role of a public officer is three-dimensional. The first is to assist in the formulation of policy. In this regard, it is his traditional duty, (especially that of the senior public officer), to make available to the political superiors, all the information and experience at his disposal. This was the view espoused by public administrators decades ago, but it remains as relevant and as important now as it was then.

By the same token, however, the political superiors have to accept and understand that fundamental role of public officers and create and nurture the environment where he can conscientiously fulfill his roles and obligations.

The development of an efficient and excellent Public Service depends on the common understanding of that relationship. It is a shared responsibility between the political masters and the public officer.

His second role is that of carrying out the decisions of Government. Here again, the same principles of integrity, honesty, impartiality and objectivity apply.

Actions on his part which seek to frustrate the implementation of policies or decisions, once they have been taken and formulated, can only lead to problems which would affect the whole development process.

His third major role is the administration of services for which the Government is responsible. It is in the discharge of that function, more than any other, that he interacts with members of the public, and in which he can demonstrate his commitment to national development and good governance. The public should never have reason to question his commitment in that regard.

Any perception on their part that he does not have their interest at heart will only lead to distrust, disillusion and apathy towards him, both individually and collectively.

Today's Need

During the past few decades, we have had a number of Committees which had been set up to begin the process of Public Sector Reform. It would appear that Reform has not been embraced either by the then Governments or the Public Service itself as enthusiastically as it should have been. But if ever serious Public Sector Reform was needed, the time is now, in this rapidly changing world, and consequently in the changing nature of the State apparatus.

We need a dynamic rather than static, public sector which is willing to make innovations and be flexible rather than be boxed-in by models of the past. Our challenge is to develop as excellent a Public Service as our small size and our limited resources will allow.

We have been cautioned that good public sector in this the twenty-first century is not a luxury but a vital necessity for development; that it is not adapting rapidly enough to keep pace with the changes in markets, civil societies and global forces.

Given the responsibility and the role of the Public Service in the formulation and execution of government policy and in the delivery of services to the public, it is time all public officers redouble their efforts, and help put the country on the most solid foundation that could be built.