The Ombudsman and state sector rejuvenation

Shenali WADUGE

A government that is concentrating on development needs to realize that their performance is judged primarily through the manner in which it is able to lead and spearhead the performance of its public sector. State employees are key to turning the satisfaction quotient of the public favourably.

When the public has to deal with unsuitable officials, unqualified civil servants, officials with poor PR skills, incompetent staff, irregularities, malpractices, corruption and bribery - these together result in the public becoming totally dejected with the government in power.

There certainly needs to be changes to the present pattern of lifelong tenure positions based on seniority.

These need to be tied to good performance evaluation systems wherein the best performers are given opportunity to rise and given key posts and portfolios.

Eradicating corruption

Though Sri Lanka is not required to follow blueprints adapted by other countries it is good to see how and why corruption strategies have worked in countries and Singapore is a good case study. It is not that Singapore is without corruption but the essentially important feature is that Singapore has succeeded in curbing corruption and changing people’s mindset to abhor corruption. Singapore has implemented the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau to spearhead anti-corruption strategy. The key role of the CPIB is to curb corruption by reducing the opportunities for corruption and by increasing the price to be paid for corrupt behaviour.

Eradicating corruption necessarily implies that no one is above law and there is no discrimination on who is to be punished if caught. Which means rich or poor, influential or not there cannot be double standards. We all know that Imelda Marco possessed 3,000 pairs of shoes and 2,000 ball gowns. It won’t take us much time to figure out other examples of politicians and families living ostentatious lifestyles.

Malpractices and irregularities

Therefore in desiring to deal with the issue of corruption the most important lesson that needs to be applied is that the methods adopted must be comprehensive and must not have loopholes and must be continuously reviewed and amended where necessary and when necessary.

Thus those tasked to ensure that malpractices and irregularities do not occur in the public sector must be totally incorrupt and the selection of these team of men and women must be given top priority.

A general grievance by state employees is that they are not paid on par with private sector employees.

Given that salaries are a key component in prompting men and women towards corrupt practices by having a system where those caught in any type of malpractice including firing from service will lead to the desired reduction in state staff which will certainly enable a restructuring of salary with higher perks for the good officers who remain.

The Ombudsman was created in 1978 by the Second Republic Constitution. For an entire island Sri Lanka has just one Ombudsman with just 15 staff and no branch offices to cater to grievances against Public Sector officials.

There is something radically wrong in this and needs to be quickly addressed.

Empowering the Ombudsman who has authority given by legislature to address grievances and allowing the public to participate in the exercise of curbing corruption would certainly lead to a better state apparatus when the state employees realize that the public have a place to freely lodge their grievances against public officials and assurance that actions against these officers will be taken and publicly highlighted.

When public sector employees realize they are being scrutinized and the public is watching their every move and that repercussions for those found guilty would lead to poor performance ratings linked to promotions and salary increments even firing or transfers, automatically the public sector would fall into line and politicians themselves would realize a thing or two themselves.

Performance ratings

The importance of this suggestion is to bring the public and the Ombudsman closer and to empower the Ombudsman to bring to light all officers (junior or senior) who engage in corrupt practices. Similarly it is good for the Public Administration Ministry to derive a new structure to give opportunities for high performers, for those having poor performance ratings to be denied automatic promotions etc as had happened in the past.

State sector

A good example of giving high performers the mantle of leadership was seen in the manner Sri Lanka’s armed forces changed its structure to allow junior officers to lead the final battle against the LTTE and achieve the desired results.

Those in authority can take this suggestion further by looking at the modalities but given that it is the public that deals with public sector employees on a daily basis it is they who are best equipped to praise or admonish officers/officials they deal with and if they are properly linked to an empowered Ombudsman who is given the authority and manpower to handle these grievances we can begin to think that corrupt practices in the state sector can see a desired decline.

Preparing papers, workshops and opening authorities is unlikely to reap the desired results until and unless the people that is the public of Sri Lanka are involved in this exercise in partnership with a Parliament approved Ombudsman who can be properly tasked to punish officials for their wrong doings.