Sunday Times 2
Public service and service to the public: The need for efficient systems
View(s):By Ariyaratne Hewage
Public means the people in a country. Public service therefore, should concentrate on providing the required services to the people. The main objective of the members of public service is to ensure that the functions entrusted to each one of them would be performed in an efficient and effective manner to improve quality of life of people. However, public officers should keep in mind that they are also a part of the public and not a group of aliens. Today, there are about 1.3 million public officers working in different capacities throughout the country.
Sri Lanka's public sector officials at a meeting with President Sirisena
In a broad sense, both elected members of public as well as appointed public officers should realize that they are expected to serve the public to ensure economic, social and cultural improvement of people. When one takes a critical look at the present day public agencies, it is doubtful if the services provided by them help to address issues of people.
Results-oriented approach
The main objective of the government mechanism is not only to perform various functions by utilising public funds but also to ensure the achievement of results or outcomes expected of such functions. It is necessary to ensure that expected results are achieved from any type of project and the responsible officers must develop indicators to measure results and undertake continuous monitoring. This process of results orientation is a world accepted system called ‘Results Based Management’, adopted by many developed countries.
Comparative experience
We can learn from two key innovations introduced in England and Malaysia where they have been able to improve the delivery services to address identified issues of people. When Prime Minister Tony Blair completed his first term in office and wanted to run for the second term, he realised that many promises pledged at the first election had not been fulfilled. He was concerned about delivering key services to people and established a special unit called, Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit (PMDU) under his direct supervision. The main task entrusted to the PMDU was to identify the priorities of services delivered to the people and to develop targets and measurable indicators for such services. Health, education, law and order and transport were identified as priority areas.
The PMDU prepared a strategic plan to resolve the identified issues and assigned targets and timeframes for implementation to relevant government agencies. Training programmes conducted to educate the officers of relevant agencies as to how they should proceed in the process of implementation and reporting the progress. Progress of the achievement levels was regularly reviewed and reported to the PM who arranged to present the progress regularly to the Cabinet of Ministers.
Similarly, Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razak who was reelected in 2013 had identified six national priorities with the concurrence of his cabinet ministers. They were called National Key Results Areas (NKRA) and the main priorities included the provision of basic rural infrastructure, reduction of crimes and improving the quality of education.
Another important aspect to be considered in this process is present auditing practices in Sri Lanka. Audit officers normally review the paid documents and check whether allocated funds have been utilised according to the set rules and regulations and whether the physical outputs have been produced. They do not pay adequate attention to review the achievement of results or outcomes in the audit process.
Practising good governance
Good governance and reconciliation has been identified as two main priorities of the present Government. The term governance refers to the administrative mechanism available to manage the economic, social and political affairs of a country. Political leaders and public officers who wish to practise good governance should be conversant with its basic principles. As identified by the UNDP, the main principles of governance are characterised by participation, rule of law, transparency, responsiveness, consensus orientation, equity, efficiency, effectiveness, accountability and strategic vision.
Private sector in development
It should be noted that in the implementation of development programmes, the public sector alone cannot achieve development goals and therefore, the cooperation of the private sector becomes essential. The public officers should play the role of a facilitator to involve the private sector in a productive manner and as a regulator to ensure the quality of development in all its dimensions.
Multiple roles of a ministry secretary
Ministry secretaries hold the highest positions in the public service. They are the chief executive officer of the respective ministry and are entrusted with the responsibility of executing the programmes in terms of the policies approved by the Cabinet of Ministers. They should ensure that all officers of the ministry and the officers in agencies under the ministry perform efficiently and effectively and adhere to the rules, regulations and procedures and achieve planned results. They should also communicate with their ministers about the progress of the programmes implemented by the officers.
The secretaries are responsible to the President, and perform on the directions of their respective ministers. They are responsible to Parliament on managing public finance and to the Cabinet of ministers about the affairs of the ministry.
Appointment of officers
It is important to follow a systematic methodology when recruiting and appointing officers to various posts. Appointments to the posts should be done in a professional manner after evaluating the qualifications, skills and interests of officers. It can be observed that there is no proper system followed when making appointments to top posts in the public service and such appointments are done mainly on the basis of personal relations.
When I attended a meeting of SLAS officers recently, some senior officers told me that they are frustrated about the way how the ministry secretaries have been appointed. They said that some who are lower in seniority have been appointed as secretaries and they have been overlooked although they are senior in the service. They also said that during the last regime, the secretaries were appointed on the basis of personal relations and that there is no change in the present system too. I then asked them whether they advocate a system of appointing ministry secretaries purely on the basis of seniority. Then they said that they would wish to see a proper system in place when appointing secretaries and that they would not be unhappy even if they were not selected. If selections were made according to a fair and transparent system, there would be good governance.
Importance of coordination
Often, repetition can be observed when various levels of government agencies implement their programmes without any interaction with each other. Maintaining a sound inter-agency coordination becomes predominantly an important element in the implementation process. Already, a system of coordination exits at Divisional Secretaries’ level and district level.
However, no formally established coordination mechanism exists to coordinate the activities among the ministries and various agencies functioning under a ministry. It is also necessary to establish a coordination mechanism between the national and provincial agencies.
Capacity building
An essential requirement of the public service is to provide training to public officers to enhance their knowledge, skills and attitudes and improve their professional competencies. Developed countries accord a higher priority for public service training. The Sri Lanka Institute of Development Administration (SLIDA) is mandated to provide training to public officers, particularly for those in the executive grades. In playing its important role, SLIDA should identify the competency frameworks required for different levels of executive grades and organise its training programmes with a view to developing their competencies and equipping them with the capacity to perform their functions efficiently and effectively.
As required by the service code, the executive grades of public service should obtain a masters level degree before they are promoted to the class 1 of the respective service. However, it is observed that obtaining a postgraduate level degree is done only to fulfil the promotion requirement and many officers who have completed postgraduate programmes in local or foreign universities have not shown a significant improvement in their performance. The authorities may identify the study needs of officers in different fields and communicate with recognised universities in advance and organise the study programmes in a systematic manner.
Building a strong and formal mechanism
To govern the affairs of the country, a strong and formal mechanism with legal backing is required. It can be observed that many political leaders and bureaucrats today use an unlimited discretionary power in decision making related to policy matters. Not only when the government changes are policies changed but also when a minister of the same government changes. Relevant authorities may appoint teams of experts and educated persons to study in depth the subjects in question and request the teams to submit their alternative recommendations with possible costs and benefits for each of the alternative. The political and bureaucratic authorities will then be able to select suitable alternatives on a rational basis. The major policies of national importance should not be changed haphazardly and all relevant authorities should follow the accepted system and procedure. When such an accepted system in policy formulation is followed, the high level authorities will get used to doing business in a professional manner which will also lead to improved practices of governance and development of the country.
Conclusion
Adopting the systems and methods discussed in this article would invariably help improve quality and productivity of governance. It should also be stated that many public officers are aware of the concepts of good governance but it is observed that they do not use much effort to put such concepts into practice but carry on their business as usual.
(The writer is a senior officer of the Sri Lanka Administrative Service and has held many positions in the public service including the Secretary, Ministry of Ports & Aviation and Ministry of Education. He also functioned as the Chairman,
Finance Commission).