The country’s prevailing hot topic is the restructuring of the loss-making State-owned enterprises. Although the entire citizenry (except public servants) knows that the efficiency of the public sector is well below standards, the Sri Lankan public service is not only inefficient but also corrupt and severely loss-making, and therefore, brutally wasteful of public resources.
Although the recent statements President Wickremesinghe and the Secretary to the Ministry of Public Administration made about public servants came under severe criticism from the public servants themselves, the bitter truth is that they do not work to their full potential.
Despite efforts time and again by lawmakers to introduce rules and regulations, even a fraction of the overall efficiency has not changed during the past many decades. The entire public service is utterly inconsistent, the staff is untrained, and their general attitude is anti-social. The moral and ethical standards of public service remain unchanged despite the omnipresent negative public opinion.
Demand employment
Sri Lanka is perhaps the only country where graduates pass out from State universities after a free education of approximately seventeen years or more and demand employment from the Government.
They classify them as intellectuals, yet, despite the awareness that the public service is overcrowded and unbearably expensive for the taxpayers, they pressurise governments for public service employment.
According to the opinion of many rational thinkers, the main reason for the enthusiasm of graduates for Government jobs is the feeling of ease of functionality in such employment. Even those who enter into lucrative private sector jobs keep applying for public service despite the rewarding opportunities of the private sector. This phenomenon itself reflects the level of efficiency of the country’s public service.
There is no doubt or argument that a country needs a performing public service sector. The public service of any country provides essential services for people in a specific jurisdiction. Such services are either provided directly by the Government or by assigned semi-Government institutions through Government-established corporations or state-owned enterprises.
Country’s infrastructure
Therefore, the importance of public servants cannot be overstated. By all means, the public service and its workforce are of paramount importance for the country to function. They are assigned to maintain the country’s infrastructure, protect the environment, strengthen the economy, ensure access to education, and more.
Any average person does not argue with this factor. Yet the complaint of almost the entire common citizenry is that, notwithstanding the important responsibilities described above, the vast majority of the public service underperforms and grossly neglects their duties.
Nobody this writer has recently spoken to about the subject has expressed a positive opinion about the overall performance of any of the public offices they have visited, including this writer, everyone has had a bad experience with whatever task they went to complete.
In fairness, occasionally there are places where public officers provide services to people quickly and cordially. In this writer’s own opinion based on experience, the office of the medical officer of health is one rare Government office that provides good services to the public.
Recently, accusations and counter-accusations were levelled at each other in Parliament by the Government and Opposition politicians for increasing the public service cadre to intolerable levels, rising from a million to 1.7 million in the last 15 years.
However, the general public is aware that just like the SOEs, public service is also a breeding ground for political henchmen. In a recent television appearance, the secretary of the Ministry of Public Administration revealed that only minor positions are filled without a competitive examination.
Even this information does not seem to be authentic, as this writer came across even middle and high-level public servants who exist in the service joined without competitive examinations but simply on political influence.
There is ample evidence that even the minor jobs of the public service have historically been created for the whims and fancies of politicians. Although accurate numbers are not available to the public, it is no secret these ‘minor employees’ are inundated in the public sector, perhaps running to millions.
The vast majority of these workers were appointed by politicians, especially ministers, of every Government during the past several decades, from their respective electoral districts. The sole intention of these dubious politicians is to protect their voter base.
There are many reasons for the prevailing public service inefficiency in Sri Lanka. The first and foremost reasons are the resistance to any reform, the new system of operation, and the lack of empathy of most public sector workers.
Whenever there is an attempt to change any of these, the trade unions invariably use strong-arm tactics to threaten the Government in power.
Their basic strategy is to mislead the general public into thinking that the Government is trying something suspicious. If the Government is not responding to their demands, they go into protests, strikes, or any other type of campaign. The irony is that when there is any resistive action by the Government, they get together, disregarding all types of political differences.
Another strong reason for inefficiency in the public sector is the non-availability of leadership efforts to perform effectively to maximise results. Most often, the hierarchical framework is such that the leader himself or herself has come up to a senior position in the service with a long period of service.
In such a scenario, even the leaders have no motivation to drive subordinates for performance and productivity. They invariably avoid putting pressure on the lower-ranking staff for better performance. In public sector institutions, there are no owners to drive the workforce, and the sense of ownership or feeling of responsibility is minimal. They also have no worries about non-performance as they are guaranteed salaries no matter what happens to the country’s economy.
As there is no risk of bankruptcy, as in the private sector, where the threat of job losses exists in such a situation. For instance, the entire public sector was paid full salaries during the Covid-19 period and subsequent financial crisis regardless of whether they worked or stayed home.
Just documents
Unlike in the private sector, although the public service inputs can be quantified, there is no mechanism to measure the outputs. This fact relieves the pressure of accountability on public servants. In some instances, even if they have to submit reports periodically, they are just documents that are usually never cross-checked for accuracy or authenticity.
There is a dire need in the country to carry out public sector reforms without delay at this crucial juncture in the history of Sri Lanka. As attempted in 1997, the performance and aptitude appraisals for public servants linked to annual increments and promotions must be carried out without delay, even though it will be a daunting task to convince them. To implement such programs, extra strong political leadership is required, with no expectations of future votes.
The present Government is burdened heavily, more than any Government in the past, with a severe economic crisis, foreign exchange shortage, unemployment, loss of existing jobs, poverty alleviation, and the elimination of corruption. Therefore, public servants must be convinced that the country needs them more than ever and that their commitment is needed to recover.