The Year of Excellence in Public Service – 2013

I am pleased that 2013 has been declared a Year of Excellence in Public Service, by the President. I sincerely hope the year does not go the same way as all his previous futile, but well intentioned “YEARS”.

After all the Year of English and IT was a complete waste, as since, the level of English has FURTHER DETERIORATED. So if this President does not wish to go down in History as the biggest “Blagger” since creation he had better do something concrete to be true to his word.

First he has appointed the Cabinet Secretary, Sumith Abeysinghe to oversee this project. At the meeting of Ministry Secretaries, namely the CEOs of each of the ministries, held a few days ago, the Secretary to the President, Lalith Weeratunge has instructed that

1                   Strengthen the Mechanism to address public grievances

2                   Make maximum use of ICTs (this is a pet subject of LW)

3                   Efficiently deploy Human Resources (1.4M strong Public Serivce)

I am willing to assist the Govt in this task if asked, as they need someone from the Private Sector to show them what efficiency is!!! There is NO human in the Public Service who knows how to even begin, as they DO NOT know how to measure Excellence as it is a word not in use in the Public Sector in Sri Lanka.

In fact incompetence is what is usually associated with the Public Service, save for a few examples, and therefore for them to do the opposite of what they have been used to all this time, is like the President telling lies believing it to be the truth.

You can’t fault him as he knows no better, having only experienced that trait with no one able to be truthful. It is therefore time to change from meaningless utterances to a serious effort backed by professionals who know their subject, to advise without fear or favor in the interests of achieving the objectives laid out and not just leave it to slogans and banners, as has been the case in the past.

It is very important that the huge cost of the Public Service, begins to show results. It is easier to get work out of the people by showing the way, rather than just getting rid of surplus staff, something that is politically unacceptable! It is possible to give specific tasks, responsibilities,   and performance measures to public servants, and grade them accordingly. It is about time too for a sea change.

ITS BEEN A LONG TIME IN COMING - BETTER LATE THAN NEVER!