Pruning the Civil Service

WHILE CIVIL servants worry about their jobs, citizens are more concerned about improvements in the quality of public services and about the balancing of the Budget which would lead to an easing of the heavy tax and debt burdens on our backs.

A substantial slice of the Budget pie is used to maintain a Civil Service which is too large for the reasonable business of a small, poor country with a deregulated, liberalised economy. Over the years, Government, across administrations, has used the Public Service as a job creation device to mop up labour which a chronically sluggish private sector cannot absorb. The Service has spread like an unpruned bush with little regard for efficiency, accountability, or value for money.

Now the Patterson Government is undertaking a public sector reform process around a service-centred Citizen's Charter and Public Sector Modernisation Programme. There will obviously be staff deployment implications. But what should not be allowed to happen is a broad-stroke cutting of staff for clandestine budgetary reasons under the guise of reform.

The cuts must be justified in terms of the staffing needs of individual agencies for delivering quality service in the new dispensation. This is where the concept of the executive agency has great utility, although it is not a mandatory requirement for improved service delivery. A CEO held accountable for business-like operations will be obliged to get rid of the old padding where it exists and only employ the staff necessary for effective performance.

The Government faces a substantial political dilemma: it needs to cut budgetary costs and to improve public services but must be reluctant to release large numbers of public servants into a shrinking economy where other redundancies are on the rise.

The call of public sector employees for dialogue with the Government is reasonable and must be accommodated as the Prime Minister seems willing to do. But it must be clearly understood that the Service does not exist to provide public servants with work. Users of the service should also be represented at the table and a mechanism should be sought by the consensus Prime Minister for their inclusion in the dialogue.

The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner.

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