| Business |
The crumbling public service
WE wrote about the Southern Highlands
province yesterday. A report from the province in the same issue
told of the disgust of a high school teacher at the court battles
and confrontations between the contending administrators.
Why can’t the two men and the governor sit down and hold a round
table conference to sort out the problems, the teacher asked.
The costs to the province in money, in credibility and in loss of
public servant commitment is incalculable.
The effects upon the people are reflected in the comments of other
Southern Highlanders spoken to by our reporter.
The people have quite simply given up. The mayor of Tari summed
matters up when he said that nothing gets done in the province,
nothing has changed and it doesn’t matter who is in charge.
With more than a note of weariness, the mayor referred to the
nearby giant Porgera mine that draws power from the plentiful gas
in the Tari area.
Mayor Tagobe appears to have no problem with that arrangement –
but he certainly deplores the lack of an electricity supply to his
own struggling provincial town.
Later, a senior public servant noted that his colleagues were both
divided and confused. They were unable to determine which of the
two appointed administrators was actually in charge.
Let’s not pretend that the Tari area is somehow unique in PNG.
There are many echoes of this kind of cynical desperation on the
part of the people to be found throughout our nation.
Appointments to provincial positions are opaque rather than
transparent. Provincial administrators are the centre of political
and public service confrontations in too many provinces.
Few appear to be able to exercise the power and the authority that
their position grants them. Too many are involved in shady
relationships with big provincial businessmen, or aligned to
particular ethnic groups within a province.
Perhaps one of the many government research officers could take a
little time off and compile a list of the number of political
appointments and counter appointments that have been made within
say, the past 12 months.
These should cover department secretary positions, heads of
offices and statutory authorities and other government
instrumentalities and senior provincial appointments. By our
calculation, the number would be alarmingly large and would
underline the triumph of politics in the public service at the
cost of professionalism, experience and qualifications.
The days when the public service was committed to a career
structure based on demonstrated talent have faded into obscurity.
Why on earth would any Southern Highlands tertiary graduate decide
to work with the provincial government?
The department of that province appears to operate on an ad-hoc
basis, a sort of political merry-go-round that periodically throws
cronies and wantoks of leading political figures into the
spotlight. No self-respecting province can operate effectively in
that way.
Perhaps it is time for the National Government to take a step back
from the in-fighting and the accusations that characterise the
politicised public service. Much could be gained by honestly
addressing a few obvious issues.
The structure of the public service specifically bars political
interference at national or provincial level. Successive national
governments have pledged their commitment to upholding and
developing that immunity from political interference in public
service appointments.
But the records show that the number of political appointments
made has, if anything, increased over time. The rapidity with
which secretaries of national government departments are shunted
from the limelight to backstage is remarkable. The same sleight of
hand characterises the appointments of provincial administrators.
And there’s an added twist – many of these Waigani appointments
are flatly rejected by provincial governments or governors. If any
national government genuinely wants to create a cadre of
intelligent, experienced and committed public servants, then it
must rid that service utterly and completely of any form of
political interference or influence.
The benefits will take some time to eventuate.
People will need time to realise that public servants are
genuinely seeking to channel goods and services to the people –
all the people – not just the political cronies of the
administrator or the department head.
It almost means starting all over again. But what have we got to
lose?
 
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