Public service needs an overhaul

 PUBLIC servants, as government workers are known in Papua New Guinea, are among the better paid workers in this country.

Their employer, the PNG Government, rarely fails to pay them on time every fortnight regardless of whether they actually do any work.

The public service is a contented workforce and most, if not all, public servants will gladly attest that it is a real privilege to be employed by the Government.

Those lucky workers consider the PNG Government the ideal employer, which condones their inefficiencies and pays them very good wages despite the desperate cries of our people for improved service delivery.

However, they are despised by the wider community which sees an inefficient and ineffective public service as a major stumbling block to development and growth in this country.

Among the current critics is Vice Minister for Finance Benjamin Phillip, who lashed out this week at the bureaucracy, saying the financing of the public service from the national and provincial recurrent budget is overly expensive.

The Menyamya MP wants the public service overhaul­ed to be cost-effective because much money is being paid to public servants annually but their work output does not reflect the amount spent on them.

We could not agree more with Phillip that the public service machinery is inefficient and costly. It needs to be overhauled immediately to bring back productivity that will reflect in the services provided to our people.

The vice minister’s media statement hits the nail on the head: “Most public servants are being paid for doing nothing or doing minimal work, yet the system we have in place continues to pay them for their inefficiencies and ineffectiveness in executing government directives for services to trickle down to the people. Public servants, unlike private sector employees, are paid a fixed salary with all sorts of allowances for doing nothing or minimal work. For ex­ample, if a public servant has gone AWOL for six months, he or she is still being paid and that is just not right. In other areas, public servants either work half a day or don’t work at all yet they are still being paid for the full day’s work.”

Phillip’s main concern is that the Government will continue to pour money down the drain unless the pub­lic service is overhauled to become more productive and cost-effective. 

One of our readers was quick to support his statement. In a letter to the editor yesterday, Nickson Gagee wrote via email: “There is more government money paid as salary to unreliable, unproductive, inefficient absentees and even ghost government employees.”

We anticipate more letters from our readers supporting Phillip’s statement.

It would be wise of the National Executive Council to take heed of the Phillip’s concern and initiate plans to overhaul the public service.

In particular, Public Service Minister Sir Puka Temu and his departmental head John Kali should spearhead the changes. 

The public service machinery has not undergone any drastic structural and operational changes since PNG inherited the system from its colonial master, Australia, 38 years ago. 

What has changed during this period has been the mindset and work output of public servants. While there are many public servants who work tirelessly to serve the Government, there are many more who are totally inefficient and are a burden on the annual budget. 

These are the type of public servants who are making a mockery of the system by being regularly absent from work but still front up at the ATMs (automated telling machines) on paydays to swipe their bank cards. 

Drastic changes to the public service must ensure that government workers are paid according to the time they spend at work, just like private sector employees. 

The Government must impose strict work regulations to ensure public servants perform their duties efficiently and their work output is closely monitored and assessed on a regular basis.

Phillip has raised a serious issue that needs an immediate response from the political leadership. And he intends to keep raising the issue until it is addressed by the Government.

We hope that Sir Puka will initiate the winds of change in the public service.