26 April - 2 May 2001

Inefficiency in the civil service

In a frank and outspoken manner Finance Minister John Dalli last week hit out the inefficiencies in the civil service and described the Public Service Commission as a millstone around the government’s neck.
There is nothing new in this admission however it is interesting to see the Finance Minister admit to such inefficiencies in public. We are all aware that the public sector has a long way to go before it can be seen as an efficient, cost-effective service. Mr Dalli is more than right in criticising the previous concept, so much in vogue in the 1990s, that the first remedy against government inefficiency was to hive off hundreds of employees to agencies, corporations and parastatal organisations; entities that were themselves perfect examples of more inefficiency and a waste of public money.
More than a decade later, the civil service is still a major problem for the government. While the number of new entrants have been reduced
considerably, there are still too many employees who have nothing better to do than sit down and read the paper. To add insult to injury, the government in January gave each employee a very hefty increase in their paycheque.
Mr Dalli admitted that government’s resources were not being managed properly. There were to many “traditions” in government service dating back to the Knights. We have empires, fiefdoms, personal interests, walls of steel, Mr Dalli said.
Who is to blame? Mr Dalli said it is useless to say whose fault it is. We beg to differ. It is the government – irrespective of political leaning – who is to blame. The mismanagement of human resources begins first and foremost within the ministries, headed by the ministers. They set an example that is copied throughout all the civil service. Of course, there is someone to blame, Mr Dalli.
It is time for the government to do something about the problem. Mr Dalli said that previous attempts have proved to be counterproductive. Instead of heads rolling, people have only retained their posts and got a better wage packet in the process. The setting up of corporations have not helped either and these are now calling for hefty wage increases at par with those in the private sector. These corporations may be slightly more efficient than the civil service per se, but they are certainly not private companies.
Unfortunately, the government is held to ransom by the unions and employees who threaten industrial action at the slightest sign that the government is going to put its foot down.
Last week, the unions decided – coincidentally, at the same time – to call industrial action at the Malta International Airport, the Malta Desalination Plant and the Malta Maritime Authority. In all three cases, the requests made by the unions were too high. At the same time, these same unions would have cried foul if the government dared suggest it would not accept calls for further subventions from these corporations.
This is the problem facing the government in its efforts to bring about an air of accountability and efficiency in the civil service. What is worrying, however, is that the unions fight tooth and nail for increases but are far less ready to criticise their own members for wasting time and government money.
Accountability is a word that both the government and the unions use continuously. Yet, how do the unions react when the government feels that a group of employees – who have done nothing more than sit at a desk for years – should become more productive and therefore seconded to a private corporation or company? They resort to industrial action. They prefer to fight the government rather than lose members. And at the end of the day, it also depends on who is running the government.
The government, through the setting up of the Public Service Commission, has continued to flail itself with useless and totally ineffective bodies. Mr Dalli hit out at the PSC describing it as a millstone around the government’s neck. The PSC is simply being used by the civil service and those whose interests are best kept intact, to protect it and to see that nothing gets changed. That it is inscribed in the Constitution has made it even more effective and as Mr Dalli said, it could be considered as Malta’s biggest sacred cow.
The whole of the civil service risks becoming a sacred cow and a further burden on the Maltese taxpayer. Only a concerted effort by the government, the unions and the employees will bring about a turnaround in the operations, effectiveness and image of the civil service.