Chanaka Bandarage

On Thursday 3 October 2024, the President addressed top officials of the Agriculture and associated ministries. All the relevant top notches were there.

The President mentioned to them that the public has a perception that the public servants are not doing a good job. He mentioned the bribery and corruption problem in a sentence or two.

It is good that the President stated this; no other President has ever stated anything like this directly to senior public servants.

The writer praises the President. He takes this opportunity to state the following:

It is better if the President stated that his own perception is the same.

The writer questions whether or not the President put too much emphasis on the fact that his government would protect officials who do a good job. This goes without saying. The issue at hand is the grievances faced by the public owing to the very bad public service. This is a major problem and it must be fixed as a paramount concern.

The writer believes that the President’s language and tone should have been more assertive on that occasion. The President should have given them a stern, lengthy lecture.

Lee Kuan Yew spoke in a harsh, assertive language/tone to all government officials. This is because he was determined to end corruption and put his public service straight.

Lee Kuan Yew was a man of extreme self-confidence.  He was fearless and never hesitated to ‘call a spade, spade’.

In the election, the President canvassed votes promising to eradicate bribery, corruption and maladministration. In those meetings, he addressed the problem eloquently.

The writer is not at all stating that the President tries to brush off the problem. Undoubtedly, he is very determined to solve the problem. Currently, he is the best person to do this.

The public servants must be told that their current work ethic and work culture are unsatisfactory and that they must reform.

Of course, there are many good public servants. At the same time, there are lots of ‘bad apples’.  

Today, for a common man it is not easy to get anything done by a government office. There is the talk that in some places if a bribe was offered, things get done very fast. Who has the money to give bribes?

Those who know know that the middle and technical level officers of the Agriculture/Fisheries and associated ministries rarely visit farmers/fishermen etc on the field. The writer is aware of instances where field officers take bribes even when handing-out farmers, and other subsidies.

Field officers expect the common man to address them as ‘Sir’ or ‘Madam’. In this way they establish superiority.  

In the recent past, the public service perks have increased tremendously. They get handsome wages now. But, the quality of their service has not improved. This applies to teachers also.

The mistake that the recent governments made was when increasing wages they failed to link it with productivity. This is called ‘Enterprise Bargaining.’

There is talk that they are going to receive another Rs 25,000 a month pay hike in January 2025 (an election gimmick by the previous administration). Can the country afford this? There are school children –  owing to abject poverty, lunch drink sugar mixed water.

Public servants are entitled to a lifetime pension. Upon demise, their surviving spouse receives it. This is bizarre. Does this happen in any other country?

This scheme must be abolished for new entrants. Like in the private sector, they must be entitled to EPF and ETF. As an incentive, it is ok to preserve the government servants’ travel warrants scheme.

Ring a government office – there are many offices where even the telephone lines are unanswered. If answered, on most occasions, the officer at the other end is unsupportive. They do not want to help the public to solve their problems. There are so many rude public servants.

Many public servants cleverly impose unnecessary red tape; this is solely to not assist the public.

The golden rule currently in operation – is ‘never argue with a public servant’.

It states there are 15 lakhs of them – on a per capita basis, the world’s largest public service.

Only 3 cabinet ministers are now (successfully) doing the job that 120 did under the UPA government (2010 – 2015).

How many of the public servants do a genuine job?

Anton Jones’ song –  ‘කන්තෝරුව, කන්තෝරුව’ comes to mind.

Like the private sector, why cannot they work from 9 am to 5 pm (or 830 am to 430 pm)?

It was remarkable that refreshments for the said event was done locally. In the past, for such events catering was done by a 5-star hotel or by the Sri Lankan Airlines Catering Service. Hats off to the President for putting a stop to the public service tamasha culture.