The public service is a fat cow

Jul 29, 2018 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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The Commission of Inquiry (COI) into the Public Service of Guyana did not make radical recommendations. The COI did not, for example, call for a downsizing of the public service.
The COI made recommendations which can be easily implemented. Yet today many of its recommendations remain unimplemented, a reflection of the policy paralysis and administrative inertia which characterizes the public service
Some of the COI’s recommendations have been implemented, but in the wrong way. For example, the COI called for contract workers holding public service positions to be absorbed into the public service establishment. Some of this has been done, but there are still far too many contract employees, some of whom are working for super salaries and not providing value for money.
The COI also recommended a competitive system for the contract workers. We know that jobs are still being handed to cronies, friends and partisans.
The APNU+AFC has not moved, probably not even yet considered, the recommendation for the public service retirement age to be 65 years, with the option of persons retiring at age 60. This is something which should be urgently considered, because it is ridiculous to be retiring persons at age 55.
One of the recommendations calls for the Permanent Secretary of the Department of the Public Service to be designated as the Head of the Public Service. All it will take to implement this recommendation is for an official announcement of the fact. Not even this the APNU+AFC government can find the time to do, because while it is fond of claiming respect for autonomy, it pays lip service to ensuring such autonomy.
If the government cannot act on these basic recommendations, then what is to become of the numerous other recommendations contained in the report of the Commission of Inquiry? Will those be allowed to gather dust? When will they be considered, much less implemented?
The more fundamental problem facing the public service has not been adequately addressed by the COI. The public service of Guyana is too large and costly. There are many square pegs in round holes. There are persons who are skilled, but jobless, who cannot even be called for an interview, while some persons are being handpicked for jobs because of their connections, including political connections.
Retirees have been placed in positions of authority, thereby displacing eligible candidates for those jobs. Army personnel are populating government offices in positions which can be filled by civilians.
Many of those holding down government jobs are not providing value for money. Many of them are twiddling their thumbs all day and enjoying the largesse of the state. They are unproductive and should be removed and replaced by the army of unemployed enthusiasts.
The public service is an expenditure guzzler. It is costing the treasury hundreds of millions of dollars each day to run the state bureaucracy and the value of the services they provide cannot match the expenditure. This is a sure sign of an over-bloated bureaucracy. There are instances of duplication of functions. Yet there is no attempt to reduce the size of government.
A review should be done of every individual’s job against the output of that individual to determine whether a full month’s work is being given for a full month’s pay. The result will shock even the listless government.
The entire government bureaucracy needs to be revamped. Strangely this is one area in which the COI was not very forceful.
The public service should be reorganized. Attention should be paid to the services which are provided by each government department or agency and their placing a value on these services. The cost of employment plus the cost of providing the service should not exceed the value of the service.
So for example, the Ministry of Social Security should quantify the value of the services it provides. It should then ask itself what would be a reasonable administrative cost for providing this service and reorganize itself to ensure that its costs fall within the desired range.
The same should be done for every government department. What is likely to result is a leaner and more affordable public service, one that will allow the government to save far more billions than that which it complains about having to spend on the Guyana Sugar Corporation.
Right now the public service is a source of jobs for people rather than providing value for service. Unless the public service is reduced and reduced substantially, then the wastage and squandermania will continue. And Guyanese will continue to be laden with heavy taxes to finance this monstrous bureaucracy which is growing fatter with each passing day.

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