Woeful public service performance means more woes for the public  

Sep 16, 2022 Letters

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Dear Editor,

As I salute Public Servants who do their jobs with accountability, integrity, and responsibility like I did, I see the bad reports coming out on the Public Service and the rating by citizens depending on the Public Service for assistance, is mostly for poor service or none at all. The bulk of the Public Service Personnel include regional, municipal, state agencies and local government. Since this is Guyana’s system of getting the services required by the citizens to live their lives, why is this poor service happening? even as citizens pay their taxes and fees plus the Public Service also gets funding from Government. In any country rich or poor the citizens’ standard of living is clearly defined by the quality of Public Service the citizens receive, a higher quality of public service clearly means a higher standard of living.

Guyana will not move anywhere with a dysfunctional Public Service no matter how rich it gets. Any Guyanese who want a better Guyana must address the public service issue, as it for their own personal wellbeing, so it’s time to stop blaming and fingerprinting and identify the problems and figuring practical solutions together as your lives will depend on the public service one way or another. The questions need to be asked are: Why do Public Service Personnel have to be aligned to political parties? They are supposed to be independent serving the public, some won’t work if their party is not in power. Why is the public service not computerized as yet?  Why is it a bribe for service organisation? Why is it so openly and blatantly corrupt? Why is no one punished for breaking the law? What does the PSC (Public Service Commission) do? So Guyanese it’s time you dump politics and require the public service give you value for the hard-earned tax dollars you pay.

With the amount of government funding, taxes, and fees the public service receives, salaries and benefits should not be an issue, I believe the necessary compensation and investment for frontline workers are not being done for them, also what happens to monies given to Public Service Officials for roads, drainage,  harbour stellings, schools, hospitals, and other key infrastructure repairs and maintenance? this means monies are being misappropriated and require an investigative audit and appropriate penalties for fraudsters and incompetents. Instituting computerised databases for less than a million people to access their records for fast services can’t be difficult in this day and technological age. Requiring public service senior personnel to comply with audit requirements is part of their job and should be enforced. Citizens’ complaints should be addressed and personnel not doing their jobs should face consequences. Information must be made to the public which department is responsible for what tasks with contact names and phone numbers so people can be easily directed to the appropriate area for a particular service, whether it’s regional, municipal, local government or state agencies.

So President Ali, you need to get tough on these public servants who are not providing the service to the public as they should, do you want to risk re-election for bad roads, pot holes, unsafe river crossing stellings, clogged drains, leaking roofs at schools and hospitals or when people can’t get a record or document fast enough as they should, when these are not your responsibilities as you gave the funding?, please note Mr. President, people are blaming you for these issues when they should be blaming the appropriate officials. If citizens vote parties in and out for betterment, a dysfunctional Public Service will not solve this regardless of who govern, citizens eventually will get tired of elections, and this would lead to an unhealthy democracy.

Donald Trump downplayed the Covid virus at first, but then took action and signed the Emergency Production Act and Operation Warp Speed to produce vaccines, ventilators and other Covid supplies, gave US states funding, equipment and supplies particularly New York, an investigation later revealed there were tons of Covid supplies in warehouses which were not distributed where needed, whether this was incompetence or just to make Trump look bad, it resulted in many deaths of citizens and hospital staff, when people blamed Trump although he fulfilled his obligations, he called out the Governor of New York for incompetence, the Governor subsequently resigned for causing death by negligence in long term care homes due to Covid and he is now being sued by families of people who died, President Ali, its time you become like this, if you are giving the funds for the Public Service, whether it’s regional, municipal, local govt. or state agencies, its time you call them out by name for incompetence, as an improved functional Public Service will boost you well for re-election.

Does Guyana need laws where citizens can sue regional, municipal, local govt. or state agencies officials for damages and negligence if they are responsible for such problems? What more needs to be done to improve Public Service?, since this will decide the people’s standard of living in Guyana. Guyanese you need to demand the services from your regional, municipal, local govt. and state agencies officials to work in your best interests as you are paying taxes, you need to divorce yourselves from politics and fight for your wealth, if you continue to have a dysfunctional Public Service, when you have problems and needs assistance, who you gonna call “ghostbusters”?

 

1. David

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