Thursday, 3 July 2014 00:00
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Sri Lanka’s 1.4 million-strong public service has received a new set of guardians, with President Mahinda Rajapaksa appointing nine members to the Public Service Commission (PSC). But can they deliver competence and credibility to a deeply-politicised public service?
In terms of the Chapter IX, Clause 55 of the Constitution of Sri Lanka, the Public Service Commission is vested with the power of appointment, promotion, transfer, disciplinary control and dismissal of public officers, subject to the provisions of the Constitution.
The PSC also has the power to formulate rules, regulations and procedures relating to the Public Service. The power sounds impressive, yet during successive decades the country’s public sector has arguably declined from bad to worse, losing public trust and confidence in the process. So can the rot really be stopped?
Ideally the PSC should promote and maintain the highest levels of integrity, impartiality, accountability and leadership across the State sector. But this is largely undermined by the political nature and political appointments that make up the PSC in the first place. Rising above that has proved challenging for many other commissions, including the Bribery and Corruption Commission, that should ideally work hand in glove with the PSC.
Another target should be to improve the capability of the State sector to provide strategic and innovative policy advice, implement the decisions of the Government and meet public expectations. For this, the public service must attract and retain a high calibre professional State sector workforce. Yet, is this the case in Sri Lanka? Surely there are competent individuals, but an image of overall professionalism eludes the public sector as a whole, with corruption, strikes, cronyism, nepotism and short-term policies dominating the sector.
The situation has degraded to the point where nurses are openly fighting each other or behaving irresponsibly towards patients, as demonstrated recently at the Ragama Hospital. University teachers are on the warpath and the incompetence of the Police could fill entire books, just to name a few branches of the public sector in flux.
Another challenge for the PSC is to ensure that State sector recruitment and selection processes comply with the merit principle and adhere to professional standards. This is imperative to foster a public service culture in which customer service, initiative, individual responsibility and the achievement of results are strongly valued. Sri Lanka’s overloaded public sector recruits based on politics and prefers seniority to competence. Since elections and the highest of elected officials frequently use the public service for vote gathering purposes, this may prove to be the hardest nut for the PSC to crack and it will likely not even attempt it.
Build public confidence in the State sector is a task expected of the PSC. Supporting the Government in achieving positive budget outcomes through strengthening the capability of the State sector workforce is essential, especially given the state of Sri Lanka’s loss-making State-Owned Enterprises. These losses are estimated by economists to cost 2% of GDP annually and continue to crawl reluctantly towards reform. With such a massive task looming in front of them, the PSC members have an unenviably gigantic task ahead.
