‘2013, year of excellent public service’: President’s Secy explains way to meet challenge

Kicking off a project that can make State land management unimaginably easy, Presidential Secretary Lalith Weeratunga showed the way to make 2013 the year for excellent public service.  The State Land Information Management System (e-SLIMS), launched last Friday, is a project initiated by the ICT Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA).

With this launch, e-SLIMS is immediately implemented in 10 Divisional Secretariats in the Western Province,  namely Kaduwela, Hanwella Sitawaka, Homagama, Minuwangoda, Mahara, Meerigama, Negombo, Walallawita, Bulathsinhala and Ingiriya. The project is tipped to be implemented island-wide in due course.  

In his address as Chief Guest at the inauguration of the State Land Information Management System (e-SLIMS) with due recognition of the achievements in past years, the Presidential Secretary said: “It is not that in the past years we have not made great improvements in public service. We have made great strides in making public service unimaginably comfortable both for the public and the Government staff.

“Obtaining of birth, marriage and death certificates which took three months in the past could be obtained in five to 10 minutes now. Vehicle revenue Licenses could be received in the comfort of our home without the hassle of visiting Government offices. People experience this vast difference in ease and efficiency as compared with the past in many areas, be it pension, online visas in the case of foreigners wanting to visit Sri Lanka, crop price information for farmers, just to mention a few.”

Keeping promises, very important

Striving to drive home a primary pre-requisite in making 2013 better than other years in public service to the large audience, comprising mainly top public servants, Weeratunga advised: “Keep your word. If three days will be required to deliver something, say for example, the vehicle revenue license, say three days and not less.

“Recently I had the experience of a friend of mine who wanted to get an official copy of a birth certificate. He went to the secretariat and obtained the birth certificate but he told me that he was disappointed. He complained that it took one hour for him to get it whereas he had thought he could get it in 10 minutes. Although obtaining the birth certificate in one hour compared with three months which was my experience in 1972 is a great achievement, people are disappointed when promises are not kept.

“In 1972 when I was a university student I asked my father to get my birth certificate. He went to the office concerned and told me that it would take three months for me to get the birth certificate. He told me that he would not bribe the staff at the said office but advised me to get my birth certificate from my school submitted at the time of admission.”

Work with gratitude for what the Government pays you

Pointing out another important pre-requisite for making the current year excel all other years in quality public service the Presidential Secretary said, “Do a genuine work with a passion, with feeling, with gratitude for what people, in the form of the Government are paying you.  On the other hand I will tell you what you should not be. I asked a graduate why he preferred to do a Government job that paid him a monthly salary of only Rs. 10,000 whereas a company in the private sector would pay him Rs. 40,000.

“He looked at me peevishly and said: ‘Sir, in Government service I get a pension and I don’t have to work much’. I underline this young graduate’s words ‘don’t have to work much’. How come any public servant can think that he ‘does not have to work much’? If we value our pension so much, isn’t it enough reason for us to do an honest work and with the same, if not more, dedication as in the private sector?”

Public servants: A privileged elite to serve the people

Highlighting yet another way 2013 could be made a year for excellence in public service, the Presidential Secretary recalled the dedicated routine of another exemplary public servant. This public servant was so committed to do a perfect job on the public’s day on Wednesday that he worked long hours on Tuesday meticulously preparing for the people’s day.

“I asked him why he was doing this. He replied: ‘Sir, if I prepare well, I will be able to complete the work on Wednesday and it will make things easy for me. After all, at the end of the day, it is I who has somehow to complete the task’. This attitude is tolerable and serves the immediate purpose.

“But our motivation should be founded on deeper reality. What is that deeper reality? It is this: ‘I was selected for this public service out of thousands, after a process of screening including examinations and interviews. I am a privileged person given the opportunity to serve the people. It is only I who can do this at this point in history’. Let’s offer the President 2013 as a year of excellence in public service.”

Urging the audience assembled at SLIDA at this launch, which made 10 Divisional Secretariats in the Western Province able to implement e-SLIMS with immediate effect, the Presidential Secretary was prophetic. ”If all 336 Divisional Secretariats in all the 25 districts do a genuine job, 90 per cent of the problems that the country faces will be solved.” He encouraged every public servant to offer his contribution to present to the President as perfect machinery in public service as possible. This will be a great support for the President in his endeavour to lead the country further towards the highest ideals locally and internationally, Weeratunga concluded.