Although there is no yardstick to evaluate output in the public sector, this vital area cannot remain beyond managerial control. Contributing to government through taxation, direct and indirect, citizens need be satisfied with public services and facilities. It comprises the civil service, disciplined forces, local and regional bodies, parastatal bodies and state companies subsidised by government. On top of municipal rates, up to now imposed only in towns, citizens pay for public utilities provided by parastatal or state companies. Attempts in the civil service Efforts have been made to revitalize the civil service during the colonial and the post-independence periods. Other public areas have remained almost untouched. Prime minister, Navin Ramgoolam, (1995-2000) assigned to Sir Dayendranath Burenchobay, former head of the civil service and governor-general, the task of proposing reforms for the civil service. Civil servants? merits, qualities, ideals, duties and rights, rewards and punishments, appointments and appeal, training, performance and mobility between public and private sectors were the issues studied. The report came out in March 1999. Although some of its recommendations have been implemented, there have been few positive results. The January 2000 Manual of good practice for the civil service contains a code of ethics for central government officers relating to their duties and responsibilities, political impartiality and professional behaviour, among other tenets. For the enforcement of ethical behaviour, such a code has to be a more flexible device than anti-corruption legislation. Besides reflecting the requirements of the Westminster system of impartiality and integrity, such virtues as accountability for results, provision of responsive service and efficiency should be the guiding principles throughout the public sector. ?In August 2001, the ministry of Civil service affairs and Administrative reforms launched its 2001-2003 Action Plan towards the modernisation of the public service focusing on 13 strategic objectives and a set of projects aimed at bringing significant changes in the public sector during the medium term perspective.? In his address for the Association of public administrators? 15th anniversary in 2001, prime minister, Sir Anerood Jugnauth, now president of the Republic, deplored that ?by failing to perform, the civil service has created a vitiated culture of interventionism.? For the opening of a seminar on management of change in October 2002, he cautioned: ?We must be able to respond quickly to the rising expectations of the public and provide them with the type and level of service they expect with courtesy, fairness and transparency.? Performance and management The public officer cannot afford to waste time in slavishly observing rules and regulations, merely executing decisions taken by others, unimaginatively following routines, being systematically bureaucratic and avoiding taking risks. Attention to superior-subordinate relationship for mutual benefit is detrimental to the clientele?s interest. The modern officer, especially after being trained mostly as sponsored by his/her organisation or by government, should work as a true management practitioner and not as the traditional public servant. Dynamism, entrepreneurship, innovation and flexibility must be among his/her attributes. He/she has to work within broad policies, priorities and plans. Due consideration needs be given to the increasingly complex, uncertain and fast-changing context within which he/she operates. Besides possessing the classical service virtues of efficiency, integrity and loyalty, particularly as regards policies and institutions, these officers need to develop the values of merit, equity, leadership, productivity and openness. Chief and other senior executives should be respectful, but not servile, to ministers or other elected officials.
The government may change and, with it, national policies. But the varied tasks of administering the country have to be performed without interruption by the complex machine propelling public services. There is need for creating and sustaining such organisational environments as to permit innovative trends to flourish. Innovation has to be nurtured and change sustained. For sustained innovation, public bodies must be nimble. Improvements need be made to the organisational environment, allowing innovation to become standard practice. The administrative unit, elected or appointed, should always operate responsibly. As a tool of development financed by public funds, it has to be efficient, effective and incorruptible. Efficiency should imply higher output and productivity. To reach new heights in competence, continual training at all levels of officials, elected and appointed, and others in the public sector is a must. However, it is futile if the beneficiaries do not put their new appropriate skills into practice and successfully pass them on to colleagues and others concerned for, eventually, the good of society at large. To achieve outcomes, horizontal and vertical management with a flexible chain of command is a prerequisite. Government ministries and departments, decentralised elected authorities, parastatals, state companies and central agencies concerned should act in concert with one another. The public sector has to reorient itself to the demands of a progressive, proactive, aggressive and demanding society. Excellence through people management should be the goal of any public or private organisation. Officers with commendable output must be rewarded with incentives. Services and facilities In his foreword to the 2001-2003 Action Plan, Civil service minister, Ahmad Jeewah, a former lord mayor of Port-Louis, stressed on the need for ?a public service, which is responsive to the needs of the people, which delivers timely and quality services.? Rigidity, insensitivity, unresponsiveness and red tape persist in the public sector. Unless the evils of over-regulation are swept away, the emerging challenges and demands of contemporary society cannot be met. There is rarely, if ever, a customer-oriented approach based on an effective cost-analysis in the delivery of public services and facilities. The promise of tangible reforms has not been fulfilled. Nor has the problem of public sector efficiency been properly tackled. Standards and targets are hardly set to satisfy expectations and requirements. Public facilities and services provided ought to be unfailingly satisfactory at all times, both in quantity and quality. With statutory deadlines imposed for the delivery of services, the non-conforming public authority should be made liable to legal action and the defaulting officer/s penalised. E-governance A new concept of administration, e-governance facilitates access to public services and organisations through electronic networks. Proper use of up-to-date technological methods will help re-shape government, making it innovative, efficient and effective, as well as responsive and transparent to the public.
A suitable programme of e-governance should include the restructuring of archaic and colonial procedures, eliminating the existing dysfunctional system of public administration. Citizen-friendly e-governance is basically synonymous with the democratic right to information. Through efficiency, transparency and objectivity, such evils as fraud, cheating and similar malpractices can be reduced. The former divide between serfdom and freedom, warfare and welfare, exploitation and expectation needs to give way to an egalitarian, as far as possible, and just economic order. Care has to be taken for government not to fall into the hands of irresponsible or selfish politicians and bureaucrats. Nor can government serve for exploitation by economic manipulators. With the advent of e-governance, corruption should be more difficult, even if not totally eradicated, as it should provide a check on corrupt officials, corrupters and intermediaries. Permits or licences may be issued or renewed and replies made to citizens on grounds of merit only, based solely on data provided electronically, avoiding face-to-face contacts with officials. Each case can be dealt with anonymously, restraining any tendency towards corruption from citizens, officials and intermediaries. No governmental expenditure whatsoever, direct or indirect, irrespective of its nature, should escape the purview of audit. Unless it is highly confidential or for genuine security reasons, the general public should have a right to be informed thereof through all possible means of communication besides the written and audio-visual media. All bodies or units receiving state funds must be subjected to such audit and public scrutiny. To be able to perform properly, auditors should not be interfered with from any quarter. Whilst discharging their duties, they need invariably and strictly behave in conformity with their professional code of ethics that should be of public knowledge. Norms for public and official life Trustees of society, elected representatives too have a duty to abide by a recognised and practical code of ethics. Never should they be perceived to, let alone actually put into practice, actions which might further their own interests, or those of their friends, political cronies and relatives. No code of ethics has yet been officially prepared for MPs, including ministers, local councillors as well as chairpersons and members of commissions. In itself, such a rule of conduct for officials, appointed and elected, should be part and parcel of an integrated anticorruption system. Yet, it is not a panacea. Concurrently, there needs be a change in the attitude of those concerned. Prompt measures should be taken to end such malpractices as disregard for the rule of law, corruption, non-compliance with tender procedures, poor planning, absence of budgetary control, accounting indiscipline, defective resource utilisation and abuse of public property for personal gain. Chosen for their relevant knowledge and, in particular, practical experience, top managers should be worthy of emulation, even in personal life, in respect of the classical virtues. The chief executive is a pace setter and all public cadres need to be model citizens. Meritocracy Recruitment and promotion in the public sector, including the appointment of chairpersons and members of public bodies, as well as advisers posted at government ministries or departments and central agencies, is not always done judiciously. Mauritian public sector officers are appointed or promoted in an old-fashioned manner and without proper scientific consideration. In many cases, the scheme of service is but a farce. Only the best among the eligible officers or candidates should be promoted or appointed. At the hierarchical top, he/ she should prove himself/herself fit for the post following a really competitive test, both written and oral, about its responsibilities and challenges. Nobody should be disadvantaged for promotion or appointment to any public position, elective or professional, even in any particular one of the country?s other fields, or regarding any other matter of interest to him/ her, just on account of his/her sex, community, race, culture, religion, caste, class, status or family. Personal party political conviction, even if publicly known, should be no bar to the nomination or revocation of a deserving person. In a democracy, ?mediocracy? has to recede in favour of meritocracy. Independent of the legislative and executive bodies, the judiciary, the state?s third arm, should pronounce timely and indiscriminate judgements, without fear or favour in all cases involving citizen-financed institutions and their officials, elected or appointed. by Chit DUKHIRA Specialist in local government