Timely decision
16 November 2016The government’s decision to set up a high profile division at the centre of government to monitor the progress of public servants including ministers is indeed a timely one. The rank inefficiency and lethargy in some of our state institutions are only too well known to need elaboration. Suffice it to say that most of our loss making state bodies would have not fallen into their present plight had there been such a monitoring mechanism, at the very outset to, account for their performances.
According to our lead story yesterday titled “Govt. Delivery Unit to increase public sector efficiency”, quoting Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake, the government will implement Key Performance Index (KPI) on ministers from January 1 next year and a “Delivery Unit” composed of highly skilled persons working at the centre of the government will be entrusted with the task of assisting line ministries achieve outcomes that are considered “mission critical” .
In short, what this Unit will do is maintain constant pressure on senior public officers to improve delivery. The Minister said KPI’s would be implemented on 10-12 key persons across all public institutions - including ministers, from January 1. “This is a top down process. We are all public servants”, the Minister went on to explain.
The extension of this monitoring process to cover ministers is indeed most welcome. It is time our erstwhile people’s representatives give an account of their performances considering how they sponge on the public. Some ministries are notorious for their inefficiency and lethargy, their output left much to be desired, so much so, they are confined only to name boards.
The public are unaware of the role and functions many of our ministers, some of whom appeared in public only to take their oaths. How is the Delivery Unit going to tackle the vast number of ministries, some overlapping each other? There is also the question of ego, and one can expect some ministers not willing to submit to queries by the “Delivery Unit”. This is because certain ministers consider their ministries as personal fiefdoms and are likely to brook no nonsense with outside interference in their ministries. How deep will the Delivery Unit go into unraveling inefficiency and lack of progress in ministries and public institutions?
One cannot also not forget that what we have is a Unity Government composed of the two major political parties who are still rivals in many ways. Since the Delivery Unit which will take on the mantle of a flying squad, it will have to tread cautiously, if it is not to ruffle feathers. Ministers from the SLFP may feel piqued if the Delivery Unit attempts to be nosing into their affairs to the exclusion of those Ministries run by UNP Ministers. Hence the Delivery Unit would have be composed of individuals endorsed by both camps.
Be that as it may, it is time that the output of government ministries and state institutions are measured in order to ascertain their viability. For so long have these institutions functioned as sacred cows. The public ought to know how its money is being spent, and above all, if it is getting value for money. There is a widely held belief that most of the present day ministers merely draw their fat salaries and enjoy their multifarious perks but do little or nothing by way of public service while others go for grandiose schemes merely to boost their egos that bring little benefit to the public. Hopefully, the new oversight mechanism devised by the Finance Minister would put matters right and the ministers and public officials kept on their guard as regards their performance.
Calling the bluff of VIP prisoners
The decision by Health Minister Dr. Rajitha Senaratne to appoint a committee to probe the doctors who recommended incarcerated politicians or their associates to be transferred to the prison hospital is to be commended. The practise has today reached scandalous proportions if not comical. Almost all politicians of the last regime were promptly removed to the Merchant Ward no sooner they became guests of the state lodge. We had the spectacle of Basil Rajapaksa, upon his return to the country after taking flight to the US on election night, waving and gesticulating wildly when he was mobbed at the BIA and hey presto the man who was the picture of health and good living was taken to the Merchant Ward no sooner he was remanded, a few days later. What did the prison doctor find wrong with Rajapaksa all of a sudden? Is it just coincidence that only VIPs and politicians invariably get dispatched to the prison hospital no sooner they arrive or is there something sinister surrounding the whole affair, calling to question the sanctity of the Hippocratic oath?
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