Saturday, May 26, 2012

Lethargy in the Civil Service

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8 comments:

Anonymous said...

When the civil service is the largest employer that is a humongous problem in itself.

Couple this with the protection enshrined in the constitution by the existence of the Services Commissions is another.

Add to this is the realization that the removal of those protections might require at least a 2/3rds or 75% majorities in parliament. There you are, the deep-seated cultural norms and answers to your characterization of inertia.

Now, ask the politically suicidal question: Who is going to bell the cat?

May 27, 2012 at 5:54 AM
Anonymous said...

I applaud the writer for his perception of what is a disasterous institution. More than that people weild power through this service and it is bias and personel, it beggars belief that you, a civil servant, can just have an off day then everyone suffers, or that person near your sister isn't speaking to her so give her the 'run around'. Most of those so called civil servants, are not civil, and they treat the public as the servants, forgetting who they are there to serve.
Some courageous person needs to totally scrap what there is, get a good team of people together who can interview old and new staff and employ only the best of the crop. It is true that goverments rely on these people, god help them. In addition the goverment is there for everyone regardless of their political affiliations, I would sack anyone who brought their own party politics into the job. I would happily sort that lot out, I don't give a dam about who they are they deserve to go and allow people who truly have the country at heart to serve.

May 28, 2012 at 8:16 AM
Anonymous said...

@8:16 AM. Oh yeah?

May 28, 2012 at 3:18 PM
Anonymous said...

With a PM leading a pack of people earning salaries and money under the counter and becoming multi-millionaires, the civil servant knows that he only has to turn up to work to his pay.

May 31, 2012 at 3:34 PM
Anonymous said...

Yes. We have a legacy of goons in government. Thank God! Starting with George Charles, the St. Lucia Labour Party has never elected real goons like drug barons and well-known ex-convicts or jailbirds and people without a moral compass like those UWP guys to parliament.

June 2, 2012 at 4:31 PM
Anonymous said...

I really don't think there is much wrong with the public service per se, it is the individuals who are appointed to be public servants. How are they selected? Is it just on the merit of the possession of academic qualifications?

How often are serious and rigid performance appraisals conducted? Are promotions to some of our civil servants really justified?

What about punctuality and regularity at work? Punctuality is a word which is non-existent in the vocabulary and work ethics of many of our public servants. How often, or rather, has a public servant ever been reprimanded for reporting to work as late as 8:30 or even much later, when the scheduled commencement of service to the public is 8:00 am.
How would we feel if we go the bank to conduct business which is supposed to open at 8:00 and most of the employees start strolling in rather nonchalantly at 8:15 or later?

I am a retired public servant and am usually appalled at the attitude of some public servants towards punctuality. It is so ridiculous. On many occasions I see workers leaving their homes after 8:00 to get to the bus stop to await transport to travel to work which he/she agreed to be at 8:00. In such situations, it is virtually impossible to arrive work before 9:00. On top of that, when they arrive, some of them have to take their kids to pre-school. Upon return, they got to go the wash room to freshen up. They haven't had their usual morning gossip sessions as yet. ..... and the list goes on. All that time a member of the public or the ministry waits to be served.

A member of the public o even a supervisor may not dare come to sh officers at 3:45 pm for service. They have already logged off their computers and are getting ready to go home. What type of supervision or training do these people receive?
I dare any civil servant to say that I have erred in the above.
Unless and intil the authorities, including the union as well as the politicians, take a pro-active and rigid stance to rid ourselves of these non productive elements, we will be doomed with a service that is only there to collect a salary with no productivity to show for it.

Don't get me wrong. Amidst all of that, there are many hard wroking and dedicated civil servants.

June 3, 2012 at 7:09 AM
Anonymous said...

Up there @June 3, 2012 7:09 AM, if you have a people -- a nation, mind you -- electing REAL GOONS, idiots, drug barons, and well-known JAILBIRDS as US ex-cons for a government, and some who in FIVE short years become multimillionaires, receiving money under the table, how do you expect civil servants to behave? Where is the leadership with that kind of productivity that you are asking for?

Gosh! You love to shoot the bull, my friend!

June 3, 2012 at 9:18 AM
Anonymous said...

Many of the civil servants do not know how to be civil, hence the problems. And there seems to be no accountability whatsoever. They behave as though they are doing you a favour, rather than doing their jobs. And I'm not even going to start on the punctuality issue!!

June 4, 2012 at 12:12 PM

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