Political Perspective

LET’S put aside for the moment the veracity of hiking the salaries of top political office-bearers and the civil service as a whole, and focus instead on whether they can deliver!

This is probably the biggest question mark hanging over the issue and it is something to which most of us know the answer, and it’s not positive, so what can be done about it?
IN polling views around the controversial Government pay increases, some analysts pointed out that better pay should generally augur better productivity but it is doubtful whether the most recent increase will in fact have that effect.
We have one of the biggest government bureaucracies, comparatively speaking, in the world, and yet its output is more often than not seriously lacking.
Across-the-board increases for the civil service don’t take into account the need for performance appraisal, and what could be more disheartening for the hard-working Government employee, to know that he or she will get the same increment as the civil servant who routinely goes AWOL from work, abuses Government vehicles and S & Ts, and generally regards work as an (un)necessary evil!
That having been said, we would like to think that our struggle legacy leads us to look at minimum and lower wage earners, with a view to empowering them in terms of skills and building up their remuneration levels.
We don’t, unfortunately, do that, and the ‘greed factor’ continues to permeate our society in all its sectors. For example, the increases of the top political office bearers (people who are earning high incomes) did not come accompanied by any specific requests for them to up the ante and do more for their country and its people.
It is difficult also to contextualise salary increments properly if one is not in possession of all the information concerning various wage levels, but suffice it to say we do not have a particularly hard-working political elite or civil service for that matter.
The proof is widely there for all to see in the incessant complaints from the public on poor service delivery (or none at all!) and the fact that efficient and competent people, sorry to say, are few and far between. And that, whether we like it or not, is a fact.
There’s little to no accountability on the part of senior politicians. Messing up seems to be part of the job description. And why should taxpayers have to pay them more for giving us so much less? How, for example, did the recent fracas concerning the ‘retrenchment’ of approximately 1 400 health workers come about? Surely it must be as a result of Ministers (in this case Health and Labour) not doing their homework? And what consequences, if any, will there be for what was certainly a huge oversight on their part?
I can answer that question already. There won’t be any. And if this mess is finally sorted out, there will be a quite significant price tag attached. Who pays? The taxpayers naturally. But the senior officials in question get salary increases! So if our country continues to reward not only mediocrity, but worse, damn bad management, how can we make our way forward with any significant level of progress? We also know too well that our Government service is a bloated one and for political reasons (most especially in this election year) we can’t prune where it may be necessary to do so.
There are virtually whole Ministries where the employees have little or nothing to do. Which must be also soul-destroying, but who would want to rock the boat and draw attention to these deficiencies? It is human nature to want to earn more but it is surely also part of these aspirations to do more to earn such increments.
They shouldn’t just happen because you shout about it! Employment in Government should mean hard work in all sectors, and while there are definitely some very dedicated and committed public servants out there, they’re by no means in the majority.
It is probably incumbent upon the Prime Minister, as the head of the public service, to ensure that there is delivery now that these increases have been approved. It is high time the Public Service Charter, launched with such pomp and ceremony, becomes a way of life for our officialdom.
No reason why the PM cannot find a good person who could serve as an internal ‘work ombudsman’ to start doing some spot checks in different Ministries and reporting back on what he/she finds.
It could be quite enlightening.
So salary hikes aside, let us start to concentrate on productivity and better service delivery, and try to ensure that something really good comes of what should constitute a boost to the work ethic of our government employees. gwen@namibian.com.na