Three ministers have recently dominated newspaper headlines: Veikko Nekundi at works and transport; Esperance Luvindao at health and social services; and James Sankwasa at urban and rural development.
Whether we agree with their governance style or not, one thing is clear: all three seem to be frustrated by service delivery in their ministries.
What then is at the core of poor public service delivery in Namibia?
The raison d’être of the public service is to provide quality services to the public.
In 1997, the Office of the Prime Minister introduced the Namibian Public Service Charter aimed at improving the quality of services it provides to citizens.
This author was one of the architects behind that project.
The Customer Service Guide Document of 1998 defines a charter as a simple, accessible and living document that aims to improve access to and satisfaction with quality public services.
THE PRINCIPLES
Namibia’s Public Service Charter is underpinned by 10 principles: standards; information; courtesy and helpfulness; consultation and participation; accountability; transparency; non-discrimination; quality of service; value for money; and accessibility.
Using these principles as guiding values, various functional charter areas have been identified in different offices/ministries/agencies (OMAs) across the public service. Each Customer Service Charter highlights:
- What services they offer;
- What standards of service they aim to meet; and
- What they expect from the public to ensure that service standards can be met as promised in the charter.
Therefore, OMAs are expected to make greater efforts to fulfil the expectations of the public both as customers and taxpaying citizens.
The idea of public service charters is premised on the so-called new public management paradigm, i.e. treating members of the public as customers and government departments/directorates as business units.
THE CHALLENGE
However, the challenge with that approach is that in the absence of market mechanisms and free competition in providing public services, the “blanket” application of such business principles to the public service run into serious problems.
Many of the promises are made for service areas in which the public service has a monopoly and customers have little choice.
Moreover, the Namibian public service charter, as an important policy tool, is still not yet fully understood by the citizens, who are supposed to be the main beneficiaries.
Most Namibians, because of the English language handicap and other factors such as the absence of active citizenship in general, are not able to hold public servants fully accountable regarding the provision of quality public services.
The absence of a professional culture in the Namibian civil service also doesn’t help.
As much as the intentions were noble, I think that the introduction of the Namibian public service charter, that was based on the United Kingdom model, has failed to resonate with our local socio-cultural and historical context. And this is where we missed the plot.
SUPPLY AND DEMAND
The greatest challenge regarding the implementation of the public service charter and its principles is how to translate formal citizenship into substantive citizenship for most citizens.
As the Indian economist-philosopher Sen would argue, substantive citizens are those who have capabilities to achieve things they have reason to value, including being well nourished and healthy, being able to read, write and count, etc.
This implies that citizens need to have capabilities or substantive freedoms over and above the normative rights and freedoms enshrined in the Constitution.
They don’t only need to be informed but to be empowered to be able to engage in public issues that affect them and society.
As professor Andre du Pisani would say, in Namibia there is enough democratic supply, but very little democratic demand.
The question is not whether citizens have the right to hold public servants accountable regarding quality service delivery or not. It is whether most citizens are equipped to exercise that right.
It follows that the absence of a critical mass of deliberative or engaged citizens is a key factor at the heart of poor public service delivery in Namibia.
– Gerson Tjihenuna is a commissioner of elections. However, the views expressed here are his own and not those of the Electoral Commission of Namibia.
