Time for a shake up in the Public Service

Editor: Public servants play a major role in the development of any country. They can also retard and undermine the progress of any country. To me they are more important than parliamentarians who make policies, but the execution is with the Public Servants. Thus it is important to have good public servants.

Far too often we underestimate the power of public servants. While we applaud the many hard working and dedicated public servants who give of their best regardless of political persuasion, we know that there are many who don’t give of their best, and sometimes would seek to undermine because of political persuasion.

There are those who deliberately choose to undermine the authority just to make the government look bad. For them if the work is done efficiently, it will to them make the government look good, and thus would defeat their political agenda.

There are some who because of political affiliation are in the service, but lack competence. When this occurs, it retards progress and gives the government a bad name. These public servants sometimes feel untouchable since they are protected by politicians.

A closer look at the public services would see that there are many public servants who retard progress and are not doing their job effectively. Sometimes these public servants are well qualified academically and so can not be dismissed.

Our nation continues to suffer because many public servants are inefficient, and some have political agendas and thus would seek to undermine the progress to achieve their agenda. Having said all this, one of the public servants who risked their lives both health wise and other wise in service are the office attendants. Without them the communication between ministries to ensure continued progress would not be achieved. As simple as they may seem, they play a very pivotal role in the development of this country.

The sad thing though, is that they would give most of their lives in this service and at the end of the day goes home without pension. This is indeed very sad and an injustice. While many would sit in the office enjoying the A/C and messaging very often during their day at work, yet at the end of their working life go home with a healthy pension every month. While the office attendants work on the outside in rain and sun with little or no reward.

In closing let me say that it is time for a shake up in the public service. It is time to deal with those delinquent workers regardless of political affiliation. May we have an improved public service and so we can move this country further. Let each worker give an honest day’s work.

Kennard King