#BTColumn – Is our public service under siege?

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by this author are their own and do not represent the official position of the Barbados TODAY Inc.

by Dr Derek Alleyne

International organisations and donor countries have long pointed accusing fingers at developing countries regarding alleged corrupt practices in the public services of those countries, and have voiced the need for reform.

But reform has either come slowly or not at all. Reasons for the lack of success include unfocused and contradictory donor objectives, insufficient focus on political or institutional barriers, and insufficient data collection and analysis (World Bank, 2002).

Today there is still a cry for reform amidst claims of corruption and maladministration suggesting, notwithstanding that reform is an ongoing process, the reform efforts have generally focused on the wrong issues.

The need for public sector reform has been discussed in Barbados for a long time, but one major shortcoming has been the failure to include in the reform exercises any focus on the role of politicians and the impact of political interference in undermining public service administration.

This current wave of political reforms being stealthily introduced by the Mottley administration reflects the depth to which decision-making in the public sector is being controlled by politicians.

Increasingly, decision-making has been politicised by a growing tendency for politicians to determine who does what and how. Politicians simply micro-manage the
public service.

Under the guise that public service administration is too bureaucratic and that public officers are not flexible and progressive enough to meet the demands of the new economic order, governments have been implementing new forms of public sector administrative practices that involve non-public servants. A picture of public service incompetence must be painted in order to justify these practices.

The public service is established to support the initiatives of the rest of the economy. The bureaucracy that is often complained of is necessary to ensure accountability. If you want to be corrupt in the public service, you first have to compromise the bureaucratic standards.

In Barbados, as a specific mandate, public sector reform has been included in Government administration as far back as 1986 when Dr. Rudi Webster’s engagement led to a new approach to manpower management in the service.

The public service has always responded to positive initiatives and the reform efforts have always had critical support from workers’ representatives.

Unfortunately, the unions having been compromised, now cannot give critical support or caution wrong initiatives.

This current wave of reforms lacks a process of consultation and places senior public officers in the dark about what career options will remain after the new fixed term contracts are introduced.

The politicians have sought to determine without consultation the future of hundreds of public servants without consideration for their views.

It is distasteful and a reflection of the type of politician that now exists and the weakness of the trade union movement.

It will undermine the public service and the relationship of collaboration between unions and employers that has built this country from the 1930s. Senior public officers will lose their authority and will be mere rubber stamps.

Per Rosenbaum: “ … the widespread, frequently erroneous, glorifying of the efficiency of the private sector, often at the expense of the public sector, has taken its toll on both the functioning of government and, in particular, upon those who work within it and, even more significantly,
who manage it.

Government agencies at all levels, and in many countries around the world, find themselves constantly under attack and egregiously understaffed.” This properly describes the situation in Barbados.

The Mottley administration has been caught up in this bug of folly and after attacking the middle level public officers, especially administrative staff, has now turned its swords on the top level. A second Deputy Commissioner of Police was appointed contrary to law.

We should have been warned that more was to come. And then there was the appointment of a Chief Agricultural Officer where questions are being asked by some about her qualifications with respect to the requirements for the post.

Many public servants believe this is an obvious plot to disembowel the public service.

Rosembaum makes yet another revelation.

“Civil service systems also have come under attack, and politicians from all sides of the political spectrum are advocating the return to what are essentially the patronage systems prevalent a century ago.

At the same time, especially in the United States, issues of public employee compensation and pensions have increasingly become topics of much political controversy, as often dubious evidence, not to mention slanderous hearsay, is mobilised to make the case that public administrators are both overpaid and incompetent.”

This sounds familiar and the invitation to sit senior public officers in the “well of Parliament” and to try to humiliate them was a first step in building a baseless case to engage in this unholy exercise. The unions should be ashamed of themselves. It is important to hear more from Rosenbaum and the decline of democratic governance.

“The past decade has witnessed the rise of and/or the intensified impact of authoritarian political and governmental leadership and one-party domination of government in many countries – China, Egypt, Hungary, Nicaragua, Poland, Russia, Turkey and Venezuela are just a few of the more notable instances.” You can add Barbados to this list.

Rosembaum goes on: “Nations once thought to be making at least small steps towards, if not, in some cases, firmly on the road to democratic government have seen the rise of ever stronger strong men and growing dominance by political parties with highly authoritarian tendencies, which, although, in some instances, chosen in reasonably democratic elections, are increasingly moving to monopolise the institutions of governance and undermine civil society.”

Barbadians should beware of where this country is being taken by the current leadership.

Dr Derek Alleyne is a trade unionist, social commentator and member of the Democratic Labour Party.