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#BTColumn – Public servants in the well or hell?

by Barbados Today Traffic
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Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author(s) do not represent the official position of Barbados TODAY.

It was with a growing sense of disgust that I listened to the Chief Community Development Officer answer the insidious harpings of the representative from St. Peter relating to repairs to community centers in his constituency. Her contribution in the well of parliament reflected a level unbecoming of the holder of such a high office.

My disgust multiplied when a former ambassador complained about the comments of the Chairman of Committees’ rebuke of the Director of Youth Affairs’ attempt to outline the work of his department. It was reported that he ‘mickey moused’ the Director’s effort suggesting that his contribution should be similar to a helicopter: take off and quickly land. It served them both right for they had no right there.

Ministers through the cabinet system are responsible for the policy of a Government. As a routine, estimates are prepared across Ministries with the advice of the public servants and presented to the Ministers who in turn present them to the Minister of Finance. These draft estimates are taken to an estimates’ committee headed by the Minister of Finance. After scrutiny the draft is sent to Cabinet for its approval. The estimates are then presented to Parliament through a debate system that invites the Minister responsible for the specific ministry to convince parliament that the appropriation makes sense and meets the standards set by the practices enshrined in the process over the years. I believe that Parliament plays a key role in the accountability regime, specifically in relation to financial management. It is Parliament’s role to ensure the collective and individual responsibility and the anonymity of public servants. Since accountability is a shared relationship between Parliament and Ministers, it is fundamentally political; and depends on the neutrality of the Public Service for its efficacy.

The practice of FORCING public officers to sit in the well of Parliament is wrong since it transfers the accountability for the Ministry from the Minister to the public servant.

The Canadian system of government, like Barbados’, is based on the Westminster model, the cornerstone of which is the doctrine of ministerial responsibility. The Government of Canada makes it clear that accountability in government is framed by the system of responsible government. Parliament has a responsibility to hold the Government to account. Ministers are accountable to Parliament for the exercise of authority assigned to them under the Constitution and under statutory law.

In a document, Meeting Canadian expectations: A Review of the Responsibilities and Accountabilities of Ministers and Senior Officials, it was noted that “Departments, as apparatuses for the exercise of authority and responsibilities that reside in ministers, are the basic organizational unit of executive administration in the Westminster system, and ministers act principally through the public servants in their department”.  As in all Wesminister systems the role of the Public Service is to “advance loyally and efficiently the agenda of the government of the day without compromising the non-partisan status that is needed to provide continuity and service to successive governments with differing priorities and of different political stripes”. Good public servants provide candid, professional advice that is free of both partisan considerations and fear of political criticism, which in turn requires that they remain outside the political realm”. There is no confusion in the arrangement. While public servants provide advice, “the democratically elected ministers have the final say, and public servants must obey the lawful directions of their minister”.

In short, all government departments, and all public servants who work for them, must be accountable to a Minister, who is in turn responsible to Parliament. Were this not so, the result would be government by the unelected. The elected have to report to Parliament and not the public officers.

Greater than the miscarriage of fairness is the absence of representation by the unions. The fear of public officers to refuse the instruction to attend the sittings of parliament are understandable since some of the Ministers who object in private are also afraid to question the individual who made the order. There can be no excuse for the silence of the unions. It would serve democratic traditions well if a Permanent Secretary should order his staff member not to attend or for a senior officer to refuse. Those days of men with intestinal fortitude have long passed and these infractions make the spectacle of a republic worrying.

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

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