Cast net wider for candidates

AN organisation, be it a public or private entity, is bound to encounter a change in the environment that will unleash disruptive forces, altering the landscape in which it operates.

Today, our civil service is facing this phase of disruption. Externally, a new government is helming Putrajaya and a change of regime will normally allow a smooth transition for the civil service to work and support the new government.

This smooth transition occurs when the civil service is neutral and impartial. Unfortunately, the civil service has compromised on this cardinal rule, and consequently it is suffering both trust and integrity deficits. The internal environment of the civil service is also in turmoil.

Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s revelation that the new administration has inherited a broken civil service wrecked by corruption and untrustworthy officials encapsulates this malaise.

This turmoil ushers in an era of malfeasance that is occurring in every spectrum of management in the civil service, leading to poor public governance.

An honest service is a vital component of the government machinery as the delivery system of public services needs to be helmed by civil servants who uphold integrity, accountability and transparency.

In managing the budget allocated, civil servants must ensure that the procurement exercise and expenditures undertaken comply with the Finance Ministry’s circulars and financial procedures.

Since it involves taxpayers’ money, civil servants must ensure that there is no element of corruption and mismanagement, which contributes to wastage and leakage. It would be a grave dereliction of duty if civil servants fail to uphold this responsibility entrusted upon them to manage public funds without wastage and leakage.

A broken organisation needs to be rebuilt with a strong foundation, and this should be done by restoring the “clean, efficient and trustworthy” values introduced by Dr Mahathir in 1982 as the cornerstone of public governance.

These core values must be institutionalised to become corporate culture for all civil servants, who should embrace integrity, transparency and accountability when discharging their duties and responsibilities.

A new chief secretary to the government has been appointed and his immediate task is to restore the clean, efficient and trustworthy motto of the civil service. The key to achieving this is promoting the right officers to provide leadership.

The chief secretary must be supported by honest and competent as well as dedicated officers to ensure that the management and operations of all public institutions and statutory bodies in the delivery of public services to the rakyat are undertaken with integrity, transparency and accountability.

Hence, there is a need to revamp the current system of short-listing, vetting and selection of officers for promotion to ensure that the right people are in place. Currently, a promotion board chaired by the chief secretary, with the director-general of the Public Service Department and secretary-general of the Treasury as members, deliberates on and determines the promotion and career path of the officers. The Public Service Department as secretariat of this promotion board has established a search committee to identify suitable candidates to be considered for promotion.

In theory, the search committee should look across the ministries to identify candidates based on specific criteria such as leadership, integrity, experience, core competency and seniority. A rigorous system of vetting is required to ensure that the officers who are short-listed have fulfilled the stated criteria.

In reality, though, the candidates identified are mainly those who have worked under the chief secretary, director-general of the Public Service Department and secretary-general of the Treasury. This selection of officers means that those in the central agencies comprising the Prime Minister’s Department, Public Service Department and Treasury are given more weightage and have a better opportunity at getting promoted.

This flawed selection system is most likely to exclude many truly honest officers who are competent and have vast working experience from being promoted, which would be a great loss to the civil service. Instead of identifying and grooming the right officers with the experience and expertise to take over the mantle of leadership, this system is promoting the wrong ones to hold senior posts in the government machinery.

The journey to redemption must be undertaken now, and we need the right officers to lead the change to rebuild a clean and honest civil service. DATUK WEE BENG EE Tumpat, Kelantan