Govt. in part shutdown mode
Yet another week has rolled over and the Government continues to strain in filling the vacancies to the directorates of corporations, statutory bodies and other institutions outside the public service. This was caused by the disruption of its administration in October last year.
There appears to be an unholy cocktail of things happening with the appointment of a Presidential Committee supposedly vetting these appointments. The exercise in itself was nothing new. With the advent of the 2015 Government, there was a proposal to make these appointments on a “scientific basis”. That went through the window with some of those who were put into positions – from the brother of a Cabinet Minister to head a mega institution under his care to a medical dispenser at the helm of a research institute. But at least there was a method in place to the isolated cases of madness.
Both, the method and the madness are continuing today. And it is taking an awful long time to fill in the vacancies. At least this week the state bank posts have been filled, but letters of appointments have not been given to all. Some ministers have been impatient and made their own appointments –as they claim they are legally entitled to do so. They have virtually told the Presidential Committee to “go to hell”, and at least one UNF minister was hauled up by his own Prime Minister for going through the backdoor to the President to get his appointments done.
The President has already broken his own guidelines and bypassed his own Committee. In the meantime, the Committee is still calling for the curriculum vitae of nominees of Cabinet Ministers who are playing by the rules and sending in the names of their nominees. This has become a case where the intentions are noble, but the implementation is too slow. In effect, what has happened is the Government is in part shutdown mode.
This week, the nation also witnessed the Finance Minister having to back down from an appointment he made to the Customs Department. The department is anything but squeaky clean, but the minister’s move to bring in an “outsider” came a cropper when it was met with stiff resistance, with the ousted Director General taking the unprecedented step of going to the media to speak up against her removal.
The signs are that the public servants will no longer take things lying down and unions have become bolder. The public service has been let down by such appointments where honesty, integrity, ability, upholding the rule of law and disregard for political interference must be the norm not servility, prepared to act illegally and entertaining political interference. The minister’s faux pas has not been without financial cost. The country was said to be losing Rs. 1 billion each day as the Customs Department launched a ‘Work-to-Rule’ campaign. The minister has now reinstated the DG, but it seems only till pending investigations are over. Does this mean the DG ought not to begin new investigations for then they will also be ‘pending’?
The minister has also spoken of an apex Revenue Authority where the Customs, the Inland Revenue and the Excise Departments will be brought under one umbrella. This was a proposal of then Finance Minister K.N. Choksy during the 2001-2004 years and this was also resisted by those in these three agencies. It seems they are quite comfortable the way things are, and for reasons that are obvious, they don’t want the status-quo disturbed. There was a hue and cry at the time and there will be now. It is not prudent to introduce these new measures at the tail-end of a Government if it lacks the support of the stakeholders. These are measures that must be introduced in the early months of a new administration.