|
|
Sierra Leone: Why Do Civil Servants Fail Politicians?
 |
|
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
Concord Times (Freetown)
OPINION
4 July 2008
Posted to the web 4 July 2008
Rachel Horner
Civil servants in many countries do fail politicians for one reason or the other. Some may say it is due to the country's system or political differences. Others may have several unthinkable reasons without counting out tribalism and religious beliefs.
Out of these shreds of somewhat unconnected facts however, lies the convincing reality though it may take a lot of persuasion before being established.
One may wonder why a country like Sierra Leone still suffer in terms of human resources when the country can boast of highly educated citizens in different parts of the world with some of them being hired by reputable international agencies.
It is however expedient to mention that as a branch of governmental service, individuals are supposed to be hired on the basis of merit which is proven by the use of competitive examinations. That seems to have changed virtually every sector of public administration in Sierra Leone courtesy of the conducts of some unscrupulous politicians.
By virtue of your political affiliation, one can become a civil servant without any form of examination. All that is needed is your political party ID card or a recommendation letter from an honourable.
Governments are always building the capacity of these workers for them to work effectively and improve the country but why is the country still behind? This question keeps bothering me day and night.
It is a known fact that civil servants must work with the government of the day. In the case where the government stays long in power, civil servants tend to like the government and when power changes hand, these workers would again tend to relax as if they are working for the party in government.
Even when they have the know-how to do the work, they pretend as if they don't know just to frustrate the efforts of the politician that is heading a parastatal, government agency or ministry.
They will give flimsy excuses to stay away from doing the job which could possibly depict the government as non-active. But not much would be heard from their while they are playing this game until salaries are delayed or there is an increase in the cost of living, or when there is insufficiency in the supply of social amenities such as electricity, clean water or even good road. They will complain of inefficiency on the part of the government. This is the point of disparity which has been eating deep into the system. Can two work together except they are both in agreement?
Considering the strategic position the civil service occupies in any given nation, they are to work in tandem with any government.
That leads to the question: Who is the government? Many people have programmed their mindsets to think that government administration is meant for certain class of people -politicians- and it would forever be like that. No!
Little did they know that we are the government collectively and politicians are just political heads. Will all have political differences but civil servants have to work hard to justify their devoted nationalistic belief and remuneration whether their government is in power or not. They are in government offices to work for the people and not for political heads because these politicians would not go with those who worked with them or the civil service in its entirety when leaving office. But civil servants would stay until they are retired.
It is very pathetic to realize that civil servants in Sierra Leone do not respect their work. Some even don't go to work punctually. In fact, some civil servants don't like their work; all they care about is to get quick money to fill their pockets. A lot of such monies are gotten from malpractices or corrupt deals which are detrimental to the country's service delivery system.
Fresh students who are just out of the university do not want to work for the government yet they are very good at criticizing. That is where my major problem of comprehending a way forward lies. Younger minds are not planning to go in that direction except those who joined the civil service 'by accident.' But it shouldn't be like that!
|
Why can't we work very hard to improve our country? Is it that we expect someone else to do build our sweet Salone for us? The decisions previous generations made before us is telling on us now, and from what I gathered, things were not as lackluster as we now have it today. So what will tomorrow portend for us and those coming after us? What are we waiting for? Whether it is the government of the day that has to call the shots or the civil service structure in the country should be visited, something has to be done. Civil servants need to change their attitudes and work for the betterment of all of us.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Copyright © 2008 Concord Times. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Make allAfrica.com your home page | RSS Feed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top | Site Guide | Who We Are | Advertising | Search | Subscribe | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Questions or Comments? Contact us. Read our Privacy Statement. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
