What Is Africa’s Problem

9. Where Is the Public Spirit in the Public Service?

NINE Where Is the Public Spirit in the Public Service? The NRM government lays great emphasis on seminars and all other forms of knowledge-sharing processes because of the importance we attach to the acquisition of knowledge as the foundation upon which all government activities must be based. Government ministers and other officials must have data and they must understand the NRM's orientation in order to execute our various programs. The success or failure of programs must be continuously assessed so that the government is always fully aware of its performance. While it is true that the successof government programs depends on the efforts of officials at headquarters, to a large extent it also depends on the activities of field staff. Because of the importance we attach to training for better performance, the government approved this seminar : its theme is "Performance Improvement." This seminar is opportune in that it takes place right at the beginning of the second term of the NRM administration. It gives us an opportunity to assess our past performance and it provides a platform for charting the immediate and long-term programs that will fulfill our people's aspirations. One of the most serious problems observed over recent years has been the very slow and even nonimplementation of decisions and policies already agreed upon by government. This givesthe impression that we in Uganda live in some earthly paradise where no effort isnecessary and everything is timeless. On countless occasions, I have had to act as nyampara or foreman to ensure that simple and routine things get done. Address to permanent secretaries at a seminar, Jinja, February 12,1990. 59 60 Where Is the Public Spirit in the Public Service? Yet the system of government is such that everybody has got his schedule of duty. You actually know this better than I do because I did not have a schedule of duties when I was fighting in the bush, at least not one as regimented as yours should be. You, as administrative heads of ministries, should ensure that work gets done. Permanent secretaries have the whole machinery of the Public Service at their disposal and this should enable them to do their duties effectively. The regulations, for example, allow you to recommend staff for promotion, demotion, or other disciplinary measures, including removal from the service. I do not know how often, if ever at all, permanent secretaries have evoked these regulations to recommend the removal from service of officers complained against as being inefficient, dishonest, or drunkards. You find drunkards in the service, yet drunkenness is the most dramatic form of indiscipline: you cannot hide it, so how does it escape the notice of the permanent secretary?Instead, such people are just transferred to other departments, thus shifting a problem from one place to another. Transfers are not remedies to incompetence and inefficiency. Because of your lack of action, we shall in the future have to hold you responsible for the shortcomings of the people under your supervision . I should, therefore, as a start, begin by giving you advance notice of my intention to make impromptu inspection tours of your ministries in order for me to get the real picture of things that may sometimes be distorted during planned visits. Slow ProjectImplementation On the side of project implementation, it is alarming how most projects have been subjected to almost indefinite time spans. Year after year, increasingly larger and larger amounts of funds are voted for the same projects but they never take off.As a result, the whole country is littered with unfinished projects. In Kampala alone, there are constructions and repairs of offices that have been stagnant for long periods, notwithstanding the constant outcry concerning the shortage of office accommodation. It is, therefore, reasonable that from now on, those responsible for nonimplementation of projects be investigated and the culprits pinned down. Where Is the Public Spirit in the Public Service? 61 The principal and traditional role of the Public Servicehas been, and still is, to give utmost and dedicated service to any administration in its efforts to develop the country. It is not, therefore, a civil servant's role to question, refuse to implement, or sabotage government policies. There cannot be any dispute that positive achievements by the government will benefit the whole of the Ugandan population. Public servants should, therefore, be content with being associated with any such achievements. For this reason...