Downsizing the public service has been on the cards for quite a while now and proponents of this move view it as panacea to jumpstart economic growth in Botswana. The view held by such commentators is that, downsizing is needed, because of the increasing shortfalls in government recurrent and development budgets which have translated into escalating government borrowing to cover the public deficit. Having said this though, it is highly improbable that a largely lowly paid civil service that receives very meager resources as inputs and therefore, produces meager outputs could after downsizing miraculously become efficient. Contrary to views held by such proponents, critical evaluations of downsizing exercises in developing countries, especially in Africa, reveal that, “by itself, downsizing does not improve service delivery. It merely produces a civil service that is smaller, but just as efficient or inefficient as before” (McGreggor 1998).
Furthermore, it must be noted downsizing the public sector by itself will not energize economic growth in this country. There is a whole basket of problems that stunt economic growth in Botswana. First, consideration should be given to the fact that Botswana’s economy is government driven. This in itself cripples economic diversification.
This is due to government’s reluctance to produce working partnerships with the private sector to develop a robust manufacturing sector. As a result the small private sector has a debilitating task of setting up business where electricity tariffs, land acquisition and bureaucratic red tape provide a hostile local business environment. Coupled with government’s inability to formulate and implement policies that would facility citizen empowerment Botswana’s economy remains vulnerable.
Likewise, government’s reluctance to invest in human capital and provide a broad based economy, except talk about it, frustrates any effort to meaningfully diversify the economy. This is evidenced by the government’s passion for mining diamonds and then exporting them without seeking to find innovative ways for reinvesting the diamonds revenue in either developing a responsive skilled workforce or engineering a broad based economic growth.
Don’t get me wrong. I am not suggesting our diamonds haven’t been invested in developing this country. Of course from the spin offs from diamonds we have built courts where judges with curious credibility are appointed to the bench, lower courts that are constrained by rigid laws that don’t fully protect the citizenry. This became evident in 2008 when a paedophile went scot free as our laws are silent on this kind of crime. The President vs Motswaledi, and the Ramadeluka Seretse vs the state cases are some of the examples of a handicapped legal system. We have also built substandard roads that are a death trap to road users, ‘state of the art’ hospitals and schools that are falling apart before they are commissioned for use. The reluctance by government to develop a skilled citizenry is playing itself out today in the tripartite battle of the titans ÔÇô unions on the one hand and Botswana Examinations Council (BEC) and Ministry of Education on the other hand. Government would rather sacrifice poor school children than mediate on the issue to find a working solution. Such a caring government!
As the economy is government driven and based largely on one commodity, diamonds, we see a proclivity for top civil servants to trip over themselves to join the ruling party as being in parliament and ultimately cabinet is where real power is. Political power allows one to be able to grab and plunder with impunity. Ultimately politicians control the civil service. A case in point here is the BTV boss and his arrogant abuse of the state television. This leads to institutionalized corruption and a state where the nation is held at ransom by politicians who veto constitutional reforms that might expose them to litigation. This state of affairs leads to a civil service that is demoralized, ineffective and highly politicized.
Secondly, the size of the population especially those with skills to play a meaningful role in economic diversification pose a serious challenge. This situation culminates in the few who have managed to climb the bureaucratic ladder surrounding themselves with their cronies who are either too meek to be innovative or are just comfortable with earning a salary. Consequently, the civil service degenerates into a work force and an institution that rewards mediocrity and frowns upon those who want to redefine the boundaries. The government will need to engage in a purposeful improvement of overall managerial skills and particularly those of talented managers in order to bolster civil service efficiency and productivity.
Therefore, if government is genuinely concerned about economic diversification and energizing the private sector, government has to interrogate these issues first. However, this does not mean downsizing the civil service cannot jumpstart economic growth in Botswana. The argument here is that it shouldn’t be used in isolation. Government should also consider cutting its military expenditure, security apparatus expenditure, especially the money guzzling DIS, and remove the BDF from engaging in social service functions as this is costly. As the government has engaged in a recruitment freeze and while this is on it could be used simultaneously with public service downsizing to improve government revenue. In removing redundant civil servants the government will have to offer exit packages that are at least as attractive or slightly worse, but with a perceived future potential as staying on for a long civil service career, up to the age of 60 years.
It is absurd though that government could even be considering downsizing the public service when there are so many vacant posts. It is even more absurd when government can afford to pay the Vice Chancellor of BIUST a mind blowing P108 333.33 per month! This is an annual salary for a degree holder at C1 scale. Unbelievable! Does this mean the Ghanaian has exceptionally scarce skills to be paid a salary for 12 degree holders per month? Such gratuitous excess should be kept in check as government engages in the downsizing exercise. On the one hand government has called for a recruitment freeze because of poor performance of the economy. But what is most curious is that the same government goes ahead and creates new posts for retired civil servants under the guise that these possess critical skills. Come to think of it, some of these people were Commissioner of Prisons and Commissioner of Police for crying out loud. What possible critical skills could they possess that their more learned juniors in the public employ do not have? Isn’t this just a case of rewarding those who have been loyal to the ruling party? Remember these people enjoy their pension while earning hefty salaries that are not pegged on civil service salary models or security forces salary models. Incredible stuff!
Sorry for rumbling on dear reader but can you blame me? Lastly, any form of civil service trimming should be done in the interest of long term development which seeks to move the exiting labour from the civil service into the private sector where it will increase manufacturing and private sector participation in the economy. Again, in facilitating exist packages government must ensure it doesn’t depend on Bank of Botswana, its reserves or loans from international monetary institutions but must rely on donor assistance to execute this. This is to avoid indebtedness and increased government spending. Let me remind you dear reader that I am not an economist nor am I a Human Resource Management enlightened person. I am merely submitting an opinion piece to start a debate on this issue.
*David Keagakwa is a member of the Joint BOSETU/BTU Publicity Committee.
