Members of the public are frequently returned without getting services they are seeking from public offices on the pretext of unavailability of key senior officers.
This undoubtedly goes against the grain of continuity envisaged in the Public Service Charter.
The seventh principle of the Public Service Charter explicitly states that “the public service is expected┬á to operate in a regular and reliable manner, so that all the services which it offers to the public , including decision-making services are provided on a continuous basis.
Situations of non-continuity where, for example, all key officers in a field are away at once, so that service is interrupted or delayed, should not be permitted to occur. Similarly, continuity of knowledge and experience should not be disturbed by block transfers or relocations of public officers. No officer should assume a monopoly of information or keep his files in his head. It must be ensured that all information is available on file and is accessible to authorized officers.
Continuity also demands that powers be delegated when sole decision-makers are absent. Continuity in the Public Service should be the guarantee of prompt and predictable service to members of the public during all normal business hours”.
We are compelled to go at length to examine this particular principle because very often key officers are not available to provide services to the public at given instances where available subordinate officers’ hands are inadvertently tied.
It is our ardent hope that in his recent seminar addressing issues of productivity in the public service, Permanent Secretary to the President Eric Molale, as the most senior civil servant and seminar facilitator took time off to reflect unflinchingly at the noble provisions of the Public Service Charter and share them with his subordinates to ensure the envisaged continuity in the Public Service Charter.
The charter sets out the principles of public service, by which officers are guided, both in their relations with each other and in their dealings with the public which they serve.
It is quite disappointing that very often on account of centralized services and power, members of the public travel hundreds of kilometers in search of service that they are unable to get because key officers who should serve them are absent for one reason or the other. Frequently, all senior officers either go on retreat or seminars and workshops without delegating authority to their
remaining subordinates against the dictates of the principles of the Public Service Charter.
A case in point is the past decision by government to send scores of teachers for further training without putting any contingency measures in place. The result was the disastrous performance of the students who sat for examinations without adequate preparation.
This kind of inconvenience that the public is subjected to is unacceptable. It must be avoided at all costs as it is undesirable. ┬áSenior officers have the moral duty to delegate functions to their subordinates to ensure continuity in the spirit and guarantee of prompt and predictable service to members of the public at all times. This is exactly why the principle warns the officers against assumption of monopoly of information or upkeep of files in one’s head.
There is absolutely no justification why some senior officers are in the habit of hoarding power to the detriment of the deserving members of the public. The propensity by senior officers to hoard authority instead of delegating it to their subordinates at the expense of the deserving public is unacceptable and should be discouraged with the contempt it deserves.
For us to progress as a productive nation, emphasis should be laid on prompt service delivery. We cannot afford to continue to lose valuable investment because insecure key officers are in the habit of hoarding information which should have facilitated attraction of foreign direct investment that would have in turn created hundreds of jobs for our unemployed multitudes.
Emphasis should also go into sensitizing the public service on the noble principles of the Public Service Charter. The same should be extended to general members of the public who are the intended beneficiaries.
The Public Service Charter document should not be allowed to gather dust in the shelves and offices of the Directorate on Public Service Management. It should be shared by all and sundry in the public service. It must be a document in the public domain.
It is quite saddening that some public servants are not even aware of its existence.
