Politicisation of administration

What we are seeing today is an absolutely unprecedented scale of politicisation, which is having a number of negative impacts. The first is that the quality of service has plummeted precipitously. Civil service officials are in charge of important matters that affect every corner of the country, and if the best people do not get the most sensitive positions, then it is only natural that the quality of services rendered will be diminished.

More worryingly, the morale within the administration is now at an all-time low. The demoralisation of the common civil servant is a cause for great concern because it will of course have a negative impact on his or her quality of service and will also impact the kind of person who the services are able to attract in the future. When things have come to such a pass, it is time for corrective measures.

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A transparent promotion policy in the government services is long overdue. If there were some level of transparency and openness in the process, this would go a long way towards ensuring that the most egregious breaches could not be covered up and would thus be less likely to occur.

Perhaps it is unrealistic to hope for any change in the one year left to this government, but we remain optimistic. It is still not too late to reverse course and clean up the administration. This alone would be a salutary move which would improve governance considerably to the credit of the government by showing that they are willing to put national interest above party interest.

We appeal to the more sensible parts of the government and the ruling party to see that the partisanship be halted if not reversed in the time left to their tenure. The naked politicisation of the past four years, the flouting of long established standards and norms of seniority and merit, have not only crippled the bureaucracy, they have also contributed in no small measure to the public's lack of confidence in the government.

Fixing the problem would not only be in the national interest, it would be in the interest of the government as well.