Editorial
Vacant posts in government sector
Efficiency requires not more manpower but downsizing
NO fewer than 8,000 cadre service posts in government have been vacant for a long time. As a report in yesterday's issue of this newspaper reveals, there has additionally been no new recruitment in the last three years. Against these vacancies, the Public Service Commission has, for the 28th BCS examinations, invited applications for a mere 1,720 posts in 14 general and 13 technical areas. Obviously, the situation is a difficult if not a complicated one, for it is somewhat a reflection on how the bureaucracy fulfills, or does not fulfill, its responsibilities to the public.
The issue raises quite a few questions here, especially where the performance or otherwise of government ministries and departments is concerned. While there is a shortage of manpower in the bureaucratic structure, there are also some fundamental questions that must be asked here. Those questions relate to how productive as well as accountable the bureaucracy has been in recent years. Questions regarding unutilised funds in various sectors have never been explained to public satisfaction. We are of the opinion that what the country needs at this stage, and in future as well, is not so much a big bureaucracy as an efficient one. Excess manpower, as has so amply been proved in some semi-government bodies, has led to sloth and corruption. Obviously, therefore, the question of a downsizing of government comes up here. And such downsizing must come on the principle that government will function with qualified manpower that is naturally committed to serve the nation. Of course, there is an important need to fill vacancies in the various areas of government. But with government being overstaffed already, as many would tend to think, let the emphasis be on filling vacancies that occur in specific areas of service. That way, a fair degree of rationalisation can be brought about in the system.
That said, there is the matter of how much motivation government employees have as they do their day-to-day work. The degree of impartiality and independence they ought to enjoy as servants of the republic has often been hampered through a politicisation of the bureaucracy. We have on a number of occasions heard of administrative reforms being undertaken, without unfortunately any concrete results emerging from such exercises. Will anyone care to explain what happened about those measures? For now, though, the question of vacancies in government departments can be handled through a proper evaluation of need. The results could make everyone happy. In the first place, let all unnecessary or redundant posts be abolished as an economical measure. In the second, let significant, recognised posts not be left unfilled for years. Efficiency tempered with austerity in government is an idea whose time has come.
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