By TK Chua
I appreciate the effort of the Chief Secretary to the Government to transfer 50 officers holding “sensitive posts” in the civil service. It must be due to the aftermath of the financial fiasco that occurred in the Youth and Sports Ministry recently.
As much as I agree with the measure undertaken by the chief secretary, I hope that the transfer of officers is not just another kneejerk reaction.
I sincerely hope that the chief secretary and the top echelon of the civil service will include other measures to ensure the solutions being proposed are more comprehensive and enduring.
In my lifetime, I have seen too many kneejerk reactions, usually occurring when an issue is hot. However such efforts usually taper off and are forgotten all too soon.
Rightly or wrongly, we are now made to think that the civil service has found the ultimate elixir to cure the ills besetting the service – i.e. transferring and rotating officers in sensitive posts.
Don’t get me wrong; regular transfers or rotation of officers is probably a good move. However I think this proposal must be complemented by other measures to be effective.
We need supervision, monitoring, watertight procedures, auditing and reporting. We need centres of responsibility (i.e. the buck must stop somewhere). We need rewards for exemplary behaviour and swift punishment for wrongdoers and deviants.
According to the chief secretary, he is now awaiting the audit investigation report to find out the causes of weaknesses and leakages in the Youth and Sports Ministry. As I see it, the audit report is usually too late; it is almost like closing the barn door after the horse has bolted.
Similarly, by all means reward and commend the officers for the good work they have done. But please do not ever forget that disciplinary action and punishment must be swift on the culprits. I think the civil service is too lenient and humane for its own good.
It is time the controlling officers – the secretaries-general, the directors-general and heads of agencies – learn to take responsibility.
Higher positions, salaries and perks must commensurate with heavier responsibilities. This is the basic axiom of management and accountability.
When malfeasance take place, they cannot claim ignorance or, worse yet, blame it on their subordinates. When top bosses get away too easily, they lose their inherent interest to see that their ministries or agencies are properly managed.
Procedures must be stringent to minimise abuse and non-compliance. More importantly however, procedures must provide quick feedback of any variation or move away from the norms.
Sometimes, it is not just the cheating and the pilferage that are going on. It is how soon we manage to find out and control it. Time is of the essence.
I usually do not believe there is a simple solution to a complex problem. Similarly, a kneejerk reaction, as the term implies, is short-lived.
It attracts our attention for a while but the solution is usually incomplete and ineffective. If we want comprehensive and enduring solutions, we must think and work harder.
T K Chua is an FMT reader.
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