Though our prime minister's initiative to have Harvard's expertise to improve our civil service is commendable, to me, it seems like an overkill. We do not lack expertise in administration, management, accounting and planning. What we lack is our government's will to put into effect solutions for what the public has been complaining about.
Besides the usual complaints about inefficiencies (which encourage corruption to speed up approval processes), I was most surprised about the government's inefficient and outdated cash system of accounting. Yet, there is no public reaction, especially from the government leaders, as to why we continue with this system and not the accrual system used so effectively in the private sector.
I have always wondered about the annual reports by the auditor-general on expenditures by government bodies and local councils which are unauthorised and/or unaccounted for, the late submission of accounts, some even by a few years! There seems to be no solution in sight and everyone is resigned to the fact that it is an insurmountable problem.
As a member of the public, I have encountered quit rent arrears being billed, though paid; duplicate bills issued for the same year as well as overlapping bills for certain years issued to both purchaser and seller of a property. To my mind, these apparent inefficiencies hide a more sinister problem of deliberate over-billing to hide previous embezzlements or to hope that any additional payments could be manipulated by those in charge.
The government system of protecting wrongdoers by merely transferring them to another section or department does not deter future miscreants.
The prevalence of staff on extended tea breaks, jumping on any excuse for an office party and even office staff joining field trips unnecessarily all contribute to delays to works in progress. Dr Mahathir Mohamad's clock-in system was rendered ineffective soon after introduction by 'proxy colleague' taking turns for each other.
Political VIPs visiting a state usually involve the attendance of civil servants to provide a rousing welcome and this also hampers work. One of the contributing factors of time wastage is the putting away of files and re-opening them later.
We have our Intan as well many think-tanks and international management consultants which could have helped improve our civil service. Anyway, it would be refreshing to see what the Harvard experts could suggest and whether our government would implement their suggestions.
