You know you’re in trouble when your job interferes with your calling.
The thing is, I’m a writer. Writers write. Writers write about stuff that inspires them. Writers write in part to inform those who read, and in part becase they just can’t do anything else.
The other thing is, I’m a civil servant. I am one of the faceless scores of thousands of Bahamians who are bound to serve the government and people of The Bahamas, who are apprenticed to a hierarchy that grows ever more remote from the reality of life in the nation, and who are governed by a set of rules called General Orders which were drafted, by the tone of them, by English colonial bureaucrats, the ultimate purpose of whose administration was to return revenue to the Crown.
Oh, the folly. Oh, the fodder. Over the short course of my public service career I have collected enough inspiration for three seasons of a hit television series. Count two major elections twenty years apart (you do the math), and you will see the possibilities bloom. I even have the best of all possible titles in mind.
And yet. General Orders interferes.
So I ask you. Does this country really need another bureaucrat? Surely it would do better with some good social comment instead?
{ 6 comments }
As one civil servant to another, I can relate. Do countries need more bureaucrats (or, in my case, technocrats)? It’s unlikely. Do they need more civil servants who are committed to their work and believe that with enough effort and determination they can make a difference? Yes. But I am beginning to wonder if I have the effort and the determination that it takes.
To be precise, I’m a technocrat as well. But the bureaucrats outrank and outnumber us.
I’m not convinced that the civil service model we inherited from Britain is designed to work at all. While we might imagine that what we have is a mirror of the British public service, we would probably be wrong; our systems were set up to govern colonies, not countries, and without fundamental reform from the ground up I doubt they can serve the best interests of nations.
Sounds like you’re thinking of leaving your job.
If you do, I wish you the best with what’s next. I just wonder if your successor would handle the position as well as you have.
I., I’m always thinking of leaving my job; it’s nothing new. Thanks for the kind words, but I’m serious about the question. Is the country benefitting from being overrun by bureaucrats? And if one is one of the mass, is working for government the best use of one’s time?
A lot of people, most of them technocrats, have already answered the question for themselves and left the civil service. Is that the answer — specially in my field?
I really don’t know.
If you’re asking about rational, independent minded civil service workers, I would argue that the answer to your question is yes.
However the Bahamian civil service is dysfunctional in many respects. You noted that the general orders that help to administer the civil service were drafted by English colonial bureaucrats. Thus, these orders are outdated; and successive governments have not revised them (or have done so only minimally).
Further, excessive political intrusion constrain civil service workers from the potentially fine job most of them are capable of doing. (Here too, political operatives disguised as civil servants may be a major problem for the rehabilitation of the service.)
I also believe that the dysfunctional nature of the current civil service include a perception of incompetence.
Finally, the lack of understanding on the part of the general public about the proper procedures in the civil service may also be a major barrier to reforming the service; but a certain laid-back mentality among the bureaucrats themselves pervade the service, creating a sense of incompetence and may lead to public distrust.
The interaction between these three things, I believe, may prevent major reform.
Having written all of this, I qualify my “yes†by saying that “the country needs another bureaucrat†only to the extent that we succeed in reforming the civil service and restoring it to the proper place of helping to run the country for the benefit of all Bahamians.
But, your blog entry seems to hint at a more personal nature for your concerns. Unlike the majority of civil servants (bureaucrats as you will), you may be in a position to take early retirement. And I do believe that you have many other options. You may go back to teaching (as I am not in The Bahamas, I don’t know whether you’re still lecturing at COB). Outside of the civil service, and as a former servant in good standings, I believe that you may be in a position to advocate for major changes to the civil service.
Vincent, thanks for your excellent answer. It’s helpful to put things in perspective. We have spoken about civil service reform for many years now, but it has not happened, with the result that I believe that our government — not the politicians, but the actual workers in the service — is not equipped to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century. The creation of a cultural economy, for instance, is virtually impossible to achieve in the current administrative structure.
Thanks for your input! Much appreciated.
Comments on this entry are closed.