It is a truism that every highly effective Government has to be buttressed by a high-functioning bureaucracy or civil service. The civil service is the backbone of Government and should see to the effective implementation of government policies and programmes, with little or no interference or meddling from the political directorate.

As an important cog in the machinery of governance, it goes without saying that where there is a limping or lethargic civil service, there will be a weakened Government, a poor delivery of services to the people, and thus, a frustrated public.

Political manipulation of the civil service in Jamaica is legendary. To ram through their programmes, successive administrations have placed political operatives in charge of important statutory bodies and other government entities. This is largely done to ensure jobs for political hacks, but to also ensure that the party’s stamp on government programmes remains indelible.

It is no secret that holdovers in key government positions, whose party is no longer in power, have been known to be, or at least have been accused of being, saboteurs of government programmes. It is not as easy to dislodge them from their perch as many would think. Their tentacles around civil service power are often stronger and more pervasive than can readily be seen.

In the reform of government compensation being undertaken by the current Government, one cannot be naïve to assume that this embedded culture is something that will end any time soon.

To have a competent civil service, it is not enough to simply increase wages for workers, as important as this is in the scheme of things. Great thought must be given to ongoing training of civil servants so that they can become competent at the jobs they perform. I do not buy the argument that a low salary necessarily has to be a recipe for poor or good performance. We know of people who are paid large salaries and yet their performance at their jobs leaves a lot to be desired. There is no correlation between performance and the level of salary that is earned.

So, while I sympathise with some of my readers that low salaries can lead to low morale at the workplace, I will not resile from the position that any increase in salaries must be met with increased productivity. And let us know that productivity is not just about training to improve one’s skills and competency level. It is about the attitude we bring to the tasks we do; the level of commitment we make to those tasks; and the sense of doing the best one can to serve the Jamaican people who are civil servants’ ultimate employers.

A poor work attitude will remain so no matter how well one is paid. A person who is expert at watching the clock will not cease doing so because you give him a bump in his salary. A lethargic person will not quickly spring to life because you increase his pay. He is going to believe that he deserves it anyway and will see no compelling reason to up his game.

It must be clearly cemented in the minds of civil servants that they serve the people of Jamaica, not politicians. If they are to demonstrate dignity in the work they perform, public satisfaction must be their ultimate motivation and goal, and as such, they must agitate for the resources and wherewithal to meet this goal.

A case in point. I recently visited the Passport, Immigration and Citizenship Agency (PICA) office in Mandeville to pick up a renewed passport. On arrival I was met with a long line on the corridor of the plaza where the office is located. People seemed obviously frustrated with having to stand in a long line without any indication as to whether their purpose for being there would be served. Those who stood in the line obstructed other folks who wanted to get about their business but had to be pushing their way through disgruntled people standing in the passageway. Come on, Dr Horace Chang. Is this the best you can do for harassed taxpayers?

I did a quick vox pop survey of the crowd and the overwhelming sentiment was that they had to stand out there like cattle because, “Guvament no have no respec’ for people.”

I wonder if what obtained in Mandeville was replicated at other offices throughout the country. And is the passport office the only culprit here? If the cries of people in the media are anything to go by, it is clear that we are dealing with a national problem, the utilities being at the top of the totem pole. This has seeped into the private sector as well, given the numerous complaints against Flow and Digicel in the telecommunication space.

I applaud the agencies for decentralising their services to other parts of the island. Kingston is not Jamaica after all, and rural folks, especially, are able to benefit from this. But requisite space must be provided for people not to suffer the kind of inconvenience I saw at PICA in Mandeville. They deserve better.

In the meantime, the Government seems fully committed to a comprehensive review of public sector compensation. I can understand the impatience of people, but we did not get to this stage overnight and it will take some effort to get to a point of reasonableness in the determination of public wage. Thus, the urge for patience.

The Minister of Finance Dr Nigel Clarke has brought a sense of level-headedness to the task and he must be given the time that is required to get it right. The same people who are impatient now, some no doubt for political reasons, are the same ones who will cry foul if things are not properly and reasonably worked out for those concerned.

The goal of becoming a First World country by 2030 is, at this point, an elusive dream. Without a lean, trim, vibrant, well-trained, and committed cadre of civil servants, you can kiss that dream goodbye. It is an uphill task for which the tentacles of political manipulation must be chopped away from the necks of civil servants for progress to be achieved. But civil servants themselves will have to undergo a seismic shift in their attitudes to serving the public.

Dr Raulston Nembhard is a priest, social commentator, and author of the books Finding Peace in the Midst of Life’s Storm and Your Self-esteem Guide to a Better Life. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or stead6655@aol.com.