Security of tenure has led some civil servants to become slack – Prof. Prasad

Civil servants now have the security of tenure, but this has led to the transition where some people feel that because they have a permanent job, they can afford to be a bit slack.

This has been highlighted by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Professor Biman Prasad while responding to questions on fijivillage Straight Talk with Vijay Narayan about the cost of the civil service and productivity.

Professor Prasad says a quarter of the budget or more than a billion dollars goes into civil service salaries.

He says the civil service was thoroughly politicized under the previous regime and the 2013 Constitution says the Permanent Secretary has the powers to hire, fire, recruit, set the salary with the agreement of the Minister; not in consultation.

Professor Prasad says under the previous government, the different ministries kept recruiting because they had the budget and could hire five people instead of two people.

He says there are some really brilliant, hardworking civil servants but the legacy of that institutional blockage and failure in the way it was managed has lived on.

He says the government wants to make sure that there are disciplinary processes and the Public Service Commission will have to ensure that the disciplinary process is fast and efficient, so that they can deal with deviant or slack civil servants.