State run public services versus private
enterprise along with their associated politics.
I thought I might like to put my point of view. As someone who spent
most of his working life as a public servant I like to think my opinion is
valid though some might not agree.
Like many of
us, my early employment was a job, something one had to do in order to support
oneself, not a vocation and certainly not a political statement. When becoming a public servant for the first
time it was because liked the idea of the job, not for any altruistic reason or
the politics. The next thirty-five years
gave me the opportunity to see public service at its very best and its very
worst. I’ve seen demonstrations of
courage and commitment to duty that would put many to shame; and seen blind
mindless adherence to rules with total disregard to the service people were
there to provide. And I’ve seen those
qualities and weaknesses demonstrated at every level of the organisation. Governments have come and gone each with their
particular brand of ‘reform’ and very few having a positive effect on service
provision, let the alone professionalism of the employees. Unions have had their say to argue the case
for their membership, often with the quality of the service as their slogan of
the day but disregarding the fact that many of their campaigns having had a
detrimental effect on professionalism.
It seems to
me that a public service’s first duty is to provide that amenity to its users (the
public) efficiently, effectively and to the highest standard possible given the
resources available. However, in my
experience, too many public employees forget the reason why they have a job in
the first place and behave as if their employment is a God given right. For example a police officer who arrests
someone because he can, not because it is the right thing to do having regard
to why a law might have been passed in the first place. Or a fire officer who refuses to rescue
someone from a pond because they were only trained for operations in water up
to 15cm. Then there’s the parking warden
giving a ticket to a hearse when collecting a body or because a vehicle is 6cm
over the line. A 13 year old schoolboy
arrested and DNA tested because of some overheard offhand hearsay remark in the
playground by his boastful 13 year old girlfriend. Endless examples can be given and although I
suspect some might be apocryphal, I have seen the attitude with my own eyes.
Likewise I
have seen the various attempts by political parties to use all aspects of public
service as some sort cause celebre and plough on with changes and reforms in
spite of the evidence proving a change would not work and any damage it would
cause. Normally that damage is at the
cost of the service in both terms of budget and professionalism. This damage is often exacerbated by the political
collusion of non-operational bureaucrats in both central and local government
with little or no understanding of what is really going on at the sharp end.
The
government’s job as far as public service is simple, decide what services you
want. Decide to what standards you want
them provided, having regard to advice from people with acknowledged expertise
in the appropriate field. Find out what
resources are required to deliver those services with the appropriate support and
then provide them. Institute independent
arrangements to ensure those standards are being adhered to. Then keep their noses the hell out of it and remember these services are not there to be handed out as some sort of recompense for party donations.
In
thirty-five years public service I have seen no evidence that either state or
privately run solutions are exclusively the right answer; but of one thing I am
certain and that is, their fate needs to be decided because it is the right
thing to do not because of political dogma.
