During the recent Extraordinary CEO Forum, President Michel urged the assembled Principal Secretaries and Heads of Parastatal Organisations not to tell him things that they think he wanted to hear. He told them that he wanted to hear “nothing less than the truth; nothing less than the reality”. I am assuming that this call extends to all citizens of our country. I wish, therefore, to remind our President of a few truths and reality in our country.
At independence, Seychelles inherited from the British a fairly decent civil service. Not perfect by any measure but there appeared to be in it a semblance of professionalism and “esprit de corps”. Our responsibility should have been to build upon and improve it. We did not. In 1977, in our ‘revolutionary fervour’, we thought we knew better, that we could re-invent the wheel. The result is that we have messed up the civil service. We have ended up with a heavily politicised and demoralised organisation where employees feel that, to keep their jobs or move ahead, one has either to remain quiet and accept everything being handed down from the top-even, the most ludicrous of instructions, “zwe rol” or actively show one’s political colour. The right colour that is. It is from this last category of employees that came some irresponsible and small-minded individuals, who, with the collusion of politicians, have wrecked decent employees’ lives and careers and have caused immeasurable damage to the civil service. They are a few individuals who have been made to believe and are in fact convinced that their sole purpose in life was to make their co-workers’ lives a misery by making frivolous accusations against them. They could not be admonished nor disciplined for unauthorised absences from work, uncompleted or shabbily presented assignments, insolence, etc. There was always a sympathetic ear for them at State House and Maison du Peuple.
Our Principal Secretaries, Managing Directors and CEO(s) of Parastatal Organisations are, bar a few exceptions, are competent and professional. They are brave individuals regardless of their political convictions which they are entitled to like everyone else. They are, above all, loyal to their country, their employers and their organisations which they want to see function efficiently and professionally. Unfortunately, too much political interference have demoralised them and stunted their initiatives.
I fully support the President’s desire to see an efficient and professional civil service - and by extension the whole of government. I am sure that the country is behind him on this. My problem is with the way the President is going about doing it, the timing, and where I feel that the President is not being completely honest with his “ser frer e ser Seselwa”.
I have serious problems with several issues that President Michel raised in his declarations to SBC regarding the recent sackings in government and parastatal organisations which he prefers to call “restructuring”.
(I recall that when government sacked me from the diplomatic service in 1996 when I was serving as
For starters, to infer or make it sound as if these former employees were the cause of the lethargy and inefficiency in the civil service is malicious and adds insults to injury. As the French would say “ca vol bas”. And Presidents should not be “Flying low”. Especially as he and his government know that many of these individuals were exemplary employees who have spent their lives in the civil service, providing excellent and professional service to their organisation and to their country. If they were “Excess baggage” how could they have been recognised and rewarded by government only recently and happily showed off as examples to be emulated??? Unless the Minister who was responsible for this is also inefficient and should be “restructured”?
Secondly, the President’s attempt to minimise the extent of his “restriktirasyon” by passing it off-handedly as “sa de trwa dimounn kinn ganny fer redundant……I annan zis 56…….ziska prezan” is regrettable. His “leker pou tou Seselwa” should have made him realise that 56 Seychellois finding themselves unexpectedly without a job are 56 too many. It should not have happened the way it did. I would have expected him to show a little compassion there. But the last part of his statement says a lot, “……56 ziska prezan…..” Indeed, 56 employees in a civil service of thousands could not have paralysed and made it inefficient. There must be other reasons we are not being told and other sackings will follow.
Thirdly, the President proudly declares that we have a bloated civil service. And this, he happily tells us has happened “pandan sa de trwa dernyen lannen”!!!!
If the civil service is bloated, pray tell us, Dear Leader, who is responsible for this? Where were your Ministers, in particular your Minister responsible for Public Sector Administration who is vested with the authority to approve the creation of new government posts? Where were you as Minister of Finance who had the ultimate authority to provide budgetary funding for these posts? And where were you, as President, “pandan sa de trwa dernyen lannen?” How is it that until last year posts were being created and people recruited left right and centre as if there was no tomorrow?
President Michel then reminds those of us with failing memory that he was delivering on the promise, as he always does, he made to ‘lepep’ during his district consultations “soon after I became President”. But wasn’t that three years ago?? He omitted to tell us about the other more pressing issues ‘lepep’ complained to him about: drugs, insecurity, corruption,etc.
In the same breath, he declares that, that was also his election promise. There I must have missed something because I cannot recall President Michel ever telling his “ser frer e ser Seselwa” that “apre la contantman, des pleurs”. I do recall, however, that his Great Leader, in one of the rallies, and in President Michel’s presence, declare that Mr. Michel had promised him to clear the civil service of all “karyas” after his election. As he never denied it, we can only conclude that Mr. Michel did make that pledge. Not to ‘lepep’ though!
President Michel is now calling for more meritocracies in the civil service. It can be assumed that he means a civil service free from partisan political control, where an employee’s advancement is based on competence and merit. His declaration is over 30 years late, but who cares? As the saying goes, “mye vo tar ki zanmen”. And he should be supported.
The President might wish to confirm that he is serious about bringing about a professional and efficient civil service by considering the following suggestions:
• Remove, immediately, politics from the civil service and with it, all the umbrellas, pens, clocks and other political paraphernalia which adorn the desks, shelves and walls of government and parastatal offices.
• One’s political opinions and convictions are personal. Ban discussions of politics during working hours and in the work place.
• Charity begins at home. “Restructure” all the dead wood and yes-men and women around him. They are doing him a dis-service. State House and his Cabinet of Ministers is a good place to start. Heads should be made to roll for the inefficient and bloated civil service. They should be able to take up the countless positions which he says exist in the private sector.
• Establish, without any further delay, an independent Public Service Commission which will be responsible to rebuild our civil service and make it strive for excellence, protect merit and safeguard the political impartiality of public servants.
• Corruption and its perception is a very pressing issue which ‘lepep’ wants to see addressed. Set up, without any further delay, a transparent mechanism for the declaration of assets by public servants.
• Once government has set policies and benchmarks and parameters within which they should be implemented or executed, please leave the Principal Secretaries and Heads of Parastatal organisations to get on with their jobs.
• The government’s policy on localisation of posts is unclear and inconsistent. Let us please have a clear policy and stick by it. It is unacceptable that after 30 years of “liberasyon” and the millions invested in training our people we are still employing that many expatriates, often in fields where there are competent Seychellois who could take over.
“Let’s do it, pou lanmour Sesel!”