Last Thursday, an official reception was held at the State House to honour the laureates. The Prime Minister expressed his wish for a profound transformation of our recruitment and employment system, emphasising the importance of providing young people with the right opportunities when they return home.
Concerning the criticism regarding the recent appointments within the public service, he argued that there is a need for a balanced lot of young and experienced people-.“Dan mo biro em monn pran bann dimounn avek leksperians. Ena bann zenn ousi. Sertin plas si nou pa met leksperians nou pou gayn problem", explained the Prime Minister.
Very true , we need experienced people but the experienced ones need not be only from those we have been working with in the past, ban cronies , ban ki dicté par ban lobbies, ban “nou ban” kuma nou trouvé dan ban choix ban ministres -ki advisers , PS or attaché de presse.
Are experienced people only from the lot that were serving the country under the previous Labour Govt- the Sooroojebally, Seebaluck , Ruhee, Puran, Narainen, Ramnawaaz, Lormus ,Beegoo….u name it!
When we have a bureaucracy that suffers from indecision and risk aversion, resulting in an inordinate focus on routine tasks, the steep hierarchies or those higher up the pyramid often demonstrate autocratic and transactional forms of leadership with strictly defined roles and their importance are overemphasised.
Lines of hierarchy and authority are clearly drawn , and ideals of conduct help maintain compliance and subordination to such a rigid structure. All civil servants are groomed to operate within the traditional public administration paradigm meaning total acceptance of the authority of those above them in the hierarchy- a well defined hierarchy, adherence to rules and, by and large, impersonal functioning.
With such a pyramid structure, the whole of the public service, with perhaps the exception of some technical ministries, is geared towards serving its head/leader and the Ministers rather than the country. The accountability of officials were to their superior not to citizens in this uni-centric system of state rule. In such an outdated pyramidic structure, even a "dud" appointed as head of the service will perform !
So what’s the big deal about appointing experienced oldies in the public sector ?
Is our PM suffering from extreme mistrust ?
Several high calibre economists and specialists both locally and from the mauritian diaspora are more than willing to lead our reform agenda, but the Govt is not showing any genuine interest to attract them. It seems to restrict itself to the PM’s chums and ex-chums..
Is it not this a form of paranoia -this excessive suspicion and distrust of others- which is the main cause for the equivocation in the nominations of CEOs and board members in various key institutions that are paralysed because of a lack of leadership.
“Le pays est en otage” for the past six months waiting for the PM to overcome his paranoia .
