The Government servants’ role in Governance

How do we judge the working of a democratically elected government? It is the administration alone that indicates whether the governance is good or bad. One of the most important questions that can gauge the quality of administration is whether the administration is people-friendly or not. If the functioning of the government is open and if it takes the people along with it in implementing various schemes, no doubt, the credibility of the government will definitely be at a higher level. As it is the government servants who are actively involved in directly dealing with the people, their behavior towards the common man will naturally be the pointer of the credibility of the governance.

The role played by the government servant in the governance is very crucial and hence a government servant must always be guided by the laws of the land. Unfortunately there are numerous examples where the elected representatives – the politicians – have bent the laws to give benefits to his/her supporters or family members. If they have done so it is only because the bureaucracy has helped the politicians to twist the law.  If the decision of the politicians is in contravention of the existing laws, then it is the responsibility of the government servant to give his opinion accordingly in writing on the file. Hence the most important duty of the bureaucrat is to advice and to guide the elected representative to reach to a decision without flouting the rules. Therefore to run the administration as per the laws of the land is the most important task of a government servant.

Government servant is a public servant. He is the servant of every citizen. But an ordinary citizen never feels that he – the citizen - is the master and the person working for the government is his servant. On the contrary, the way the government servants function – their behaviour and their attitude towards a common man – it gives an impression that the government servant is the boss in that particular office. The ‘aam admi’ has also started to consider the government servant as his boss because it is projected as if the government servant does a big favour to the ‘aam admi’ when he is performing nothing but his duty towards him.

‘Come tomorrow’, ‘Your file has not come to me’, ‘Can’t you see how busy I am today?’, so on and so forth are some of the very common sentences of the government servants that welcome a common man when he approaches them for some work. This act is nothing but an example of not performing one’s duty on time. By acting in this manner, the government servant commits a cruel injustice to the common man who has come to him for a particular work by spending a lot of money and his precious time. Sometimes people who earn their daily bread on daily wages come to the office with high hopes of getting the work done but unfortunately they are sent back without doing their work. Do we realize the predicament of such people whose work is not done on one side and who have lost their daily bread on the other? A Government servant with humane touch will go a long way in making the administration people friendly.

There is an urgent need to improve the functioning of our government offices and government officers too. Beautiful air-conditioned chambers do not imply that the functioning of the office is good. The improvement of functioning of the office will depend on the improvement of the mind-set of our public servants working in that office. They will have to undergo a drastic change in their attitudes and behaviour towards the ‘aam admi’.

l First of all, they will have to accept that they are working in a government office in order to help and assist the ‘aam admi’ and that they have to co-operate with him to get his work done on time.

l There should be a behavioural change in our public servants. Utterances like ‘Come sit’, ‘What can I do for you?’, ‘Give me a minute, I shall locate your file’, etc by the government servant will bring smile on the face of ‘aam admi’.

l There are many schemes of the government which are approved and await for implementation. Implementation, how fast and how effectively – depends on the public servant. The lethargic attitude of our public servants has many a time delayed the execution of the schemes. A government servant should be thirsty of implementing schemes that are beneficial to the people.

l There are cases of certain files moving faster than others. Some files do not move at all. This type of favouritism must stop and all files, irrespective of whose file it is, should move as per the set time limit. If there is no time limit given then the same should be introduced immediately so that the ‘aam admi’ does not suffer any more.

l Government servants must be punctual, sincere and loyal to his duties. There are many government servants who have private businesses and hence their loyalty to their duty is doubtful.

l The selection of the government servants should be on merit only and not due to any influence including political influence. Unfortunately in the recent times, in government appointments, merit does not play any role. It is the political influence that matters.

l The virus of corruption among the government servants must be crushed once and for all. And this could be done only if the political leadership itself does not indulge in corruption.

I do not say all government servants are of the type I have described them above. There are many government servants who go out of their way to help the common man. People respect them and salute them. If we wish to bring about a speedy development of our society then there is need of sincere, upright and selfless government servants.

(Tomazinho Cardozo is a former Speaker of Goa Legislative Assembly)