Civil servants in Botswana, and not so much politicians, have been responsible for running the affairs of the country since independence. And this could be the reason why corruption in Botswana is relatively lower than that experienced in the rest of the continent.

Unlike other countries in the continent, at independence Botswana only had a handful of local professionals in officer positions on which to build a new civil service. Over the last 20 or so years in particular, the government has invested massive resources in developing human capital making our civil service a highly qualified, and by African standards competent, and ethical one. Substantial resources were invested in training and skills development. This was related to job requirements but also included long-term training linked to career development.

Forty four years later though, the gains that the country made in developing its civil service seem to be regressing.  Morale in the civil service is currently very low. Civil servants are no longer proud of their work. It used to be a badge of honour to serve one's country. Nowadays civil servants speak disparagingly about their conditions of work. And it is not so much about wages that they are complaining about, but the hostile environment that they are working in. As a result many young and middle-aged professionals are leaving the civil service to work abroad or join the private sector. And droves of experienced civil servants are leaving as soon as they reach the minimum age of retirement, something that never used to happen in the past. There is a sense in which many civil servants are feeling insecure. 

While former District Commissioner Richard Oaitse's observations in the Botswana Guardian earlier this month did not clearly highlight the problems in the Government Enclave, his remarks put into sharp focus the disenchantment that exists in the civil service.

Civil servants, especially at the level of middle and senior management feel that they are being harassed by their bosses. And this is being done in the name of President Seretse Khama Ian Khama's call for delivery. They point to the spate of dismissals and forced retirements that have been taking place lately. There seems to be a reign of terror pervading the civil service and people are feeling insecure. Senior civil servants are abusing the President's clarion call for delivery to pursue personal vendettas against officers who they don't like or see as threats.

Needless to say the civil service needed a jolt. The lethargy that pervaded the civil service was a threat to the survival and competitiveness of the country in the 21st Century. You crack eggs in order to make an omelette. In order for the civil service to renew itself and refocus invariably some people would fall by the wayside. However, this must be done in an equitable and transparent manner. As things stand it does not seem that most of the dismissals were justified. Even the way some of the dismissals were carried out left a lot to be desired. They were malicious to say the least.  Hopefully the government would revisit its hiring and firing practices following the amendment of the Public Service Act with the view to handling such matters in a more professional manner. In the meantime the Government has to deal with the backlash that is already there as a result of its ill-considered labour practices.

The problems that exist in the civil service underscore the extent to which the Government Enclave is dysfunctional. Over the last 44 years the civil service in Botswana has grown in terms of size, complexity and sophistication. This growth requires constant change in how the civil service is run.

No amount of reform or capacity building in the public sector would bear meaningful results so long as the structure of the civil service at the top does not change. The civil service is too important to be headed by a person who is preoccupied with other daunting tasks of the State like the Permanent Secretary to the President (PSP). It needs a full time leader at the top who would give it the attention that it deserves. The civil service is by far the largest employer in the country. It's wage bill alone constitutes about a quarter of government spending. This amount of investment requires proper management. Presently the country is not getting value for its money as evident from poor service delivery as well as lack of implementation of government programmes.

The current arrangement, where the PSP is the chief of staff in the Office of the President as well as cabinet secretary, and head of the civil service is untenable. It is too much responsibility for one person. May be 20 years ago one person could perform all those functions. Today, it offends best practice. It is also dangerous because it concentrates too much power in one person.
In the British system, which is the model that by and large Botswana system of government follows, the office of Permanent Secretary to the Prime Minister is separate from that of head of civil service. The Permanent Secretary to the Prime Minister plays the leading role in policy matters at No.10 Downing Street. The Chief of Staff, who is normally chosen by the Prime Minister himself, directs responsibility for leading and co-ordinating operations across Number 10 and reports directly to the Prime Minister. 

Besides those two positions there is the cabinet secretary who couples as the overall head of the civil service. The cabinet secretary is responsible for ensuring that the civil service is equipped with skills and capability to meet the challenges it faces everyday, and that civil servants work in a fair and decent environment.

South Africa has adapted the British model and even improved on it to meet their local circumstances. The Director General in the Presidency who couples as Cabinet Secretary is the administrative head of the Presidency and is charged with the overall responsibility for its management and administration. The Director General's role is to support the President in his leadership of society, his executive management to ensure implementation of its mandate and to fulfill his constitutional responsibility.

Under the Director General is the Chief Operations Officer (COO) who provides strategic oversight to ensure the efficient and effective operation of all the various units of the Presidency. Effectively, the COO is the chief of staff in the Presidency. The COO is the deputy head of the Presidency and acts as head of the Presidency in the absence of the Director General.
The structure allows the Director General, who is the equivalent of the PSP, to focus on matters that have to do with the Presidency. He does not have the extra burden of running the mammoth organization called the civil service.

In the case of Botswana the PSP has three functions. He is the Secretary to Cabinet; PS to His Excellency the President, and Head of the Pubic Service. According to the Office of the President website, the PSP as Secretary to Cabinet, is in charge of the Cabinet Office for;

*arranging the business of cabinet
*keeping the minutes of Cabinet meetings
*conveying decisions of the Cabinet

The PSP is also the administrative head of the Office of the President and advisor to the President. As Head of the Public Service, the PSP performs the following functions;

*controls the conduct of the public service
*provides for the public service conditions of service
*may at any time, exercise the functions of any other public officer on the superscale grade D1 and above
*supervises permanent secretaries and other ministries administratively.

With all these responsibilities the PSP becomes de facto the second most powerful person after the President in the Government Enclave. But it does not make him the most effective and efficient person providing cutting edge leadership which is what he is supposed to be. With the immense powers vested in the PSP even cabinet ministers have to play second fiddle to him. He can overrule other permanent secretaries who are supposed to be the accounting officers of their respective ministries. He can hold everybody in the Government Enclave to ransom.

It is this concentration of power that is the root cause of the problems that are paralysing the civil service. The arbitrary decisions that are made to fire people; the mismatch of skills in relation to positions that people are appointed to; the log-jam in the implementation of the performance management system, as well as the paralysis in public sector reform, are all manifestations of a problem that exists at the top.

Even if the position of head of the civil service were to be hived out of the PSP's clutches there would still be a need to establish an authority that would monitor and evaluate the organization and administration of the public service. Some commonwealth countries have a body known as the public service commission which is established through an act of parliament.

The commission is an autonomous body that promotes measures that ensure effective and efficient performance within the public service as is the case in South Africa. In the United Kingdom the Civil Service Commission's main responsibility is to ensure that all civil servants are recruited on the "principle of selection on merit on the basis of fair and open competition." 

The Commission audits recruitment policies and practices within the civil service and approves all appointments to the most senior levels of the civil service. The Civil Service commissioners are not civil servants and are independent of ministers. They are appointed by the Crown under Royal Prerogative and they report annually to the Queen.

With varying degrees of success public service commissions have been effective in preserving the merit principle in the civil services that they operate in. The merit principle, the notion that civil servants should be appointed and promoted on merit, and that qualifications and performance should be fairly assessed seems to be under threat in our civil service. In that respect, among other things, a public service commission, separate from the Directorate of Public Service Management (DPSM), would give guidance aimed at ensuring that personnel procedures relating to recruitment, transfers, promotions and dismissals comply with the values and principles prescribed in the Constitution.