The absent Permanent Secretary to the President
Ketlhalefile Motshegwa | Monday April 13, 2020 20:00
Among his duties, he appoints senior management in the public service, and introduces and manages public service management system and related reforms. In essence he has overall responsibility over all public officers.
The PSP also happens to be Secretary to Cabinet.
All these make the office of PSP to be powerful. As the CEO of government, he is the architect of administrative direction of the country.
The current PSP, Elias Magosi, was brought in with unusual conditions to the extent that his remuneration had to be outside the government salary structure, because he was highly wanted by the powers that be. He has been acting in the office for some time and now is in full control since March 2020.
The PSP is nowhere to be found, the last time we heard of him was when he released correspondence of his predecessor upon retirement. He has not been clear on his vision and or roadmap for public service, he is docile, his presence is minimal and he remains uninspiring to the public service. You would expect the PSP to prove his mantle and provide leadership in the public service at a time of pandemic.
Though the past PSPs being Eric Molale and Carter Morupisi were somewhat arrogant and tyrannical, at least you could feel their presence in office.
The civil service remains demoralised with poor conditions of service and neglected welfare of workers particularly those at lower scales. There are issues of nepotism, tokenism at the expense of competence, excellence and merit, something that has become a culture in the public service particularly at the apex when it comes to progression. The PSP seem not eager to change this trajectory, as he has not hinted any divergent path.
The PSP will need to come out from hiding, bring reforms, address welfare of public servants, bring inspiration to public service for productivity, which is highly important for growth and prosperity of the economy.
For us to progress as a country we need Permanent Secretaries, Directors, District Commissioners, Council Secretaries, DHMT Coordinators, School Heads who are selected on the basis of merit, and they need to be empowered to execute their duties.
The challenge is that today's top civil servants are so powerless and serving merely as pleasers of Ministers, that's why they keep on saying 'bagolo ba re'. Ministers are too controlling to the extent that Permanent Secretaries have no decision-making powers save to wait for instructions from the Minister or Office of the President. Some Ministers can even skip senior officers to communicate with junior officers defying processes of government protocol.
This challenge has been exacerbated by the lack of security tenure of the part of the top bureaucrats, which got eroded when they were switched to contracts of about three years. Now they are more concerned about job security rather than service to the nation, which would require them at times to be assertive and firm on what they believe ought to be done.
The PSP must come out of administrative quarantine, and lead the public service!