Despite the traditional negative public perception of Malta's public service, the truth is that today we have a public service to be proud of, albeit with its defects and deficiencies. However, which public service in any country is perfect? Having said this, the fact remains that while considerable improvement has been made in preceding years to improve the public service, work remains to be done to continue such progress and improvement.
One of the great improvements which I have noticed is in the area of customer care, although with some important and regrettable exceptions. Several years ago, I remember the rough way in which anybody calling at a government department was usually treated. The attitude of many public officers was so negative towards members of the public that this gave the public service a very negative image.
Today, I am glad to note that the situation is quite different. For example, I recently had to call regularly at the National Library in Valletta and the National Archives in Rabat for purposes of research and I was welcomed and helped by the staff. This is something to be highly commended. I have also noted that telephone operators are now very polite when dealing with members of the public although there are still some exceptions in one or two departments that I am personally aware of.
One area that, unfortunately, leaves much to be desired is that of the proof-reading of correspondence between the public service and the public. I am disappointed at the number of times I have received official correspondence that contained many mistakes.
Indeed, recently I received a letter from a government department which was riddled with mistakes of orthography. Which brings me to the subject of competence in the English language.
How is it possible that the standard of English of a number of public officers is so low? I have seen letters addressed to members of the public which would make a secondary school student blush with shame at the number of mistakes contained in one single item of correspondence. Why is it that in some government departments, the proofreading of official correspondence seems to be non-existent?
Another area that cries out for improvement is that of the standard of social education of many labourers in the public service. I recently had occasion to witness the cleaning of a public square by a group of labourers. Why is it that to carry out public activities, such workers have to create a racket that would wake up the dead?
Shouting at the top of their voices from one end of the square to the other, speaking roughly to residents in a too-familiar and patronising tone, the needless and continuous banging of equipment, etc.
Unfortunately, customer care and civic awareness are absent among many such workers to the detriment of the public. Surely, those workers who interact with the public on a daily basis should be better trained in how to behave when working in the towns and villages of the Maltese islands!
To go back to the positive side of things, efficiency has improved in several government departments. Today, it no longer takes ages for a citizen to get a reply to a query. Usually, within a reasonable period of time, a particular request, problem or other situation is dealt with by the public officer/s concerned. Again, however, there are some notable exceptions which can be a source of great frustration for those citizens who are the victims of such inefficiency.
The avoidance of wastage is another area of public administration that needs to be improved. On one occasion, I noticed that the tap in the toilet of a government department had been left running after it was used by one of the staff. It is also rather common for staff to leave a room without switching off the lights. This is regrettable because I know of cases where lights were left switched on at the end of the workday on a Friday afternoon and were not switched off before Monday morning. This at a time when it is absolutely essential not to waste our energy resources.
To conclude, the Malta Public Service has greatly improved over the years and most of the workers today do really give a full day's work to the state which is their employer. The vast majority are also of great service to the citizens who require their services.
However, there are still areas of public administration which leave much to be desired. These should be dealt with because such deficiencies and lacunae are very costly for our country which has always faced the problem of limited human and material resources.