Principal Permanent Secretary Mario Cutajar last week called some aspects of the public sector “a farce”. Photo: Jason Borg

Union officials and an ex-public servant have expressed reservations on the views of the civil service head, who warned the public sector was facing a “leadership crisis”.

Addressing a one-day conference for top civil service officials last week, Principal Permanent Secretary Mario Cutajar said the public sector had to pull its socks up and work hard, while describing some aspects as “a farce”.

His remarks, made in the Prime Minister’s presence, raised eyebrows in view of the fact that one of the first decisions made by the Labour government was to put its own people at the helm of various ministries.

As a result, seven of the 10 permanent secretaries were replaced days after the party was elected to power last March.

Public sector facing a leadership crisis

The conference also served for the government to unveil 52 recommendations on how to make a more efficient civil service, which will be presented to the social partners in the coming weeks.

This newspaper sought the views of Alfred Fiorini Lowell, who spent six years as Cabinet secretary in two Fenech Adami administrations and also served as the head of the Public Service Commission.

He pointed out that the onus of leadership fell on the current crop of permanent secretaries, as they were in charge of the civil service administration.

However, he said that he could not understand whether Mr Cutajar’s criticism was directed towards them.

While acknowledging there was room for improvement in various aspects of the civil service, he said he would never denigrate it.

“You don’t bring about reform by snapping your fingers,” Mr Fiorini Lowell remarked. He said that a lot depended on the pool of people available, the training provided and the planning.

He recounted that following the change in government in 1987, a high-powered commission was set up and tasked with making recommendations for the public service reform. This led to the first operations review across the entire civil service.

“While one can criticise the measures taken back then, these had been backed up by detailed planning,” he said.

On the other hand, Eddie Fenech Adami’s former private secretary Alfred Chetcuti was less critical, remarking that he would give some weight to Mr Cutajar’s claims.

While cautioning that he retired in 1999, he said that the impression he got from the outside was that the public sector indeed lacked leadership.

“Compared with 15 years ago, it seems that the public sector has fallen behind,” he said. Mr Chetcuti said that the impetus of the early reforms seemed to have subsided along the way.

On the other side of the fence trade union officials who spoke to this newspaper were not impressed by the comments made by the Principal Permanent Secretary.

Both the Union Ħaddiema Maqgħudin as well as the General Workers’ Union underlined that neither of them had been approached regarding the government’s plans to overhaul the civil service.

UĦM general secretary Josef Vella said it would not be acceptable to negotiate any reform in the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development.

He said that such measures warranted face-to-face talks between government and the unions.

Mr Vella said questions being raised about the lack of leadership could ultimately backfire as the decisions on whom to put at the helm of the various public entities ultimately hinged on the government.

On his part, General Workers’ Union deputy general secretary Josef Bugeja expressed complete disagreement with sweeping statements that the entire civil service lacked leadership.

“I can partially agree that some civil servants need more training, but I completely disagree that there is a leadership crisis as there are very valid people who unfortunately are not being given the chance to decide,” he said.

Mr Bugeja said that GWU had its proposals ready on how to make the public sector more efficient, increase accountability and make it more transparent. These include customer care training, leadership skills, office resolution and negotiation skills.