In a long-ranging interview with the head of the public service, Joseph R. Grima, Malcolm J. Naudi is briefed on the latest results of the change process and the public service's key role in ensuring that the EU screening and negotiating process was completed in record time

Change in the public service has moved from the back office to more visible, front office initiatives, Joseph R. Grima, permanent secretary at the Office of the Prime Minister, told The Sunday Times last week.

This change "is not a programme that we began with a target date on when we would end it. Change is ongoing; it will forever be," he pointed out.

In a long-ranging interview, the head of the public service outlined the major changes that have occurred in the past decade and pointed to the direction of the public service of the 21st century where public-private partnerships (PPPs) will ensure a leaner, more efficient public service.

"The performance of the public service is critical to the vitality of Malta's prosperity," Mr Grima affirmed. "It is critical that the public service delivers.

"Quite rightly, there is criticism that we should try to reduce bureaucracy because it's a cost. With globalisation, competitiveness is critical and the induced costs of the bureaucracy impinge on the country's competitiveness.

"This message is sinking through but until you reach the last one in the public service, it will take time. We embarked on a revolution by evolution."

Mr Grima outlined this gradual, but inexorable change that has swept the public service. "Our point of departure was to put in place mechanisms to motivate our people. I have no illusions that we have achieved perfection, but definitely, we have moved a long way.

"The initial change programme focused on the back end: restructuring 60 career streams to put more emphasis on merit in promotions, performance agreements for top management positions, and reducing the number of salary scales from 96 to 20.

"Today all permanent secretaries, directors-general, directors and assistant directors are appointed on performance contracts for a specified period: three years for the top three posts and assistant directors for five years. They have targets, which they have to reach, and, when it comes to the closure of that contract, a fresh call is issued.

"There is no automatic renewal. They have to reapply. They have to submit an achievements report with their application - what they delivered during the term of the performance agreement - and they have to compete. We do have some directors who are not reappointed - not many. This, obviously, is not pleasant.

"It is not always a reflection on the individual because since it is based on competition it is a question of having at that particular point in time a competitor who happens to be better than the one who was last incumbent in the post. Many have difficulty accepting this."

Those who fail to be reappointed revert to their last substantive appointment, carrying on their duties in that grade.".

In the area of promoting executive performance, Mr Grima said there are three phases: "You cannot do these revolutions overnight. This has been a constant, gradual, steady evolution - change without any shocks.

"Initially, even to introduce the concept of applying for a position at the top, competing with others who are your juniors, was a radical departure from the culture we were accustomed to. It has been accepted. That was phase one.

"In phase two, you have some who would not be reappointed to their position. Most of them are reappointed but there are a few who find a competitor who takes their position.

"I think there is going to be a third phase where, within the early part of a contract, say after a year or 18 months, you terminate a contract without even allowing the contract to continue to the end."

Mr Grima explained that the responsibility for performance appraisal has been delegated to permanent secretaries: "I do the appraisal of the individual permanent secretaries, while the permanent secretaries would do their own directors-general and directors. There is a direction from the centre here that they would have to try to produce a bell-shape distribution of the performance awards.

"We have up to 15% performance bonus. So you have an exceptional few who get the full 15%; you have the bulge where you have the average; then you have a few who have a very low award. We issue guidelines to help directors-general and permanent secretaries to carry out these appraisals.

"This guideline has been identified, unsolicited, by the World Bank. It's on their Website as a model as to how performance appraisals should be conducted in top positions. It's been there for 12 or 18 months: www1. worldbank. org/publicsector/civilservice/individual.html."

With this change under its belt, the public service, according to Mr Grima, differs from what it was 10 years ago in three areas: "It is more focused on results; it is more customer-oriented; and more meritocratic. Today I believe that the public service is more modern (and) enterprising than it was in the past. I think that we have embraced change as an abiding philosophy."

Looking at some figures, Mr Grima said 36 per cent of directors appointed in 2002 were in their 30s; 14 of the 111 directors currently in post (12 per cent) are women. Young graduates who join the public service now have a fast track for advancement: "They join at middle management posts as principals (and) can compete for promotion to senior principals after only two years in the public service, when they become eligible for a headship post.

"We try to get the best people - not all of them because the country needs them in different sectors. The public sector has to capture, say, 20-25 per cent of the best brains the country can offer because then we can deliver."

With 30,000 employees in the public service, excluding those in the military and the parastatal industries, Mr Grima believes that in terms of numbers Malta compares very well with other countries. "It's not as heavy or as disproportionate as one would think. I have compared the public service particularly with the European Union countries and even other candidate countries.

"I don't think we can say we are the best numbers relatively speaking. We are on the high side. But we are not above the normal sizes for a public service. With this Public Private Partnership (PPP) initiative, I think we can fare even better. We would still show them on our books, but the truth is that they won't be in the core business of government."

Mr Grima pointed to the UK, which has shed all its industrial grades in the past half-century. "When the UK talk about the reduction in the public service, you will notice that it is all in the industrial grades. If you look at Malta, from independence to today, you will find that the numbers of administrators and managers in the public service are very much the same - a horizontal graph that runs across the many years.

"So, I think that PPP is going to make a difference because in time those are functions that might migrate out of the public service and, eventually, when the current employees go to the private contractor, because he will want them with him, they will automatically move out."

PPP creates the environment for industrial employees to deliver, through the encouragement of flexibility, initiative and increased productivity. "We have this huge swath of about 8,000 employees in the industrial grades, performing tasks that are no longer the core business of government, on functions which could migrate out to either local government or the private sector."

The public service has two main roles: to give impartial, professional advice without fear or favour to the government of the day; and to deliver the services it is responsible for efficiently and effectively where they are required.

There have been three thrusts to the reform programme: decentralisation from the centre to individual government departments; devolution from the central government to the local councils; and privatisation.

The turning point in service delivery, according to Mr Grima, came in 1999 with the introduction of the quality service charters. "What we were saying was that we had to deliver a quality service to the public. We now have 41 charters. As opposed to past initiatives, we tried not to impose from the centre; we tried to persuade public officers to buy into the idea, to get involved."

All departments and sections that have launched charters are, in turn, regularly audited by a new unit, the Internal Audit and Investigations Directorate, within the Cabinet Office at the Office of the Prime Minister. Set up two years ago, in line also with EU requirements for an internal auditing function to also monitor funding, the internal auditors go and scrutinise the individual sections or departments with the charter and compile a detailed questionnaire.

"The report is then sent to the permanent secretary who is responsible for the particular chartered section and he has to see it through. The auditor then goes back after six months to see whether the changes promised have been introduced."

Tied up with the quality service charters is the new e-government customer care initiative, launched last month. A clearing house has been set up within the Quality Service Charter Support Unit to channel all inquiries from the new Website, servizz.gov.mt, to the respective ministry or department.

The system has been piloted through the local councils. For the past few months, staff in the councils have been able to channel inquiries from the public to the appropriate department. "We have gone one better now. Over the Internet anybody, everywhere, can access this customer care system, either from home or even from abroad."

Finally, Mr Grima paid tribute to all those in the public service who contributed to the smooth completion of the screening and negotiating agenda that enabled Malta to be cleared for EU membership. "Without their effort, we would not have completed the process in record time.

Mr Grima explained that the task was tackled through the designation of lead ministries for each of the 31 Chapters in the EU acquis or body of rules and regulations. "In 1999 we designed a master database in which we captured all the projects we anticipated we needed to do over the next three years. We classified them under three broad headings: the EU-related projects; the improved service delivery measures, like the quality service charters, the one-stop shops, e-government; and ministry-specific projects, like welfare reform and education.

"The individual ministries had to report progress every three months. In the case of the EU, we would issue a report. The EU Cabinet Committee under the Prime Minister's chairmanship would monitor the progress. We would go away for a day to Girgenti. Each individual ministry would go there in turn and report progress. We would see where there are the slippages and we would make sure that we would remedy matters.

"The end result was that we managed this conclusion: the positive report on Malta. It was an achievement for the public service as well, that it managed to deliver when it was put to the test."