BUDGET 2002, currently being debated in Parliament, focuses on Government-led stimulus packages to counter the effects of the global economic slowdown.
A sum of RM33.5 billion in gross development expenditure has been earmarked for next year, up 4.6 per cent from 2001’s RM32.1 billion. The latter includes the RM4.3 billion fiscal stimuli and the earlier RM3 billion packages announced in March.
This way of managing the economy by saving during the boom and spending during difficult times was described by the Prophet Yusuf when he was asked to interpret a strange dream of his master, the Pharaoh.
Verses 47-49 of Chapter 12 of the Quran are translated thus: “Yusuf said: ‘For seven years shall you diligently sow as is your wont, and the harvests that you reap, you shall leave them in the ear, except a little, of which you shall eat.
“Then will come after that a period of seven dreadful years, which will devour what you shall have laid by in advance for them, all except a little which you shall have specially guarded.
“Then will come after that a year in which the people will have abundant water, and in which they will press for the juice from grapes and oil’.” Although in theory the stimulus packages could help rejuvenate the domestic economy, there is a constant worry that this might not be the case, due to inefficient disbursement of the allocations.
For example, as of August, only a small portion of the RM3 billion March 2001’s stimulus packages had been utilised.
And despite the pledge by the Government that contractors would be paid within 30 days of completion of their projects compared to two or three months previously, things are not really moving fast enough.
Analysts believe that a reduction in red tape coupled with a positive and pro-active attitude among civil servants would certainly help expedite the implementation of these fiscal stimulus packages.
The cautious stand taken by some civil servants in processing the disbursement of development funds is not only understandable, but also commendable.
After all, it is their responsibility to ensure that the correct procedures have been religiously adhered to. This is to stave off corrupt practices by those inferior men of the civil, as well as, public service.
But surely, with the advent of information and communications technologies and availability of sophisticated project management tools, certain archaic work cultures could have been done away with.
By and large, our civil service is an independent entity empowered with a relatively substantive decision-making authority.
However, in order to boost the dynamism of the civil service further, perhaps it is time to promote the concept of governance, especially among its middle and top echelon managers.
But what is governance in the civil service, or “civil governance” for short? According to Sheridan and Kendall, the authors of the 1992 book Corporate Governance: An Action Plan for Profitability and Business Success, a good governance system should be able to: # fulfil long-term strategic goals of building stakeholders’ value; # take care of the needs of the environment and local community including economic and cultural interactions; # maintain excellent relationships with clients and suppliers, who may also be citizens, in terms of quality of service rendered, and the provision of considerate account settlement procedures; and, # ensure compliance with all legal and regulatory requirements under which the entity operates.
In the healthcare delivery system, for example, clinical governance has been introduced. It comprises functions and values such as professional self-regulation, strong leadership, communication, and commitment to quality.
The application of these principles will provide an environment in which clinical excellence can flourish and high standards of patient care can be promoted.
Most health officials will already be familiar with quality improvement initiatives such as risk management, clinical audit, standard setting and monitoring, research, evidence-based medicine and clinical supervision.
Clinical governance assists in the co-ordination of these activities to produce a programme of quality initiatives with the patient as the central focus.
But to define “civil governance” we should probably refer to the definition of “corporate governance” espoused by the Finance Committee on Corporate Governance of the Treasury in 1999.
Thus, civil governance is the process used to direct and manage the business and affairs of the Government towards enhancing public prosperity and accountability.
In line with corporate governance that focuses on increasing returns to the shareholders without neglecting the interests of other stakeholders, and clinical governance that concentrates on improving patients’ health, the ultimate objective of civil governance would be to realise long-term public value.
It envisages that the public and private sectors are working together. But adopting civil governance also implies the willingness to accept responsibility and accountability on the part of senior civil servants, at the same level as their corporate sector counterparts.
Is this possible? Well, accepting public office is, in a way, accepting a trust. This demands a very high standard of conduct.
Actions that may be permissible or civilly wrong when performed by private citizens could be criminally wrong when done by civil servants. This conception would rejuvenate the common law offence of official misconduct.
In a seminal English case, an official accountant charged with negligence and refusing to disclose an item that should have been in governmental accounts, pleaded that his conduct rendered him liable only for a “civil injury, not for a public offence”.
Lord Mansfield concluded to the contrary: “If a man accepts an office of trust and confidence, concerning the public… he is answerable to the King for his execution of that office; and he can only answer to the King in criminal prosecution, for the King cannot otherwise punish his misbehaviour, in acting contrary to the duty of office.” This high, almost altruistic level of governance implies that a civil servant may not be prosecuted only when he commits criminal breach of trust, but shall be held legally accountable if he fails to perform his job satisfactorily.
The second Caliph Umar al-Khattab who ruled the Islamic empire from the city of Medina in the Arabian Peninsula, was reported to have declared that if a dog had died of hunger on the banks of the Tigris, he would be answerable to God.
Without doubt, by adopting good civil governance, the Malaysian civil service shall be able to soar to a greater height, hence ensuring that the country successfully stave off the anticipated global recession.