The BBC production with the above name was originally broadcast nearly three decades ago and its success led to another series with the title Yes, Prime Minister. But although so much time has passed, both productions are still being aired – not only for the humour, but also because they are still so relevant today.

The series mocks public administration in the British system, clearly indicating that it is not the politicians who make decisions, but the public service that supposedly supports them. It is then, however, the minister who takes the blame if things turn out badly, while the public service is praised if things turn out right.

Although the show is aimed to make people laugh, it is on the whole a veritable replica of what goes on in the public administration, not only in England. Since our own system is based on the British one, we have copied it, defects and all.

Often, everything is hidden under the title of bureaucracy. There is however more to it than that. It is the whole set-up that needs to be overhauled, but considering that what we are doing today is what we have done for decades, it is hard to imagine that there will be any changes. It is so hard to change a mentality that has been there for generations.

Successive governments have tried to improve the situation, but progress, if any, has been slow. The advent of computers and technological advances has helped to make things easier, but the civil service has not moved in parallel with the times.

Politicians are the people who come up with the ideas, but these ideas have to be implemented by their subordinates, and very often they are stalled, if not completely halted. What should take a few days to carry out, takes weeks if not months, and then it is the politician who gets the blame for the delay.

People who worked with the private sector before taking up a job with the public service have found the going tough – because the civil service works at a much slower pace. It’s like having Michael Schumacher in his Ferrari racing against me in my battered car. He would have already completed a lap before I turned the first corner.

For one thing, the summer half days have to go for the civil service to start being described as a professional outfit. Having government offices close at 1.30pm for three months is not the way to make the service more efficient. The government should have the guts to revise the system, tell the unions to shut up and go ahead with adjusting the working hours to make them more compatible for “competitive Malta”.

Secondly, the system should be based on productivity, not seniority. It is high time that the most talented and most hard-working employees are promoted, and not have people moving up simply because they have been there for a few years.

Thirdly – and this is linked with productivity too – more discipline should be exercised on one and all. There are people who take their children with them to work every afternoon after picking them up from school. Is this how it should be?

The civil service needs a major overhaul. The government that does it might not win the election, but it would be giving the country the best possible gift.



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In reply to the article I wrote two weeks ago, in which I challenged the Malta Union of Teachers to go on strike during the summer holidays, MUT president John Bencini wrote to say he was “stunned” about my “biased” and “prejudiced” ideas.

And yet he failed to answer any of the arguments I put forward, which leads me to confirm that I am right in thinking that the union chooses to take industrial action before exams are to be held just to increase pressure on the authorities who would be forced to find a compromise so as to avoid disrupting the exams.

I wonder why Mr Bencini then felt the need to say that the MUT has always cooperated with “your newspapers and journalists”. Does he mean to say that since the MUT was always cooperative, I am not entitled to write an opinion – a personal opinion, not the newspaper’s – about teachers and the way their union operates? Is he trying to gag me?

Mr Bencini will remember the many times he called me– when I was editor of The Malta Independent (daily)– to congratulate the newspaper for being “the only one” to report him faithfully. He used to tell me how The Malta Independent (daily) always carried the “best report” on any press conference or rally that the MUT had held, and then go on to criticise other media for not being accurate.

His calls are evidence that, as editor, I did not allow my personal opinion to get the better of me when it came to reporting MUT activities. I always presented them to readers of The Malta Independent (daily) with the prominence and importance I felt they deserved in the public interest.

But now that I have expressed my own views – and, I repeat, only my views – Mr Bencini is telling teachers not to buy this newspaper. How’s that for democracy and free speech?



scalleja@independent.com.mt