Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said that the government wants to improve the efficiency, accountability and transparency of the public sector, while changing the negative perception about government employees once and for all.

This was the main thrust of the Prime Minister’s message when a few days ago he spoke during a seminar on public internal financial control.

While it must be agreed that over the past years services offered by the government to the people have improved – and this largely because of the advancement of technology and the setting up of e-government services that have reduced queues and waiting time – it must also be pointed out that the perception that government employees work less hard than their counterparts in the private sector is still quite widespread.

To be fair, this does not only happen in Malta. In many other countries of the developed world, there is a general impression that the civil service takes things much easier than the private sector. It is common knowledge that people who are used to work in government departments find it hard to keep the pace if they join a private company, while those who change from a private firm to government service find it hard to get used to the bureaucracy.

This is, of course, a generalisation because there are many government employees who do their full day’s work each and every day while there are many workers in private companies who are lazy and uncooperative.

Yet, it is true that people who are not in government employment have the impression that public service employees go to work late and leave early, and spend a good part of their time walking up and down Republic Street in Valletta.

And this is perhaps why Dr Gonzi was so adamant in saying that this negative perception about government employees must be eradicated because, on the whole, these workers are the ones that are keeping the government machinery going.

This “negative perception” rears its head even more at this time of the year when government employees will be looking forward to starting their summer half-days, while employees in the private sector know that this is a luxury they will never have. Sometimes they find it even hard to take as many vacation leave days as they would like to, considering that many employees prefer to take their holidays in summer.

On the other hand, government employees work only in the mornings and spend their afternoons either having a nap or by the beach, at a time when private sector employees are still at work.

It can be argued that government employees make up for their summer half-days by working longer hours for the rest of the year, but at the same time it must also be admitted that if Malta is to remain competitive, one cannot have the government machinery working only in the mornings for three months. There are occasions when the private sector needs support from government departments, but this is not available in the afternoons in summer as telephone calls and emails remain unanswered.

Successive governments have tried to raise the matter each time the collective agreement on the public sector is to be reviewed, but they have always found resistance from the unions simply because their members, of course, like it this way.

But the time has really come for the government to take the bull by the horns and seek to change a system that might have been appropriate in the past (when, for one thing, government departments were not equipped with air-conditioners) but is no longer valid today.

The working hours in government departments should be brought in line with those of the public sector. It is only then that the negative perception about the public service could start to be

eradicated.