An efficient civil service is the motor that drives a modern state. From the most senior officials, who advise ministers and oversee the implementation of government policy, to the most junior clerk, the agents of the state are the indispensable component of governance success or failure.

Except for a gap from 2000 to 2004, I have worked closely with senior and middle-ranking civil servants in the Maltese Public Service since 1996. When I arrived at Castille as Adviser to the Prime Minister on defence policy and the Armed Forces of Malta in January 1996, I was very conscious of the recent history of the civil service – a service that had had its morale and effectiveness broken by sixteen years of political interference, cronyism and mis-management and whose ranks had been depleted by the resignations of the better quality civil servants.

There can therefore be no doubt that the Public Service in place today bears no resemblance to the ramshackle institution which it was in 1987 and whose reorganisation and regeneration began in the early 1990s under the drive of the newly-elected Nationalist government, inspired and directed, I gather, by its major protagonists: Richard Cachia Caruana, the late Father Peter Serracino Inglott and Joe Tabone.

My own impression of the efficiency and effectiveness of the Public Service over the seven or eight years that I have had the privilege of working with it has been that it is an institution which is, on the whole, excellent at process. Not simply 'process', but neutrality of process. Civil servants are reliable, loyal, impartial and conscientious. Most civil servants I have worked with are knowledgeable about the corner of the job they are performing. They are well organised and tend to be conservative in their approach. They bring a natural Maltese shrewdness, guile and cunning to the job. Recruits to the service are for the most part well educated.

On the other hand, while their judgement is good, there is a distinct reluctance to exercise it, to initiate and to implement action. Their processes are slow. Like many bureauracies, there is no sense of urgency or any willingness to take independent action within the terms of their own remit.  Caution is too often the watch-word. They are reluctant to embrace change and new ideas. They find it difficult to exercise “joined-up” government and have a very limited vision of the effects of their actions outside their own specific terms of reference. Turf wars are never far from the surface and lack of cooperation across departments is the norm.

I obviously generalise as there have been many instances in the last sixteen years when civil servants have  individually belied the qualities I have describe above. The key problem I believe lies in the politicisation of the Public Service through the introduction of strong ministerial secretariats selected by the Minister personally from outside the service, who act as a parallel universe and take  the key decisions. They not only effectively undermine the primacy of the professional civil service, but also lead to all decisions having to go up to the Minister for endorsement, thus over-loading the system and slowing the process of implementation. I have also sensed that the former clear and delicate distinction between the head of department being responsible solely for the administration of the department, while the minister's role has been that of deciding policy has been eroded in many cases.

To ensure greater efficiency in the Maltese Public Service the focus should be on getting the professionalism of the Public Service and the basics properly established. Too many of the basic skills are currently weak. The ability to write well in English and Maltese, the former most especially, is crucial. Standards are low and many civil servants find it difficult to express themselves clearly and concisely in English. All civil servants should be fully capable of writing a report, making a formal ministerial submission, writing minutes of a meeting, chairing a meeting etc. Speaking fluently and confidently in both English and Maltese is a must given that Malta is now regularly represented at international meetings. Worthwhile advice to ministers cannot begin to be formulated unless a civil servant possesses these fundamental oral and writing skills.

The ability of a civil servant to shine a searchlight on a problem, to analyse it and to propose solutions is another basic skill currently lacking. But, above all, civil servants must be inculcated with the ethos of speaking truth to power – the ability to spell out clearly the consequences of particular ministerial actions. If a civil servant cannot tell a minister he or she is wrong and why, nobody can, even though in the end the civil servant has to do what the minister says.

Financial processes in the Public Service give cause for concern, as successive reports by the Auditor General attest. It s not clear how much the deficiencies revealed are caused by improper ministerial interference or slack financial over-sight. The truth is the processes are extremely cumbersome. They need to be streamlined. There seems to be only limited delegated financial authority. Departmental budgets appear to be allocated based mainly on past precedent without detailed reference to  the achievement of specific objectives. Financial responsibility and accountability go to the heart of what the Public Service does. Not only must the system be overhauled, but it must be properly taught to those who will have to police it.  

It is not clear to me how development training in the Public Service is conducted. In an ideal world, Malta would have a “Civil Service Staff College” to which all future top civil servants would go at some point in their careers to qualify them for promotion to the highest grades. The possibility of contracting out the Staff College concept to the University of Malta may bear investigation. I personally am a great advocate of having a “fast-stream” civil service entry which would see the selected brightest and best progress quickly through the ranks to the top. There is a need for a more structured recruitment and training system to attract the best talents to the Maltese Public Service. 

The increased work-load on the Public Service created by accession to the European Union has posed an additional challenge to Malta, which has sometimes stretched the capacity of the civil service to the limits. That Malta has performed well in the corridors of Brussels, as well as adapting the country's laws and processes successfully to the demands of the Union is a direct reflection of the competence and hard work of Malta's Public Service. It has on the whole been one of the unsung success stories of the last eight years. While there is, of course, always room for improvement – and I have highlighted some of the more obvious areas – Malta can take pride in the achievements of the Public Service in this important field. It is vitally important that any new Administration continues to nurture and build on this success.