Web-exclusive comment
Let's learn Gomery's lesson
An effective civil service is the best defence against public abuse and institutional failure
By HUGH SEGAL
Monday, November 14, 2005 Posted at 2:05 AM EST
Special to Globe and Mail Update
The first report of the Gomery commission has once again brought the issue of government mismanagement to centre stage, with the inevitable finger-pointing, blame-shifting and column-writing that accompanies such an event.
But the content of the report does not shake my belief that we have a public service that is, though not perfect in every respect, among the finest in the world.
When we see individual public servants singled out in official inquiries or specific court cases for alleged or proven wrongdoing, those events are newsworthy precisely because they are very much the exception.
By focusing on the bad apples in the public service, the buzz around the Gomery report risks deflecting attention from the broader issue of effective delivery, administration and management, which I believe is the core challenge facing governments, at a time of increasing demands for coherence, co-operation and network operations.
The challenge is epitomized in Canada's governments today by the increasing prevalence of "floating executives" with generalist economic or social policy skills, who move among departments in frequent rotations and promotions. In recent years, deputy ministers typically stay five years - and often less than three - in a given department.
Such rotations worked when the visiting deputy minister could be supported by assistant deputy ministers (ADMs) and directors-general who themselves had come up from the operational and street-level roots of the department and had precise technical and practical experience. But with
the advent of the rotating ADMs and the accelerated executives, we have a cycle in some departments where the constant movement of senior officials diminishes both real accountability and genuine connection to the delivery end of the ministry or departmental statutory mandate.
My concern is not about senior public servants not working their hardest or trying their best. But, in a context that dilutes the administrative drill-down ability of a department to actually do the job for which it is both funded and established, even the best efforts can be in vain.
In everything from policy relative to aboriginal communities and first nations, to Kyoto and income security measures,
we have seen failures in coherence and intended impact and outcome that all of us deeply lament. Some of this happens when governments reduce complement and operational capacity while increasing pressure for output and delivery. Some of this happens when program goals are fuzzy or contradictory. But some of it is because many departments lack the implementation expertise to actually execute effectively and evaluate that execution in simple and direct terms.
In a policy environment in which governments must respond in a coherent, co-operative and joint manner,
[/i]we lack institutions that provide education and training opportunities for public service, military and police officers to develop operational capacity. The National Defence College, closed by the Chrétien government in 1994 as a cost-saving measure, once provided such an opportunity through a year-long course in the area of national and international security studies. Should we not ask whether such an institution needs to be recreated on a broader scale to help public servants better understand and implement the spectrum of policy challenges that face Canada today?[/i]
Virtually every other democratic country has some form of a public or civil service staff college with formal professional development courses for those selected for higher administrative responsibility. Canada does not. Why?
Our challenge here is to be rational and balanced. The fact that some things do not work well (as the Gomery report vividly illustrates) does not mean that everything is going to hell in a hand basket. But, it is vital that we engage fully on the opportunity that focused execution-capacity actually represents.
Senator Hugh Segal is president of the Institute for Research on Public Policy, which is co-hosting, with the Trudeau Foundation, a conference titled Responsibilities of Citizenship & Public Service: Crisis or Challenge?
© Copyright 2005 Bell Globemedia Publishing Inc. All Rights Reserved.
