Footing the public servants\\\' pay hike bills

Last Saturday's issue of the Financial Express carried two items on the front page -- one was on the probable allocation in the next national budget to foot the pay bill of a large number of public servants and the other highlighted the findings of a survey that claimed that more than 96 per cent of start-up businesses are required to grease the palms of the government officials to procure relevant documents.   
The national budget set to be placed by Finance Minister AMA Muhith in  parliament next Thursday is likely to contain the proposal to allocate Tk 460 million to meet the spending on the salary and allowances of public servants in the fiscal 2015-16.  The amount is more than twice the amount spent on salaries and allowances of public servants in 2012-13. Besides, the proposed allocation would represent the largest chunk of the revenue budget.
The primary reason for such an increase in allocation on account of public servants pay and allowances is the new pay scale set to be enforced from the day one of the new fiscal year. The pay scale has proposed substantial hike in salary and allowances of all sections of government officials and employees.
However, economists have raised one pertinent question -- in fact, they had raised the similar question on the occasion of every pay hike of public servants in the past -- about the positive impact on the performance level of public servants and the quality of their service delivery.
The taxpayers would be taxed more to meet the additional expenditure on account of pay hike of government servants. But what are the benefits the taxpayers will be getting from it?
The content of the second story of the survey findings would provide answer to the question raised above. In addition to paying for their salary and allowances in the form of tax, the people, including businesses have to bribe the government officials at every step to get things done. If businesses are required to grease the palms of officials in 96 per cent cases to procure necessary business documents to start a venture, one can well imagine the enormity of the problem.
It is not just trade and business related offices, the problem of graft has virtually engulfed the entire public service delivery system. A citizen seeking services from government offices is made to make extra payments at every step. In offices handling land, law and order maintenance and education related issues, the extent of bribe taking has reached such height that service seekers tend to allege out of frustration that the lifeless objects like chair, table etc., in these offices have developed the habit of asking for bribes. The public sector utility service providers are no exception.
The question is: why should the government, after a gap of few years, impose financial burden on the taxpayers to pay for the enhanced salary and allowances of inefficient and public servants who create more troubles than offering benefits to them (taxpayers)?
The government would argue that there is no option but to give a salary hike after a reasonable period of time because of the increase in the cost of living. That is a valid argument.
But it is also the job of the government to enhance the quality of service of the public servants so that the taxpayers get prompt and efficient service from them. Going by the state of affairs with most public sector offices, the citizens have ample reasons to believe that the government is not at all serious about ensuring that.
Not many people would dispute the fact that the quality of manpower at all levels in government offices is very poor. Politicisation is one factor responsible for the recruitment of poor quality manpower. But the overall recruitment process, weak as it is, has been contributing to the intake of manpower which is not capable of delivering quality services either to the government or to the people in general.
More importantly, the accountability process for the public servants is now more or less confined to relevant laws and rules that are hardly enforced barring political motives.
One can guess well the current state of affairs with the country's public administration from the existence of a large number of OSDs (officers on special duty) at various levels of the bureaucracy. These officials do not have any office. Nor are they required to do any work. They pass their time either lobbying with powerful quarters to rid themselves of the stigma of OSDs or gossiping with professional colleagues or friends during office hours. The taxpayers have been counting millions of takas every year to foot the pay bills of such hundreds of OSDs.
The taxpayers are not just footing the pay bills of a large number of inefficient public servants. The pay hikes do also exact a cost from them in the form of rising inflation. No matter what the finance minister claims, the new pay scale in all likelihood would fuel the rate of inflation.
So, the government, while increasing the pay and allowances of the public servants, should take some definitive actions to bring about a few qualitative changes in their performance and seriously try to reduce the systemic corruption at all levels of the administration.
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