District Multi-Stakeholders Forum

On
Constitutional Reform and Peaceful Coexistence

Policy Paper
on
The Right to Efficient, Effective,
Responsive and Accountable Governance
 Policy Recommendations of the District Multi-Stakeholders Forum on
Constitutional Reform and Peaceful Coexistence
The National Democratic Institute (NDI) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, nongovernmental organization that
responds to the worldwide quest for popular civic participation, open and competitive political systems,
and representative and accountable government. NDI and its local partners work to establish and
strengthen democratic institutions and practices by building political and civic organizations,
safeguarding elections, and promoting citizen participation, openness and accountability in government.
With staff members and volunteer political practitioners from more than 100 nations, NDI brings together
individuals and groups to share ideas, knowledge, experiences and expertise. Partners receive broad
exposure to best practices in international democratic development that can be adapted to the needs of
their own countries. NDI’s multinational approach reinforces the message that while there is no single
democratic model, certain core principles are shared by all democracies.

In late 2008, NDI commenced a program to promote multi-sector dialogue to build capacity and
consensus on constitutional reform and peaceful coexistence. District Multi-Stakeholders Forums
(DMSFs) were created in eight districts of the South, Central and Eastern Provinces with the participation
of political party leaders, representatives of professional associations and civil society organizations.

During the initial meetings in early 2009, participants identified specific constitutional and governance
issues that they believed should be addressed through policy, legislative and institutional reforms to
promote, consolidate and sustain democracy and good governance. Comprehensive dialogues were
promoted on the following issues:

1. The right to Representation and Participation

2. The right to Rule of Law
3. The Right to Transparent Governance
4. The right to Effective, Efficient, Responsive and Accountable Governance
5. The right of Women to Equality, Representation and Participation
The recommendations formulated by the DMSF are intended to initiate dialogues through
constructive engagement with policy-level stakeholders, political and civil leaders and others
responsible in promoting democratic governance in the country. The recommendations for policy
reform on the Right to Efficient, Effective, Responsive and Accountable Governance are
presented herewith with the kind request of the members of the DMSF to H.E. President
Mahinda Rajapaksa, Cabinet Ministers, Leader of the Opposition, leaders of all political parties,
Parliamentarians, Members of the Provincial Councils, Heads of relevant state institutions and
the general public to kindly come forward with commitment, enthusiasm and solidarity to
promote informed dialogue based on these recommendations in order to reach multi-party
consensus in the search for a shared future in which everyone will be accepted and respected as
equals in an environment of good governance with development and peace and free of
discriminations, fear, intimidation and violence.

The Members of the District Multi-Stakeholders Forum on Constitutional

Reform and Peaceful Coexistence
August 2010

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 District Multi-Stakeholders Forum for Constitution and Peaceful Coexistence

POLICY PAPER ON THE RIGHT TO EFFICIENT, EFFECTIVE, RESPONSIVE

AND ACCOUNTABLE GOVERNANCE

Introduction

In modern democratic governments the members of public administration are accountable to the
citizens of the country and obliged to serve them efficiently, effectively and economically.

In the administrative theory and practice developed with the advancement of popular democracy
it was accepted that the public administration must be carried out by the professional and
politically neutral administrators. The principle of politically neutrality was advocated on the
ground that the position of the public official should be organized as a “Public Trust” and the
implementation of public policy required certain “technical” and “business” skills that should be
handled without political or any other divisive considerations. The notion of non-political
administrator later became popular acceptance recognizing it as a necessary pre-condition for the
success of democratic governance. The improvement of technical and business capacities in the
public administration has been accepted even today as the most important criterion of measuring
success of democracy as it facilitates efficient and effective use of public resources and energies
to deliver quality service to the people.

The functions assigned to the administrative arm of the state are generally defined as delivering
public services, paying for social security and respecting the rule of law. The crucial functional
areas by the state administration in a modern state are:

1. Imposition of public regulations

2. Relationship between the law and the state
3. Combining ecology and policy-making
4. Multi-level governance
5. Public, private and NGO partnership
6. Policy implementation
7. Serving the citizens
8. Protection of the human and fundamental rights of people

The above elements must synthesize into the major roles that are to be played by the public
administration, namely:

1. Enforcement of power and authority of the state- it is the administrative organization that
has to impose the will of the state by implementing the laws passed by the state
 institutions using both cohesive and integrative powers, fostering the rule of law
principle.
2. Custodian of State Resources- as the custodian of state resources the key responsibility is
to defy the political and other societal pressures to misuse public resources
3. Policy advising- the key responsibility is to help the society to enlarge the existing
conceptual map for the advancement of social, economic and technological development
of the country through advising the ministers on matters relating to policy reformation
4. Executive Arm of the Government – the public administration system is the arm of the
government which implements laws passed by the legislators and executes the public
policies, programmes and plans as decided by the political executive thus the key
responsibility is not just making them clearer but also to identify detailed plans for their
implementation
5. Resource management- the public administration system is responsible for handling
human and material resources belonging to the state efficiently, effectively and
economically, thus the key responsibility is to economise the use of resources focusing on
cost benefits, value for money and lessening the burden on the tax-payer.
6. Service delivery of the government- it is the public administration system which delivers
public services that have social objectives – the key responsibility is to serve the citizens
responding to their demands efficiently and diligently
7. Mediator of public interests- the public administration system has to “go between” the
state and the private and NGO sectors and build partnership for delivering services
required by the society

National Democratic Institute (NDI) conducted a series of multi-stakeholder forums in eight

districts of the country to discuss issues of good governance and policy reform in the country.
One of the issues highlighted by the forum members was effective, efficient and responsive
governance- a public service that serves the people. In this regard, forum members defined a
number of issues and formulated the following recommendations.

Background

Sri Lanka boasts 225 members in the national parliament. On the other hand in the public
administration more than 800,000 employees are working for the government. The majority are
street-level bureaucrats, meaning, public officers serving in the institutions that deliver public
goods and services to the people. Most of Sri Lanka’s public servants are serving in the District
and Divisional Secretariats, Grama Niladhari Offices, Police Stations, Schools and Field offices
of the departments belonged to the central, provincial and local level governments.

In August 2000 the President appointed a Public Services Management Development Authority
to ascertain the problems surrounding the public service and to make recommendations for its
improvement. It was headed by a senior public officer with an equally senior officer as his

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deputy and a retinue of research officers. The chairman of the Authority had to regularly report
to the President of the progress made by the Authority. During 2001 the Authority conducted
surveys into the working of selected departments such as the Registrar General's Office, the
Office of the Registrar of Persons and a few Divisional Secretaries' Offices and
recommendations made to the Ministry of Public Administration for necessary action lack of
accountability; the inadequacy of the knowledge of the subject the public officers are called upon
to handle; the absence of effective supervision; lack of adequate motivation; and, above all,
political interference.

International Standards and the Commitment of Sri Lanka

The International Code of Conduct for Public Officials is an International Code of Conduct for
Public Officials promulgated by the United Nations through a General Assembly Resolution
No:51/59 adopted on 12 December 1996) In its General Principles it states:

“A public office, as defined by national law, is a position of trust, implying a duty to act in
the public interest. Therefore, the ultimate loyalty of public officials shall be to the public
interests of their country as expressed through the democratic institutions of government.”

(see annex 1)

Effective, efficient and responsive governance is now recognized as a universal human right.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “everyone has the right to take part in the
government of his/her country, directly or through freely chosen representatives and …equal
access to public service in his/her country” (Article 21). This has become a directive for the
states and community of states when they proclaimed themselves as the duty bearers of the
universal human rights by signing of two major human rights treaties.

International instruments to which Sri Lanka is a signatory explicitly recognize that everyone has
the right to an adequate standard of life, the right to food, shelter, health care, social security and
education. Although in many the private sector is playing an increasing role in providing for
these requirements the ultimate responsibility of guaranteeing the enjoyment of these rights is
always with the government. Hence, the citizens of a country expect the government and its
administrators to be non-partisan, to uphold the right to participation and ensure that the interests
of all people are met.

The United Nations established a Public Administration Network Mission to promote the sharing
of knowledge, experiences and best practices throughout the world in sound public policies,
effective public administration and efficient civil services. After evaluating the recent reforms in
the Commonwealth Countries one scholar has identified eight subjects that can lead to better
public service in the world, namely:

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(1). Restructuring of the public service
(2). Reexamining the political/administrative interface
(3). Maintaining high ethical standards and an intolerance for corruption
(4). Reviewing the role and responsibilities of Public Service Commissions
(5). Consideration of the value and impact of performance standards
(6). Exploring the contribution of partnerships, not just with the private sector but beyond
(7). Maintaining high quality services and,
(8). Proposal to develop an index of public sector competence

(A.S. bin Abdul Ahmad, Best Practices in Public Administration: Experiences from Commonwealth Countries in
Mazlin Ahmad (ed.), Public Service Management: Achieving Quality Service in the 21st Century, National Institute
of Public Administration, Public Service Department, Malaysia, 1998, p.2 (pp.2-10) .

These reforms formulas have followed by many countries and brought some good practices from
which we can learn lesions in order to understand the public service reforms and best practices to
be adopted in the improvement of public service delivery system in Sri Lanka.

The Committee on Standards in Public Life is an independent public body which advises government on
ethical standards across the whole of public life in the UK. The Committee developed the now widely
accepted ‘Seven Principles of Public Life’ as a code of conduct for public officials. (Annex 2). These
principles, among other guidelines, reflect the changing expectations of societies of the standards to
which public officials should apply, not only in terms of adhering to government protocols, but in terms
of their attitudes, conduct and behavior.

Recommendation – 1: Independence of the Public Service:

The present constitution consists of several legal directives for the public administration. Most
important of them are the articles that elucidate the nature of state, the source of state power,
principles of state policy, fundamental rights, public finance, exercise of executive power and the
conditions applying to the public officers. Many of these constitutional directives are related to
the process of centralization of political power that is associated with the state craft strategy
followed by the makers of the constitutions of 1972 and 1978.

The Public Service of the Country is now virtually under the leadership of the President as the
appointment of all the leaders of the public administration such Secretary to the President, the
Cabinet, the Ministries and the Provincial Councils are vested with the President. The President
can also influence the appointment, promotion, transfer, disciplinary control and dismissal of
Heads of Departments as these functions are vested with the Cabinet of Ministers. This situation
is unavoidable as the Executive Presidency is the focal point of the constitutional mechanism
created by the constitution for the exercise of executive power of the people. The constitution
declares that the President of the Republic is the Head of State, Head of the Executive, Head of

6
the Government and the Commander of Armed Forces. Further President is the sole authority in
appointing all the Officers of State including the Heads of Armed and Police Forces and the
Judges of the Superior Courts. The constitution has offered him legal immunity for all legitimate
actions he has done as the Head of State and Government. As past experience tells us that the
President who is elected by an island-wide electorate with an absolute majority can establish
autocratic governance overriding the powers of the Legislature and the Judiciary.

In Sri Lanka the principle of political neutrality of public administration became an entrenched
element of the system of governance since the Donoughmore constitution which introduced the
idea of having a Public Service Commission to safeguard the political neutrality of public
servants. The Constitution of 1948 once again established the Public Service Commission
entrusting with powers for the appointment, promotion, transfer, remuneration, disciplinary
control and dismissal of public servants. However, the independence of public administration
was not to the liking of the political elite ascending to power since the 1950s. The need for a
strong centralized state was promoted by the politicians since the 1960s and finally the
culmination of this became apparent in the two republican constitutions. Since the inauguration
of the constitution of 1972 the trend was to make public servants subservient to the political
bosses in the executive government.

Public Service Commission

With the passage of 17th amendment to the constitution the Public Service Commission (PSC)
was empowered to be in charge of the public service. The constitution has assigned the powers to
appointment, promotion, transfer, disciplinary control and dismissal of public officers to the
Public Service Commission.

An independent Public Service Commission should be able to take on the responsibility for
appointments, performance appraisal and promotions, disciplinary procedures as well as fielding
complaints from the public. A fully functioning commission that works without external
influence could play a major role in increasing the professionalism and de-politicizing the public
service. By making higher standards of performance in service delivery with accountability the
norm, a Commission could potentially greatly enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the
public service.

The Public Service Commission of Kenya is a body created under chapter VIII of the
Constitution of Kenya. It is an independent state organ which does not fall under the Executive,
legislature of judiciary. Its independence in the exercise of its Constitutional powers is clearly
guaranteed under the Constitution thus:

“The Commission shall, in the exercise of its functions, under this constitution not be subjected
to the direction or control of any other person or authority”.

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The core functions of the Commission are:-
 Recruitment for the public service and local authorities
 Promotion and acting appointments of public officers
 Disciplinary control in the public service and local authorities
 Retirement and removal of public officers
 Establishment of standards of ethical conduct of public officers
 Issuance and administration of the Code of Conduct for public officers in accordance
with the provisions of the Public officer Ethics Act 2003 and
 Civil Service examinations and occupational tests

Recommendations

1.1. Independent, impartial and de-politicized public service should be ensured

through laws and management procedures. Following are recommended for
future reforms:

1.1.a An independent Public Service Commission should be created with institutional

and financial autonomy and adequate human resource capacity to manage and
monitor the public service. Policies on recruitment of public servants, transfers,
promotions and disciplinary actions should be decided by this independent
Commission. The Commission should be created through a Constitutional
provision and should be accountable to the parliament.

Members of the Public Service Commission should reflect the ethnic and gender
diversity of the country and should be appointed through a multi-party mechanism
consisting of members of Parliament.

The public should have the ability utilize this Commission to redress their issues
and grievances regarding the public service.

1.1.b Un-ethnical interference of governing or opposition political parties in the affairs

of public service for their party advantages should not be allowed.

1.1.c. A strict code of conduct should be introduced to all public officials in order to
maintain efficiency, effectiveness, impartiality and discipline in the public
service.

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Professional Processes

Policy Recommendation – 2: Human Resource and Recruitment Policy:

The notion of effective an state depends on an effective public sector. Some of the impediments
that have hindered professional government have been:

(a). The public sector had difficulty in recruiting talented persons as it could not compete
with the private sector or with NGOs
(b). The public sector faced severe skill shortage and not enough funds to train its
workforce
(c). Public sector employees faced severe wage compression and this influenced talented
executives to leave the public service

One of the biggest factors in the over-inflated and wasteful public service in Sri Lanka is the lack
of job descriptions and a professional demarcation of responsibilities to avoid duplication and
lack of clear, measurable tasks for officials. In any visit to most any government department an
observer can see that a large number of officers are idling while a few appear to be over-
burdened with work. Clearly, many of the positions within the public service as it is are un-
needed and should be abolished. For this, the functions of government departments and accurate
staffing structures, line management, duties and measurable performance based targets should be
developed and adhered to.

Another measure that has been suggested to improve the public service is to link officers'
prospects in the service to their performance in the various posts they held in the service. A
flawless performance evaluation system has to be evolved by the proposed Public Service
Commission. Recommendations from politicians should have no weight at all either for
promotions or transfers. Instances of misconduct should be dealt with swiftly and effectively by
initiating prompt disciplinary proceedings. Politicians should be debarred from interfering in
disciplinary proceedings.

Promoting a professional, merit-based and neutral civil service through the adoption of
performance management based systems that promote objective criteria in hiring and promotion;
equal opportunity for women and minority groups; and reform of wage and incentive structures
that are also hinged on performance appraisals that include feedback from the public on the
quality of services provided.

The establishment of merit based recruitment, training, placement and remuneration policies are
important in producing efficient administrative system. Since the second half of the 19th century
political interference was identified as a danger to the merit based personnel administration
system. Hence politicization of bureaucracy has long been recognized as an anathema to
responsive governance. If the merit system is abused by political or societal vested interests the

9
ultimate outcome would be the decline in quality of service delivery. If the public service is
corrupt; lethargic; inefficient; or biased when they deliver services no one could say that rule of
law is respected in the governing process.

Sri Lanka is burdened with one of the largest public services in Asia. The last attempt reform
came after the Report of the Administrative Reform Committee headed by Mr. Shelton
Wanasinghe recommended a 'lean public service with a fat salary.' The miscalculated, infamous
Public Administration Circular in 1990 resulted in a large number of capable and competent
public officers retiring from the public sector. It was mostly the experienced and the more
capable who left hoping to join the private sector. This led to a further deterioration of the public
service. A more effective reform to rid the service of redundant staff would include a properly
devised voluntary retirement scheme would be implemented followed by a better wage structure
and the provision of necessary resources to motivate those remaining in service to perform
better.

Training

Strengthening transparency and accountability within the civil service can be achieved through
the development of specific anti-corruption legislation and codes of conduct; and through
independent mechanisms for oversight, monitoring and enforcement, such as the Ombudsman
and Office of the Auditor General and training of civil servants about best practices for
effectively delivering public services to the people, and especially to women and the poor.

Training of officers in human rights, non-discrimination, international and domestic laws relating
to human rights and the duties of the state as well as functions specific to their duties is essential
to bring about enhanced professionalism in the service. As such, in-house training should be
institutionalized and key areas rolled out including information technology, management skills,
customer service, financial accounting, human relations, team building, impact assessments and
other topics.

Creating an institution such as a National School of Public Policy with a standardized curriculum
and resources could include mandatory training for all new recruits as well as standard packages
for ongoing training throughout the career of the public official.

Diversity and Proficiency within the Public Service

Equity refers, in the public administration, to fairness in terms of social groupings that are
suffering from inherent social and economic inequalities. As such the task of public
administration is not just delivering public goods and services in a fair and reasonable manner
but also to address separately the needs of the weakest sections in the society such as poor,
marginalized communities, people with disabilities, elders, children and women.

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Promoting diversity in the public service is important for two reasons- it will foster a greater
sense that the public service is inclusive and ‘for all’, and it will enhance the quality of services
that a diverse staff can provide- for example increasing minority and minority linguistic
representation would reduce the sense of disconnection between minority communities and their
public service. Lack of language capacity and capacity to deal with people who live with a
disability deepens the disenfranchisement of people whose rights and needs the State has an
obligation to provide for that is the same as their obligation to people who can easily access
services. Recruitment and training and promotion policies must be reformulated to prioritize the
service’s capacity to cater to citizens who have traditionally been excluded.

The Official Languages Policy and subsequent directives states that public officials must have
dual language capacity, naming 29 bi-lingual DS Divisions wherein the public institutions are
required to provide services catering to both Tamil and Sinhala speaking communities.
Proficiency in the second language is a mandatory criteria for promotions. Non-implementation
of existing laws relating to the official languages in the public service continue to impede
equitable access to rights and services in the country. Measures to ensure that the Policy is
implemented in service providing institutions must be institutionalized and enforced.

Accountability Culture

Accountability means that those who hold office in government act responsibly, render account
of and are answerable for their acts of commission or omission. Accountability without
enforcement is meaningless. The absence of modern management accountability techniques in
the public service in Sri Lanka stems in large part to the weak controls resulting from inadequate
separation of duties and functions. The absence of strong internal controls and clearly defined
criteria form line management create a lacuna in accountability. While external bodies such as
the Human Rights Commission, Ombudsman, Bribery Commission and Official Languages
Commission all exist in theory to increase accountability, these institutions depend solely on
reports from the public and often have little impact within the administrative service- mainly due
to lack of political will to make findings enforceable. Strong regulation of officers to make them
accountable through strong protocols including regular performance appraisal and surprise
checks are all integral factors that should be included in attempts to bring about real reform.

Recommendations

2.1. Proper human resource policies should be created for all levels of public service.

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 2.2. Proper job descriptions and recruitment criteria should be drafted by the Public
Service Commission to all levels of public servants and monitored the
implementation of these policies.

2.3. Recruitment of public servants should be done free of party political influence and
other corrupt practices. Recruitment of public servants should reflect ethnic,
gender and regional diversity.

2.4. Fluency in Sinhala and Tamil languages should be made compulsory for future
recruitment of public servants of all levels.

2.5. Politically motivated appointments of public servants should be prevented in the

future. If any political appointments are to be made to the public service, persons
with suitable qualification and experience relevant to the posts should be ensured.
Very strict criteria should be prepared and observed for all political appointments.

Policy Recommendation – 3: Efficiency, Effectiveness and non-discriminatory Public

Service

In the science of administration, whether public or private, the basic ‘good’ is efficiency. The
fundamental objective of administration is ‘least expenditure of manpower and materials’.
Efficiency in the Public Sector mostly refers to the minimization of costs. Efficiency and
effectiveness combine to ensure that outcomes in quantitative and qualitative terms. While
efficiency is essential to achieve outcomes, the question of how meaningful the outcomes are can
shape how effective the work of an institution actually is. In order to ensure that efficiency is
beneficial it is necessary to add a dimension of effectiveness.

Streamlining

Lack of clear objectives, absence of clearly defined job descriptions for a streamlined service,
lack of accountability to targets, lack of internal controls and enforceability and a break down in
effective communication between government institutions, leading to duplication of work and
expenditure have all impacted on the efficiency and effectiveness of the public service. The
duplication of government institutions in the center and at the provinces consequent to the 13th
Amendment to the Constitution, must be avoided and there is an urgent need to rationalize and
close down many such institutions. What the 13th Amendment sought to do was to devolve and
not to duplicate. The proliferation of ministers has also led to a series of negative outcomes such
as splintering of sectoral responsibilities and development concerns, not to mention the huge
drain on resources.

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Public Opinion

In a survey led by Professor Navaratne Bandara of public offices in the country, the findings
showed that the widespread perception was that treatment of the public was inequitable and
inefficient (see full report annex 3). Though people found it very difficult to get their matters
attended to, they also did not feel that they could do anything about it. Some have pointed out
that if the government introduces impartial complaint machinery and redress mechanism the
public would have a better prospect of getting their work done.

It has been argued that to act in an effective and responsive manner in a complex and
multicultural society, government services should represent the microcosm of the total
population. Issues faced in Sri Lanka include discrimination and exclusion based on

 Ethnicity
 Language
 Religion
 Ethnic Origin/Indigenous
 Political Party affiliations
 Physical abilities

Public administration as the executive arm of the government has a greater responsibility in
guaranteeing the citizenship rights. As the citizenship rights perspective identified the state as
the “Duty-Bearer” the state obligations to these rights become the moral and legal
responsibilities of the agents of state, namely, the public officers. Most of the functions related
to the rule of law as identified in the previous section such as procedural accountability, legality,
complaint and redress and Inquiry and responsibility are to be complied with the claims of
citizens to share public offices through decision making, decision implementation and access to
the services delivered by these public offices.

Where inability to access services of a government institution based on any of the above factors
takes place, the State is effectively failing in its obligation to uphold the rights of its citizens, as
outlined within all of the International declarations and human rights instruments. Sri Lanka,
being a signatory to all of the major human rights instruments is also obliged to fulfill its
obligations to all of its citizens.

According to a survey of public institutions carried out in 2007 by the Social Indicators, minority
linguistic communities find it virtually impossible to transact with government offices in areas
where the other language is the primary language of administration. Tamil people in mainly
Sinhala staffed offices cannot communicate with staff or fill out forms in Sinhala. The same
problem applied to Sinhalese people in predominantly Tamil areas. This is despite the
requirement that all public servants in Sri Lanka should have dual language capacity, that forms

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should be provided in three languages (English, Sinhala and Tamil). Similarly, people with
disabilities are not adequately catered to by government offices- physical access to government
buildings and assistance geared to the needs of people with disabilities (blind, deaf and
differently abled individuals) is integral to ensure full access to all people. Discriminatory
attitudes of public officials, religious and cultural norms and biases based on political affiliations
of officers are all factors that need to be addressed to ensure that services the state is obliged to
provide can be accessed freely and equitably by all. This hinges in large part on training and
awareness raising of public servants, as well as diversifying the composition of the public
service.

Complaint and Redress

Article 3 of the Constitution declares that “In the Republic of Sri Lanka sovereignty is in the
People and is inalienable. Sovereignty includes the powers of government, fundamental rights
and the franchise.” Article 126 of the constitution declares that “…the Supreme Court shall have
sole and exclusive jurisdiction to hear and determine any question relating to the infringement or
imminent infringement by executive or administrative action of any fundamental right or
language right declared and recognized by chapter III and chapter IV.” Therefore the member of
any governmental organization, especially the members of public service could be tried at the
highest court of the country. The people have a legal entitlement to file complaints, express their
grievances and seek redress and compensation against the administrative decisions violating their
rights.

Citizens must be capable of filing a complaint, expressing their grievances and seeking redress or
compensation with regard to public decisions; thus the decisions of public administration to be
subjected to the investigations and inquiries by the public bodies represented by the people; the
establishment of public complaint and redress procedures become an important element to be
included with the work process of public administration; as such institutional mechanisms such
as OMBUDSMAN, National Human Rights Commission, Judiciary and administrative tribunals
become essential requirements of the administrative system. An effectively functioning Public
Service Commission could be a central focus for the lodging and addressing of complaints and
issues from the public. This system would be linked to disciplinary, promotion and dismissal
policies that would also fall under the ambit of the Commission.

Recall of Officials

The agents taking administrative decisions and providing public services must be capable of
being examined and held responsible for their actions or non actions; thus the actions of
members of the public administration must be regulated by rules and regulations in order to
make their decisions transparent. Mechanisms to recall public officials who are not performing
their duties effectively are an important accountability measure. In countries such as Switzerland

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and the United States, citizens have the right to recall elected officials via petition. Similarly,
mechanisms to recall officials through a clearly defined process that can be executed by an
independent and impartial authority would enhance direct accountability. Additionally, by
having clearly defined modalities for recall, there would be less room for arbitrary and politically
motivated dismissals of officials.

Salaries

In the Appropriation Bill (the Government Budget) presented to the Parliament for 2009 the
government has allocated Rs.66,402 million for the salaries of the employees in the General
Public Service (if we add the enrolments of employees in the Foreign Service this total goes up
to Rs.155,381 million). However, the general feeling in the society is that the country’s
administrative systems is unproductive, inefficient and not up to the standards hence a burden for
the tax payer.

A major study conducted by the International Monetary Fund found clear-cut relation between
public sector salaries and the level of corruption in a country. The study estimated that wages in
the government relative to the salaries in the manufacturing sector needed to be increased by 2.8-
7.4 to eliminate corruption in the public sector. However money is not the only contributory
factor in the creation of a corrupt public service. The adherence to the rule of law by the public
service has been identified as one of the factors that contribute to the public sector corruption. It
is well known fact that in the countries where the rule of law is not well established the public
service is not undertaking their job according the law.

Singapore is one of the countries which increased salaries of officials to control corruption. The
Singapore government successfully eliminated the wage disparity between public and private
sectors. Under Margret Thatcher United Kingdom experienced similar reforms when the
Executive Agencies were established to deliver services to the public. The personnel in these
agencies were offered through service contracts increased monetary benefits including large
bonuses under depending on performance. In 1999 South Korea introduced a public service
reform programme called “Open Competitive Position System” designed to recruit outstanding
talent from both the public and private sectors. Presently nearly 20% of the positions in the civil
service in every ministry are positions open to this competitive scheme.

As part of the reform of the public service, voluntary retirement schemes, pension reform and treatment of
government and private employees on equal footing are on the offing – this reform must be given priority
to ensure that talented, diverse and commitment staff are recruited and retained. Ongoing training and
capacity building must also be given priority both to improve the quality of the services offered to the
public and to ensure retention of the best and brightest to the public service.

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Citizens Charters

The lack of clarity of mission, goals and strategy of government organizations leads to massive
inefficiency. This can be improved through training of officers and defining goals and job
descriptions. Ultimately, however, both public officials and the public should have a clear
understanding of their goals and functions.

The most publicized recent reform process is called New Public Management (NPM). These
reforms started in Britain and the United States in the 1980s and later moved to other countries.
NPM has come with a wide range of reforms from which the public service may choose to
reduce bureaucracy. The main elements of NPM are geared towards restructuring the public
sector in order to introduce competition, better financial management and performance
evaluation based service delivery system.

One of the social outcomes of the NPM process was to introduction of Citizen Charters. The
term ‘Citizen’ in the Citizen’s Charter implies the clients or customers whose interests and
values are addressed by the Citizen’s Charter and, therefore, includes not only the citizens but
also all the stakeholders. The Citizen’s Charter is a bond of honor between the public service
and citizens and safeguards the right of citizens to enjoy quality and high-standard services. At
the same time, it helps make public servants feel satisfaction for the services they provide to the
public. The Citizen’s Charter is not legally enforceable. However, it is a tool for facilitating the
delivery of services to citizens with specified standards. The main objective of Citizen's Charter
is to improve the quality of its public services. On the basis of the Citizen’s Charter, public
services are obliged:

 to inform the public in detail on the kind of services they provide

 to define and publicize standards of services
 to be easily accessible and friendly to the citizen and to provide adequate information
 to explain the options afforded and give correct advice to the public
 to be courteous and forthcoming in providing services and to rectify mistakes

The Citizen’s Charter is not a document which contains only theoretical and general principles
and aims. On the contrary, it contains specific provisions and sets out specific obligations for the
public services, e.g. the period of time within which the department has the obligation to reply,
the type of information to be given etc. A Citizens' Charter represents the commitment of the
organization towards standard, quality and time frame of service delivery, grievance redress
mechanism, transparency and accountability.

E-Government
A recent UN study noted that 89% of world governments are using the internet to provide
information and/or services. The states using the internet have been categorized into three

16
groups. The first group included with the governments using internet sites to offer political
information about the leadership of the country. The second group is using the internet to attract
non-citizens to invest in the country. The third group is called interactive. They offer citizens
services through internet by allowing them to download forms and request information from the
government. The third categories of countries are the states that had adopted IT to reduce costs
and increase the quality of services offered to citizens. Singapore is the pioneer in establishing
E-Citizen Portal as a single gateway to government service. The Canadian government is world
leader in interactive government and has increased the citizen’s input and access to official
decision making using E-Government.

Recommendations

3.1 Enhanced salary, housing or housing loans, cost of living allowances and
retirement benefits should be ensured for all public servants.

3.2 Information on services and procedures of all public institutions should be

displayed visibly for public to create awareness on the functioning of all public
institutions.

3.3 Non-discriminatory delivery of services of all public institutions based on

ethnicity, language, gender, social status, political affiliation or disability should
be enforced through laws and empowering public.

3.4 Dual language capacity (Sinhala and Tamil) should be ensured in all public
institutions throughout the country in-line with the Official Languages Policy.

3.5 All public institutions should prepare their institutional charters spelling out the
service provided and the time frame to complete various requests from the public
and the redress mechanism to address the grievances of the public.

3.6 Professional Training Institutes to train public official of all levels should be
established and it should be made mandatory to be trained from these institutes
before being appointed to state offices.

3.7 Expanded opportunities should be made available through universities to produce

graduates in Public Administration

3.8 The use of information and communication technology should be increased; at

least where appropriate and where there are high demands.

17
 3.9 A system of performance monitoring should be introduced to all public service
and efficient and effective performances should be recognized and rewarded
annually.

3.10 A system to recall the errant public officials should be introduced.

Conclusion

The key obligations of the public administration are to implement public policy and to provide
services to the public, to which they are entitled. To do this effectively and efficiently, the
government service must be streamlined, accountable and well-trained. They must also work
with integrity and transparency. Enforceable standards must be articulated, as a first step to
reform. Beyond this, enforcing mechanisms and political will be crucial.

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 Annex 1

International Code of Conduct for Public Officials

I. GENERAL PRINCIPLES

1. A public office, as defined by national law, is a position of trust, implying a duty to act in
the public interest. Therefore, the ultimate loyalty of public officials shall be to the public
interests of their country as expressed through the democratic institutions of government.

2. Public officials shall ensure that they perform their duties and functions efficiently,
effectively and with integrity, in accordance with laws or administrative policies. They shall at
all times seek to ensure that public resources for which they are responsible are administered in
the most effective and efficient manner.

3. Public officials shall be attentive, fair and impartial in the

performance of their functions and, in particular, in their relations with the public. They shall at
no time afford any undue preferential treatment to any group or individual or improperly
discriminate against any group or individual, or otherwise abuse the power and authority vested
in them.

II. CONFLICT OF INTEREST AND DISQUALIFICATION

4. Public officials shall not use their official authority for the improper advancement of their
own or their family's personal or financial interest. They shall not engage in any transaction,
acquire any position or function or have any financial, commercial or other comparable interest
that is incompatible with their office, functions and duties or the discharge thereof.

5. Public officials, to the extent required by their position, shall, in accordance with laws or
administrative policies, declare business, commercial and financial interests or activities
undertaken for financial gain that may raise a possible conflict of interest. In situations of
possible or perceived conflict of interest between the duties and private interests of public
officials, they shall comply with the measures established to reduce or eliminate such conflict of
interest.

6. Public officials shall at no time improperly use public moneys, property, services or
information that is acquired in the performance of, or as a result of, their official duties for
activities not related to their official work.

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7. Public officials shall comply with measures established by law or by administrative policies
in order that after leaving their official positions they will not take improper advantage of their
previous office.

III. DISCLOSURE OF ASSETS

8. Public officials shall, in accord with their position and as permitted or required by law and
administrative policies, comply with requirements to declare or to disclose personal assets and
liabilities, as well as, if possible, those of their spouses and/or dependants.

IV. ACCEPTANCE OF GIFTS OR OTHER FAVOURS

9. Public officials shall not solicit or receive directly or indirectly any gift or other favour that
may influence the exercise of their functions, the performance of their duties or their judgement.

V. CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION

10. Matters of a confidential nature in the possession of public officials shall be kept
confidential unless national legislation, the performance of duty or the needs of justice strictly
require otherwise. Such restrictions shall also apply after separation from service.

VI. POLITICAL ACTIVITY

11. The political or other activity of public officials outside the scope of their office shall, in
accordance with laws and administrative policies, not be such as to impair public confidence in
the impartial performance of their functions and duties.

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 Annex 2

THE SEVEN PRINCIPLES OF PUBLIC LIFE

Selflessness

Holders of public office should act solely in terms of the public interest. They should not do so in
order to gain financial or other benefits for themselves, their family or their friends.

Integrity

Holders of public office should not place themselves under any financial or other obligation to
outside individuals or organisations that might seek to influence them in the performance of their
official duties.

Objectivity

In carrying out public business, including making public appointments, awarding contracts, or
recommending individuals for rewards and benefits, holders of public office should make
choices on merit.

Accountability

Holders of public office are accountable for their decisions and actions to the public and must
submit themselves to whatever scrutiny is appropriate to their office.

Openness

Holders of public office should be as open as possible about all the decisions and actions that
they take. They should give reasons for their decisions and restrict information only when the
wider public interest clearly demands.

Honesty

Holders of public office have a duty to declare any private interests relating to their public duties
and to take steps to resolve any conflicts arising in a way that protects the public interest.

Leadership

Holders of public office should promote and support these principles by leadership and example.

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22
 Annex 3

CITIZENS’ RIGHT TO EFFICIENT, EFFECTIVE AND RESPONSIVE GOVERNANCE

AN EXAMINATION OF THE ROLE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION IN MODERN STATE

AND AN OVERVIEW OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION IN SRI LANKA

By Prof. A.M. Navaratna Bandara*

1 – INTRODUCTION - GOVERNANCE AND PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

1.1 Prelude
Governance has been defined in the social science literature as the process through which the
government conveys its laws and policy decisions to the society. According to these
interpretations governance occurs at least in three broad ways: through networks involving
public and private sectors partnership; through the use of market; and through the public
administration. The present report, concerns the public administration which plays a crucial role
in the process of governance.

Wide spectrums of activities are taken place within the public administration when translating
the laws and policies made by the legislative, executive and judicial branches of government into
action. The public administration of a country is the business-end of government through which
the costs and benefits are measured for the efficient and effective use of public resources in
implementing the public policies and laws. It is the delivery point from which the people receive
public goods and services produced by these policies and laws.

In modern democratic governments the members of public administration are accountable to the
citizens of the country and obliged to serve them efficiently, effectively and economically with
entrepreneurial skills. “This is derived from the intellectual foundation that is based on the
concept of ‘public’ which represents the citizens. For its material or financial existence the
public administration depends on citizens as taxpayers” (M. Shamsul Haque, Relationship
between citizenship and Public Administration: Reconfiguration”, International Review of
Administrative Sciences, SAGE Publication, 1999, Vol. 65(3)309-325, p.325). The practical
obligation of the public administration is the realization of the needs and expectations of citizens.
“Hence the essence of public administration lies in the principles of citizenship. In democratic
societies, it is the unique relationship of public administration with citizens that maintains its

 This study was conducted for the National Democratic Institute to facilitate informed policy dialogue on the Right
to Efficient, Effective, Responsive and Accountable Governance
* Professor of Political Science, University of Predeniya

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public identity, reinforces its legitimacy, sets its ethical standards, determines its roles and duties
and distinguishes it from business management in the private sector” (Ibid.).

The work of public administration is experienced by the thousands of people who make daily
visits to the administrative organizations of the state. Most of them are visiting these places to
receive the public goods and public services for which they have paid through taxation. Apart
from that the citizens who participate in market activities and non-profit ventures also experience
the actions of public administrations as they have to follow the rules imposed by these
administrators. Actually the actions and non-actions by these people in the public organizations
are crucial for making things happen in government. The political leadership through the
legislature and executive institutions “…may pass all the laws they wish but unless those laws
are administered effectively by the public administrators little or nothing will actually happen”
(B. Guy Peters and Jon Pierre, Introduction: The Role of Public Administration in Governing in
B. Guy Peters and Jon Pierre (eds.) Hand Book of Public Administration, SAGE, Los Angeles,
p.01).

There is “…a massive amount of administrative activities involved in facilitating laws” (Ibid)
and policies made by politicians into action and in delivering public programmes to citizens by
the public administration. As such some have identified public administration as the executive
arm of government. The traditional approaches to public administration argued that the public
administration as the executive arm of the government had to involve with all the tasks related to
the implementation of law and public policy. These traditional approaches to public
administration also highlighted the importance of setting of standards to the work of public
servants in order to provide equal treatment to the citizens as well as to reduce space for
maladministration. This so called “forward mapping” approach has produced more procedures
and controls on the work of street-level administrators who are responsible for translating laws
and policies into actions. The outcome of these approaches is anchoring the public
administration with formal organization called bureaucracy which gives first place to the
centralized decision making and top-down process of governance. As such these traditional
approaches have been criticized as rigid, inflexible, ineffective and unresponsive to the needs of
citizens. In recent years more society and citizen centered perspectives have been introduced
and we are now discerning beyond the traditional law and policy implementation perspectives.

In the 1970s an advocacy movement calling itself “New Public Administration (NPA) emerged
emphasizing the need of giving more freedom to the street level administrators to take decisions
to meet the demands of poor and minorities who were not accommodate in the decisions taken at
the power centers. The movement blamed the existing system for giving pre-eminence to the
well-being of the organization and not to the well-being of the people at the receiving-end of the
system.

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Since 1980s we have been experiencing another reform movement which emphasizes on the
management of resources, performance appraisals, responsive governance and citizen
participation. This movement was called New Public Management (NPM). It has been proposed
to restore the legitimacy and effectiveness of government. Central to the NPM is an emphasis on
performance and greater responsiveness to citizens and their needs. Hence citizenship has a pre-
eminent place in the present day administrative governance.

According to T.H. Marshal, one of the pioneers in studying the changing perspectives of
citizenship in the modern era “…citizenship as a status bestowed on those who are full members
of community” envisages “equal status for all the citizens with respect to the rights and duties”
(Quoted in Ruth Lister, Citizenship: Towards a feminist synthesis, Feminist Review, No.57,
Autumn, 1997, pp.28-48, p.27). The modern citizenship envisages participation in the
government decision-making for every citizen of the country and the right to equitable access to
the services offered in government. The public administration system and its members employed
by the state, utilizing huge chunk of the tax money collected from the citizens have a
responsibility to provide quality service to the latter.

Jane Erik-Lane, one of the authorities in the modern “state management” has named the modern
state as a “workfare state’ ((Jan-Erik Lane, State Management, Routledge, London, 2009,
pp.118-121) because of the present day state’s involvement in vast amount of public work in
order to fulfill the “social objectives”. The ultimate outcome of this broadening of state activities
is compelling the delivery centres handled by the public administrators to accommodate focuses
such as citizens’ rights, good governance, human rights and human security in their work
practices.

In Sri Lanka the political debate has been around the constitutional reforms since late 1980s.
There is a tendency among the public as well as the opinion makers to equate politics with
dramatic events such as elections and conflicts between different political groupings. One of the
lacunas in these debates is the role played by the public administration in the process of
governing. The only exception was the 17th amendment to the constitution passed in 2001 in
which an attempt had been made to rescue public administration from political interference.
However, the drive towards the passing of this piece of legislation was not taken with a pro-
citizenship perspective.

At present we have 225 members in the national parliament. If all the members of other
representative institutions in the country added to this number the total does not exceed even
2000. On the other hand in the public administration more than 800,000 employees are working
for the government. Majority of them are street-level bureaucrats, meaning, public officers
serving in the institutions that deliver public goods and services to the people. These street level
people are serving in the District and Divisional Secretariats, Grama Niladhari Offices, Police

25
Stations, Schools and Field offices of the departments belonged to the central, provincial and
local level governments.

In the Appropriation Bill (the Government Budget) presented to the Parliament for 2009 the
government has allocated Rs.66,402 million for the salaries of the employees in the General
Public Service (if we add the enrolments of employees in the Foreign Service this total goes up
to Rs.155,381 million). However, the general feeling in the society is that the country’s
administrative systems is unproductive, inefficient and not up to the standards hence a burden for
the tax payer. These complaints or perceptions of the public are sometimes based on the
opinions of others or their own affective orientations which they have developed in their life time
in relation to their personal experience. Some of these weaknesses are systemic and thus related
to the formal structures necessitated by the principles governing the modern system of
government. Some are emanating from the cultural context we all are associated with.

Therefore it is our view that the general public as the citizens of this country must be educated on
the main currents attached to the administrative process of the country as well as the historical
and international experiences related to public sector management to have an objective
assessment of these perceptions.

1.2 THE ARRANGENMENT OF THE REPORT

This report is written to facilitate a public dialogue on the rights perspectives as identified in the
previous section. The report offers information and discussions useful to the general public to
understand:
(a). the nature and scope of the public administration in the modern state, the best practices
developed in other countries for the delivery of public services and global standards adopted by
the international institutions for the public administrative system of the modern state focusing on
citizens’ rights
(b). the system of public administration in Sri Lanka focusing on the historical settings (inclusive
of both colonial and post-colonial experiences), the constitutional, administrative and political
framework in which the system has to operate, the issues relating to the establishment of
citizenship based governance system in Sri Lanka, and
(c). the formal and informal processes of the administrative delivery system in Sri Lanka
focusing on the field study conducted by the authors of this report as well as the related studies
done by others recently.

The report is divided into three sections. The section one presents an overview of the role of
public administration in the modern state and the recent reforms implemented in other countries
which provide best practices of delivering public services as well as the international standards
related to the public administrative systems. The section two presents an overview of the public
administrative system in Sri Lanka, and the constitutional provisions related to the public
administrative delivery system in Sri Lanka. The section three contains two chapters. First

26
chapter is based on the information gathered from the field survey conducted during July-August
2009. It focuses on the peoples’ perception based on their affective-orientation towards the
public administration and the formal as well as informal processes attached to the delivery
system. The last chapter surveys definitions of the thematic focuses of the report, namely,
efficiency, effectiveness, equity and responsiveness. It will lead a discussion on the rights
perspective attached to these value outcomes.

SECTION –1

2 – ROLE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION IN MODERN STATE

2.1 INTRODUCTION
Administration is “an activity concerned with getting things done” (Luther Gullick, see M.P.
Sharma, Public Administration in Theory and Practice, Kitab Mahal, Allahabad, p.37). It is
basically an act of management that involves with planning, organizing, staffing, directing,
coordinating, recording and budgeting activities of an institution. The state institutions which
undertake these managerial activities are placed under the leadership of political executive and
they are called public administrators.

However, the most important function assigned to the administrators in the modern government
is “systematic and detailed implementation of public law and public policy as decided by a
competent authority” (Leonard White, Quoted in Ibid., p.36). Since the public policy making is
targeted at the public problems which are beyond the efforts of individual in society the public
administrators as the implementers of public policy must fulfill the objectives of these policies
by delivering the expected goods and services to the people equally, ensuring equitable
distribution among them. In the administrative theory and practice developed with the
advancement of popular democracy it was accepted that the public administration must be
carried out by the professional and politically neutral administrators. The principle of politically
neutrality was advocated on the ground that the position of the public official should be
organized as a “Public Trust” and the implementation of public policy required certain
“technical” and “business” skills that should be handled without political or any other divisive
considerations. The notion of non-political administrator later became popular acceptance
recognizing it as a necessary pre-condition for the success of democratic governance. The
improvement of technical and business capacities in the public administration has been accepted
even today as the most important criterion of measuring success of democracy as it facilitates
efficient and effective use of public resources and energies to deliver quality service to the
people.

2.2 NATURE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

Although the above managerial activities are common to the public, private and non-profit
sectors the things to be administered by the administrative organizations of the state are different

27
from those of private or non-profit organizations. The task of public administration could be
better understood if we compare the nature of public and private sectors.

The administrative organizations belonged to the state have to operate within a political
environment while the organizations belonged to private sector operating with the market.
Consequently there are marked differences between the functions of the public administration
and the business administration. The administrative organizations belonging to the private sector
are functioning with competitive partners and basically deal with the economics. On the other
hand the administrative organizations of the State are monopolistic and basically deal with
politics. These differences may be attributed to the fundamentals affixed to the State which is a
political entity and a territorially based organization that exercises the supreme authority over the
individuals and the organizations within its territory by monopolizing the use of violence. It
sometimes goes beyond the democratic norms and takes actions which may be imperative for the
maintenance of its authority in the political society. These basic political characteristics of
nation state have not diminished in the current era though we have developed democratic norms
and global constrains to contain the repressive roles played by the state. As such in the era of
globalization of democratic norms one of the most crucial issues related to the public
administration is how we organize the administrative system to serve public goods and promote
public interest while serving the state to impose its authority over the population.

2.3 The crucial issue areas of public sector management

Jane-Erik Lane, one of the authorities on modern public management, in his most recent analysis
of public sector management and administration argues that the modern state has become a
“workfare state” and the functions assigned to its administrative arm are delivering of public
services, paying for social security and respecting the rule of law(2009, p.i). He identifies the
following aspects in order to locate the crucial functional areas to be attended to by the
contemporary state administration (descriptions and the last two points are added):
1. Imposition of public regulations - the crucial issue is how to offer efficient service to the
people while maintaining this regulatory environment;
2. Relationship between the law and the state – the crucial issue is how to impose law of the
land in the best interests of the people;
3. Combining ecology and policy-making – the crucial issue is how to keep a balance
between the natural resources and the development objectives (however, the crucial issue
in the developing world is how to safeguard the integrity of administrative system from
the forces that are inherent to the most dynamic aspects of the ecology that are social
forces which influence the system to deviate from standard practices in favour of their
vested interests);
4. Multi-level governance – the crucial issue is allocation of power and resources among the
different levels of government and how to distribute the public goods and services
resulting from that allocation through the public administration reaching the remote and
marginalized corners of society;

28
 5. Public, private and NGO partnership – the crucial issue is how to persuade the private
and NGO sectors to support the government organizations in providing services which
cannot be totally handed over to the private sector or to the NGOs;
6. Policy implementation – the crucial issue is how policy making would accommodate the
different interests represented in the different layers in the policy net-works in society;
7. Serving the citizens – the crucial issue is how to fulfill the role of government in
protecting and fulfilling citizen’s rights categorized into civil, political, social, economic
and cultural;
8. Protection of the human and fundamental rights of people – this is the key measuring
instrument to be used in assessing each of the issue areas named above.

2.4 MAJOR ROLES TO BE PLAYED BY THE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

The above issues could be understood in relation to the different roles to be played by the public
administrative system of a country. These roles are associated with the following:
1. Enforcement of power and authority of the State – it is the administrative
organization that has to impose the will of the state by implementing the laws passed
by the state institutions using both cohesive and integrative powers, fostering the rule
of law principle.
2. Custodian of State Resources – as the Custodian of State Resources the key
responsibility is to defy the political and other societal pressures to misuse public
resources.
3. Policy Advising – the key responsibility is to help the society to enlarge the existing
conceptual map for the advancement of social, economic and technological
development of the country through advising the ministers on matters relating to
policy formulation.
4. Executive Arm of the government – the public administration system is the arm of the
government which implement laws passed by the legislators and execute the public
policies, programmes and plans as decided by the political executive thus the key
responsibility is not just making them more clearer but also to identify detailed
implementation with the technical perfection attached to the delivery of their outputs.
5. Resources management – the public administration system is responsible for handling
human and material resources belong to the State efficiently, effectively and
economically thus the key responsibility is to economize the use of resources
focusing on cost-benefits, value of money and finally the lessening of the burden of
tax-payers.
6. Service Delivery of the government – it is the public administration system which
deliver public services that have social objectives thereby cannot be administered by
the private sector and difficult to handled even by the organized efforts of civil
society thus the key responsibility is to serve the citizens responding to their demands
efficiently and diligently.

29
 7. Mediator of public interests – the public administration system has to “go between”
the state and the private and NGO sectors and build partnership for delivering
services required by the society.

When examine the key responsibilities attached to these different roles it is not difficult to
understand the complexities surrounded with the public administrative system of a country and
also the several Principals to be served by the public administrative system. If we apply the
modern Principal-Agent approach the members of public administration system have four
Principals to serve, namely, the State, the government, the society and the individual citizen.
However the most crucial question today is how does public administration get these different
jobs done for these different Principals while providing a better service to the citizen who is the
most important principal actor? In this regard we have two main perspectives to look at the
public administration in modern government. They are the rule of law principle and the modern
conception of citizenship.

2.5 RULE OF LAW AND THE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

The issues of public policy and citizenship cannot be solved on the assumption that a
government exist only to serve public goods or promote public interest. Although in the modern
era the government has been functioning as an institution of policy making in order to organize
the efficient use of energies available for the society it cannot avoid the most primordial function
of the government, that is to protect and enforce the sovereignty of state. However, at present
this function is closely link to the rule of law principle as the people have been recognized as the
source of power of the state.

Rule of law is an essential element in modern government. Constitutional democracy cannot

function properly without it. Even the regimes which are not following democratic governance
maintain some sort of rule of law framework. There are certain rules of law requirements that
have to be followed by the public administration. These requirements restrain the activities of
public administration to certain extent to certain extent thereby making the formal structure or
bureaucracy an essential requirement for its actions.

Following are some important requirements that are to be adhered by the public administration
for the imposition of rule of law (adopted from Jane-Erik Lane, p.05):
(a). Procedural accountability: meaning that the administrative decisions must be taken in
accordance with established and known procedures; thus public administration cannot work
thorough informal organizations; it needs a formal structure and any deviation must be within the
accountability procedures within the formal structure; thus the tendency to reduce the service
delivery process to rule following exercise is unavoidable

(b). Legality: meaning that the administrative decisions must follow the law of the country that
either permits or oblige the state administration to act; thus the most important aspect is law of

30
the country; hence Constitution and Acts of Parliament have a role to play in organizing the
services offered to the people; any lacuna in the law might give more freedom to the
administrators to use their discretion which is a requirement for the public servants to do their
job perfectly; then the benevolence administrators are essential to offer efficient public service
to the people

(c). Complaint and redress: administrative decisions must be capable of filing a complaint,
expressing their grievances and seeking redress or compensation; thus the decisions of public
administration to be subjected to the investigations and inquiries by the public bodies represented
by the people; the establishment of public complaint and redress procedures become most
important element to be included with the work process of public administration; as such
institutional mechanisms such as OMBUDSMAN, National Human Rights Commission,
Judiciary and administrative tribunals become essential requirements of the administrative
system
(d). Inquiry and responsibility: the agents taking administrative decisions and providing public
services must be capable of being examined and held responsible for their actions or non actions;
thus the actions of members of the public administration must be regulated by rules and
regulations in order to make their decisions transparent.

2.6 CITIZENSHIP AND PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

The philosopher Aristotle in the 4th century BC stated in his ‘Politics' that “a citizen is not a
citizen because he lives in a certain place, for resident aliens and slaves share in the place”
(Aristotle, Politics c340 BCC, Book III, Internet Ancient History Source Book). Rather, he went
on to say, the special characteristic of a citizen is that he “shares in the administration of justice,
and in [public] offices (Ibid.).” Aristotle's definition leads to the conclusion that a citizenship
status is fully realized when the citizens become an active participants of decision making in the
public service and also the recipients of social rewards deriving from that participation.

The difference between Aristotle’s “Athenian citizenship” and the modern citizenship is that the
modern citizenship is a universal legal entitlement of all legitimate residents of the State. At
least in theory, it transcends class and other social differentiation patterns. It offers national
identity common to all the legitimate residents of the state territory on the basis of the common
citizenship. In addition it is embedded with certain political, economic, civil, social and cultural
rights. This redefinition of citizenship was not spontaneous. It occurred due to the spread of free
market, industrialization, modernity, information technology, global values of good governance
and human rights. The social movements that followed the ideological streams of liberalism and
socialism and the emergence of an international system promoting human rights also contributed
to this redefinition of citizenship.

31
As such the modern citizenship is closely associated with rights of citizens. Citizenship rights
initially identified with political, civil and social rights. “Political rights include the right to vote
and secret ballot, right to hold positions in government etc. Civil rights include freedom of
speech, religion and assembly. Basically civil rights are meant to protect the citizens’ civil life
from the state power; political rights provide the citizens degree of control over the State; and
social rights are the entitlements of citizens to be protected by the government. Social rights by
definition are group rights and envisage minimum standards of health and welfare, including
health and unemployment insurance, public pensions and social services for individual citizens”
(see Bart van Steenbergen, The Condition of Citizenship, SAGE Publication Ltd., London,
pp.02-03). Since the social rights help to build a social life of citizens the state has to play a
proactive role.

In the second part of the 20th century economic rights were added to the citizen’s rights
discourse. They have created two different ways to enjoy the citizens’ rights. Since the
delivering of economic rights is associated with the market the citizen has to become an
economic man in order to secure his or her economic rights. On the other hand citizen has to
become a political man to deal with the state’s obligation of civil, political and economic rights.
Although the economic man attempts to maximize his/her interest in the market the political man
cannot maximize his/her private interest as the state is responsible for the maximization of public
interests. Thus the State has to play different roles in the two spheres.

The political and civil rights are negative rights, meaning, they seek from the state not to obstruct
the enjoyment of these rights but respect and protect them. Contrary to that the social and
economic rights are positive rights, meaning, they seek from the state to play a proactive role.
The social rights are claims of citizens from the state. In order to guarantee the economic rights
the state must facilitate the market to do the job and build partnerships with the Private and the
non-profit sectors. On the other hand State should empower the citizen to deal with the market
forces and intervene in market failures.

The above examination on redefinition of citizenship in the modern era points to the fact that the
public administration as the executive arm of the government has a greater responsibility in
guaranteeing the citizenship rights. As the citizenship rights perspective identified the state as
the “Duty-Bearer” the state obligations to these rights become the moral and legal
responsibilities of the agents of state, namely, the public officers. Most of the functions related
to the rule of law as identified in the previous section such as procedural accountability, legality,
complaint and redress and Inquiry and responsibility are to be complied with the claims of
citizens to share public offices through decision making, decision implementation and access to
the services delivered by these public offices.

The transformation in the meaning of citizenship has influenced the governing institutions to
wedge it into the social fabric of the state. Consequently the citizenship became not just a

32
bundle of rights but a process by which citizens actually participate in governance. The
participation is essential for the citizens as the access to these rights are closely related to the
bargaining capacities of citizens. In this regard the formal arrangements in the governing
process for citizens to participate in the decision-making, decision-implementation and receiving
goods and services play a crucial role. The formal arrangements are included in the
constitutional provisions, administrative regulatory arrangements and the capacities provided for
the administrative organization.

Finally the public administration as the linkage point between the state and the citizens its
members cannot just rely on the formal system to do their job. They must assist the people to
achieve full citizenship by becoming an active partner in government as concerned and informed
citizens. This cannot be done unless they are ready to protect the peoples’ right to efficient,
effective and equitable governance. It is a proven fact that the street-level administrators have
certain discretion to re-interpret and reinvent the policies when they attend to the day to day
activities. Hence the culture of administrators, i.e. their attitudes, mindsets and commitment can
also play a role in shaping the way they implement the policies of government and delivery of
services to the citizens.

The general acceptance in the recent discourses on the role of public administration is that when
facilitating the citizens’ participation in the affairs of government the public administration must
accommodate such values as integrity, transparency and accountability in delivering services to
the people (Elia Armstrong, Integrity, Transparency and Accountability in Public
Administration: Recent Trends, Regional and International Development and Emerging Issues,
United Nations, 2005, p.01). Here “integrity refers to honesty, trustworthiness in the discharge
of official duties. They work against corruption and the abuse of office; transparency refers to
free access by the citizens to timely and reliable information on decisions taken and services
available in the administrative institution and the performance in the public sector; accountability
refers to the obligations on the part of public officials to report on the usage of public resources
and answerability for failing to meet stated performance objectives” (Ibid.).

The forgoing discussion has identified the crucial areas to be considered by the discussion on the
rights issues related to the public administration. In the next chapter we will be examining the
international standards and best practices in other countries with a particular focus on New
Public Management methods adopted.

3 - BEST DELIVERY PRACTICES IN OTHER COUNTRUES

3.1 INTRODUCTION
In the recent years many countries around the globe have attempted at reforms to improve the
service delivery and management performance in the public sector. These reforms aimed at the
establishment of administrative service which cost less for the citizens and serve them better with

33
business type management practices. The trend was to adopt as far as possible private sector
management practices to produce a customer friendly service delivery system as well as to focus
on value for money concept.

The most publicized recent reform process is called New Public Management (NPM). These
reforms started in Britain and the United States in the 1980s and later moved to other countries.
NPM has come with a wide range of reforms from which the public service may choose to
reduce bureaucracy. The main elements of NPM are geared towards restructuring the public
sector in order to introduce competition, better financial management and performance
evaluation based service delivery system. The objective is to produce smaller faster-moving
service delivery organizations that would be kept moving by the pressure of competition. But
their survival would not only depend on their financial and managerial performances but also on
the user responsiveness too. When the Information Technology Revolution emerged these
public service reforms were incorporated new dimension called E-Governance. This has created
proactive governance which made an attempt to offer citizens to reach and access to the public
service through electronic means.

The United Nations Organization is also involved in helping its members to improve the delivery
of services to the people. The United Nations established a Public Administration Network
Mission to promote the sharing of knowledge, experiences and best practices throughout the
world in sound public policies, effective public administration and efficient civil services. After
evaluating the recent reforms in the Commonwealth Countries one scholar has identified eight
subjects that can lead to better public service in the world, namely:
(1). Restructuring of the public service
(2). Reexamining the political/administrative interface
(3). Maintaining high ethical standards and an intolerance for corruption
(4). Reviewing the role and responsibilities of Public Service Commissions
(5). Consideration of the value and impact of performance standards
(6). Exploring the contribution of partnerships, not just with the private sector but beyond
(7). Maintaining high quality services and,
(8). Proposal to develop an index of public sector competence (A.S. bin Abdul Ahmad, Best
Practices in Public Administration: Experiences from Commonwealth Countries in Mazlin
Ahmad (ed.), Public Service Management: Achieving Quality Service in the 21st Century,
National Institute of Public Administration, Public Service Department, Malaysia, 1998, p.2
(pp.2-10) .

These reforms formulas have followed by many countries and brought some good practices from
which we can learn lesions in order to understand the public service reforms and best practices to
be adopted in the improvement of public service delivery system in Sri Lanka.

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3.2 REFORMS AND BEST PRACTICES IN OTHER COUNTRIES

3.2.1 The NPM based reforms

The NPM based Civil service reforms prevailed in the 1980s in advanced capitalists democracies
as respond to poor performance of civil service evidenced in expanded government size, over
expenditure in wage bills, unaccountability of civil servants etc. The main concern of civil
service reform programmes administered by these countries was to deal with the heavy financial
burden created by the public service system, which was identified as one of the major
weaknesses of the public service. The failure to deliver expected policy outcomes compelled the
policy makers in these societies to focus on the public sector expenditure from the point of view
of Value for Money (VFM).

The idea of reinventing government emerged in the 1980s focusing on weak concern on the
public sector expenditure. As the liberalization of economies activated the market and the
private sector has brought new management practices producing wider space for the domestic
economies the public sector had to rethink about the centuries old bureaucratic practices which
did not match with the new economic drive in the country. In this context the public sector
expenditures had been identified as a burden to the people. In practice, this led to a re-
examination of the performance of public sector using the criterion used by the private sector and
to introduce reforms attempting to reduce the cost of the civil service, practically by reducing the
size of its civil service. This facilitated the introduction of decentralized budgetary management
systems on the one hand and citizen/customer/client focused practices following market methods
on the other.

The NPM reform is a process, which is still spreading all over the world. It is a new pattern of
governance associated with the use of a wide range of different “tools” and with a reliance on
third parties to manage and deliver government services. It first originated in the western
countries and gradually spread to even-non western countries. The NPM reforms have been far-
reaching and have been signed as one of the most important developments in western
governments especially in the countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD), like Australia, New Zealand, and United Kingdom. NPM is often seen as
public sector reforms that are motivated by public hostility to government, shrinking budgets,
and the imperatives of globalization. For long, it was seen as an Anglo Saxon phenomenon
because the early reformers were Great Britain, New Zealand, Australia and to some extent the
USA. However, during the 1980s and the 1990s the NPM reforms were carried out, almost on a
global scale.

3.2.2 The reforms in the United Kingdom

The reforms made in UK during the government of Margret Thatcher were initially identified as
an effort to reduce the expenditure of the public sector. The government commenced the reform
programme claiming that the public servants were enjoying a privileged status and earning good

35
money without much labour as there were no performance based pay system in the government.
The government announced that it was interested in changing the managerial style of the public
service to make the system more competitive and citizen friendly.
The reform process was based on the conception that the administrative man in the public
organizations likes his counterpart - the economic man in the market makes attempt to maximize
his self-interest such as wealth, status, prestige and comfort. Hence the public interest based old
organizations had to adopt new management principles such as performance based pay,
decentralized budgets, customer satisfaction and market methods. Finally it facilitated a
fundamental change in the management culture and restructuring of the administrative system
that existed since the 19th century.

First the government sent the public servants who involved in delivering services into smaller
service delivery centres called Executive Agencies. The Senior Managers had to become the
policy making core of the ministries and the Agency Heads who were recruited through
competition from the Senior Managers of the public and private sectors to sign contracts with the
ministries to full their demands. As such the Senior Public Servants who are working with the
ministers to formulate public policy are now responsible for dealing with Executive Agencies
which accept the supply side of the government and the direct demands coming from the public.
These new service delivery centres, the Executive Agencies whose main function is to undertake
the services assigned to them under these contracts profitably, effectively as private firms. The
Executive Agencies have now become firms within the government undertaking public service
delivery as business activities undertaken for profit. The citizens had to pay directly to get the
services provided. However, it was the government that under take the use payment on behalf of
the citizens. Finally the British Government managed to reduce its workforce by nearly 40% and
save millions of pounds by eliminating too much of procedures which cost more for the
government to purchase its requirements. The government budgetary expenditure was reduced
drastically as the Executive Agencies are now functioning as “income driven and cost-recovery”
institutions. The government too became customer of these institutions.

The one of the social outcomes of the NPM process was to introduction of Citizen Charters. The
term ‘Citizen’ in the Citizen’s Charter implies the clients or customers whose interests and
values are addressed by the Citizen’s Charter and, therefore, includes not only the citizens but
also all the stakeholders. The Citizen’s Charter is a bond of honor between the public service
and citizens and safeguards the right of citizens to enjoy quality and high-standard services. At
the same time, it helps make public servants feel satisfaction for the services they provide to the
public. The Citizen’s Charter is not legally enforceable. However, it is a tool for facilitating the
delivery of services to citizens with specified standards. The main objective of Citizen's Charter
is to improve the quality of its public services. On the basis of the Citizen’s Charter, public
services are obliged:

36
  to inform the public in detail on the kind of services they provide
 to define and publicize standards of services
 to be easily accessible and friendly to the citizen and to provide adequate information
 to explain the options afforded and give correct advice to the public
 to be courteous and forthcoming in providing services and to rectify mistakes

The Citizen’s Charter is not a document, which contains only theoretical and general principles
and aims. On the contrary, it contains specific provisions and sets out specific obligations for the
public services, e.g. the period of time within which the department has the obligation to reply,
the type of information to be given etc. A Citizens' Charter represents the commitment of the
organization towards standard, quality and time frame of service delivery, grievance redress
mechanism, transparency and accountability.

3.2.3 The reforms in other countries

In USA the NPM based public service reforms started under Ronald Reagan. However, most
recent changes were taken place under Bill Clinton. His Vice President Al Gore led a National
Performance Review (NPR) and devised the public sector reform programme called “Re-
Inventing Government”. This reform focused on the reduction of procedural delays and the
enormous costs involving with these slow processes especially in the procurement processes. It
enabled the public sector managers to focus on decentralized budgets and run their programmes
profitably using user payments and contracted jobs allocated through the Federal Government
Budgets.

New Zealand has introduced a home grown reform programme to improve civil service
performance. These civil service reforms apart from being seen as a tool for curbing government
spending through personnel and wage cuts included the creation of a skilled and efficient
government workforce. Cost containment is an important aspect of NPM reform, but there are
other equally important aspects. An efficient and motivated civil service has been identified as
critical for governance, production and distribution of public goods and services. It also
recognized as the effective tool for the formulation and implementation of economic policy, and
management of public expenditure. “The broader aim of civil service reform based on NPM was
therefore, the creation of a small size government workforce with the skills, incentives, ethos,
and accountability needed to provide quality public services and carry out functions assigned to
the state” (World Bank & International Monetary Fund, Reforming The Civil Service, Finance
And Development, 1996, Vol. 33, No 3 Pp 10-13).

In some countries civil service reforms contributed to microeconomic stability through

supporting downsizing programmes which reduce the size and cost of civil service to an
affordable and sustainable level. Reducing the size of the civil service is often a prerequisite for
ensuring that governments can sustain and finance a smaller and better-paid civil service over
time (World Bank & International Money Fund, “Civil Service Reform in Africa, Mixed results

37
after 10 Years”. Finance and Development, 1998, Vol. 35, No 2, pp. 10-13). However, although
the civil service reforms have been applied and implemented in different countries, the reforms
have always become complex, mixed up with various institutional challenges that required time
to accomplish. Civil service reforms are difficult to implement since they often involve
rearranging difficult human configurations and changing human behavior (Olsen, J. P., Petrs
B.G., 1996, Lesson From Experience: Experiential Learning In Administrative Reforms in Eight
Democracies, Oslo, Scandinavian University Press, p. 12). Current civil service reforms usually
are in cooperated closely with administrative reforms that rearrange the focus of the state and
government to that of the more lean and strategic role through strengthening institutions and
processes to perform core state functions. The administrative systems would be expected to
develop fewer layers and devolve operational authority to front-line managers. With a
downsized staff, many services may leave to be ‘contracted out’ for efficient service deliver.

3.3 COMPONENTS OF GOVERNMENT REFORMS IN THE RECENT YEARS – AN

OVER VIEW
One scholar has identified three major focuses in the government reforms taken place in the
recent past, namely, (1).Less costing government (2).Professional government and (3).E-
government (A.L. Verma, Public Administration, Lotus Press, New Delhi, 2006, p.238). Next we
survey the administrative measures implemented in other countries under these headings (the
information provided below under these themes are from the same author, pp. 238-258).

3.3.1 Less Costing Government

The less costing government became one of the prime focuses of the recent public sector reforms
in the world. This was associated with the introduction of strong financial controls and effective
budgetary processes into the public sector. These measures were linked to the highly publicized
campaigns aimed at the introduction of productivity as a concept relevant to government
expenditures. The governments adopted several interrelated strategies to enhance productivity in
the public sector. They included with components such as cost accounting, performance based
budgeting, flexibility among budget accounts and promoting productivity.

In New Zealand the government services are arranged to compete for budgets on the basis of
their goal achievements. The public sector institutions were given clear-cut performance goals.
These institutions had to sign written contracts to achieve goals associated with the
implementation of each of the programme. Singapore being a good example of innovations that
were promoting productivity and make government cost less. The government of Singapore has
built their attempts to manage costs around four concepts – Limit Damage (waste), Maximize
Discretion (of the administrators involving procurement), Measure Costs (with the outputs) and
Pursue Excellence (in the service delivery). France passed the constitutional by-law and the
Budget Act focusing on the productivity and the reduction of costs in the government in 2001.
USA passed the Government Performance and Results Act in 1993 to improve the performance

38
of government officials. The Canadian Federal Government successfully overcame the budget
deficit that was accounted for 8.5% of Gross Domestic Product in 1995. In Chile the Inter-
Municipal Environmental Programme joins with smaller municipalities reduce the cost of
training the officials, strengthen the environmental management and implement common
programme for several municipalities. In Italy services centres called one-step-shops were
established in order to provide several services required to start a new business. The Mexican
Government had established more than 650 federal government work centres with the ISO –
9000 standards up to 2006. In Australia major reorganization taken place for the inculcation of
customer culture in the social service programmes.

3.3.2 Professional Government

The notion of effective state depends on an effective public sector. This became the important
issue in many countries. The ineffective public sector is associated with the following problems:
(a). The public sector had difficulty in recruiting talented persons as it could not compete
with the private sector or with NGOs
(b). The public sector faced severe skill shortage and not enough funds to train its
workforce
(c). Public sector employees faced severe wage compression and this influenced talented
executives to leave the public service
(d). Public sector suffered from excessive political patronage causing the government to
employ large number of employees without much work to do
(e). Public sector officials do not always work under the rule of law

A major study conducted by the International Monetary Fund found clear-cut relation between
public sector salaries and the level of corruption in a country. The study estimated that wages in
the government relative to the salaries in the manufacturing sector needed to be increased by 2.8-
7.4 to eliminate corruption in the public sector. However money is not the only contributory
factor in the creation of a corrupt public service. The adherence to the rule of law by the public
service has been identified as one of the factors that contribute to the public sector corruption. It
is well known fact that in the countries where the rule of law is not well established the public
service is not undertaking their job according the law.

Singapore is one of the countries which increased the salaries to control corruption. The
Singapore government successfully eliminated the wage disparity between public and private
sectors. Under Margret Thatcher United Kingdom experienced similar reforms when the
Executive Agencies were established to deliver services to the public. The personnel in these
agencies were offered through service contracts increased monetary benefits including large
bonuses under depending on performance. In 1999 South Korea introduced a public service
reform programme called “Open Competitive Position System” designed to recruit outstanding
talent from both the public and private sectors. Presently nearly 20% of the positions in the civil
service in every ministry are positions open to this competitive scheme.

39
3.3.3 E-Government
A recent UN study noted that 89% of the world governments were using internet in some
capacity to provide information and/or services despite the fact that not all the citizens are
exposed to the internet. The states using the internet have been categorized into three groups.
First group included with the governments using internet sites to offer political information about
the leadership of the country. Second group is using the internet to attract non-citizens to invest
in the country. Third group is called interactive. They offer citizens services through internet by
allowing them to download forms and request information from the government. The third
categories of countries are the states that had adopted IT to reduce costs and increase the quality
of services offered to citizens. Singapore is the pioneer in establishing E-Citizen Portal as a
single gateway to government service. The Canadian government is world leader in interactive
government. It increased the citizens input and official decision making using E-Government.

SECTION – 2

4 - THE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION SYSTEM IN SRI LANKA – AN OVERVIEW

4.1 INTRODUCTION
This chapter surveys the origins and the development of the public administration in Sri Lanka.
The discussion below would focus on the legacies of colonial bureaucracy, failure to establish
development oriented administration, the politicization of bureaucracy and the challenges faced
by the present day public administration.

4.2 THE COLONIAL BUREAUCRACY

4.2.1 The ideological and organizational framework

A modern version of administrative system was introduced to Sri Lanka during the British
Colonial rule that existed for nearly one and a half century. The policy changes to this effect
were introduced by Colebrook-Cameron Commissions that came to the country in 1829 though
the colony was under an administrative institution headed by a Governor. The Commissioners
were under the influence of the 19th century liberalism that stressed the values of free-trade and
laissez-faire in preparing their recommendations.
Since the recommendations of these commissions were aimed at the introduction of a free market
the colony was gradually transformed into, what is called, a “Colonial State” which was
established to facilitate the extraction of surplus of free-market economy through profits for the
benefit of Great Britain. This facilitated the demarcation between state and government. The
establishment of Legislative and Executive Councils and the establishment of independent
Judiciary was taken place in 1833.

40
Transforming the administrative system of the government from ‘aristocracy’ to ‘bureaucracy’
was also taken place during this era. The selection of administrators through patronage was
abandoned gradually. In the 1870s steps were taken to establish an administrative system led by
an administrative leadership selected through competitive examinations conducted following the
guidelines of the Civil Service Commission of Great Britain. This was necessitated by the
political transformations taken place in Britain in the direction of democratic governance.

Nevertheless the executive machinery and the process of governance in the colonial state were in
the hands of administrators. Therefore the colonial state was basically an Administrative State
until 1931 when the British government allowed the indigenous leaders to take part in social
welfare policy making and lead that part of the administrative system through limited self-rule.
This transformation required the demarcation between politics and administration as the
independence of public service became an important requirement.

The state administrative system of the Colonial State was based on a rigid regulatory system that
aimed at the controlling of both public servants and the people. The standard civil service codes
were introduced in order to make the public officers working as the servants of the crown. At the
same time it was used to keep strategic control of the machinery of government in the hands of
the European officers. The main functions of the administrative organization were handling of
law and order and collection of state revenue through taxation.

Although the colonial administrators as the servants of crown were required to protect the
imperial interests there were specific instructions to adopt benevolent paternalism when
approaching the ordinary masses. The administrators were obliged to visit the villages and towns
to see by themselves the problems faced by the ordinary people at least once a week. They were
advised to see even the availability of basic necessities such as water, sanitation, agricultural
requirements and essential food items to the villagers during their visits. The executive authority
of colonial state was highly centralized under the leadership of the Governor whose office
functioned as the Central Coordinating Secretariat of the government. The Colonial Secretary
functioned as the chief of the administrative system and the executive functions of the
government were subdivided into departments.

The Local Administration had features similar to the Prefectural system in France. Like the
Prefects in France, the Government Agents who led the highly centralized provincial
administrative system located in the Kachcheriya had military, police, administrative and fiscal
authority to administer the Province as the agents of State and government. It is not an
exaggeration to say that the backbone of the colonial state was the Government Agent’s
provincial administration which was a hierarchically arranged structure in order to maintain the
centralized authority of the colonial government.

41
The Kachcheri system began between 1796 and 1798, when a Resident Superintendent of
Revenue was appointed, one for Jaffna and Mannar, one for Colombo & Galle and the other for
Trincomalee and Batticaloa. In 1833 entire country being divided into five Provinces, each was
placed under a Government Agent (GA). The GA was the revenue officer. Because of this he
was responsible to the Revenue Department. With the increase of govt. functions GAs became
government’s general agents in the field. Consequently the line of authority was changed. The
Colonial Secretary became the head of the system. The GAs had to work with him to implement
general orders of the government and the decisions taken by the colonial Secretary. The
indigenous hierarchy of officials which extended down to villages with the Village Headman
system was supervised by the GA.

The term Kachcheri (the building where the office of the GA was situated) came into being to
identify the GA’s administration. The Kachcheri was the office set up in nine areas besides
Colombo by the Madras tax collectors who were in Sri Lanka during 1796-98. By 1928 this de-
concentrated administrative structure (i.e. an administrative system decentralized from the centre
but re-centralized at the local level) consisted of nine provinces and nineteen districts, 110 Chief
Headmen’s divisions, 613 sub-divisions under headmen, and about 4000 villages under Village
Headmen. Although the Government Agent was primarily a revenue collector, a great variety of
functions came to be exercised by him (“he became jack of all trades”).

During the colonial period the Government Agents were to look after the whole aspects of the
lives of ordinary masses. The second Governor of the island, Thomas Maitland had assigned the
following functions to them:
1. circuit visits to whole of his province
2. exercise judicial power during those visits to resolve petty disputes
3. make arrangements to guarantee the supply of necessities such as seed,
grain, clothing and Agricultural Tools to the villagers
4. relieving villagers from the vexation of the Tax Gatherer

Leonard Woolf who wrote “Village of Jungle” in his Diaries in Ceylon 1908-11 gave us a fare
idea about the functions of a GA. He identifies following functions:
1. Inspecting town with Sanitary Inspectors
2. Inspecting Hospitals
3. Visiting villages with the Mudlyars to hold inquires on village disputes came to his
office
4. Inspecting bridges and roads
5. Inspecting schools
6. Investigating murder cases reported to him

As shown in the above descriptions the GA performed a combination of legislative, executive

and judicial functions. In addition to those duties he was expected to give his recommendations

42
at the Conference of Government Agents. The Police ordinance recognized the GA as the Head
of Police service in the province. In addition the GA was given the control over the inferior
departments in his province. In the final analysis GA became the representative of the Central
Government responsible for promoting the general interests of his province. According to the
Civil Service Manual the tasks expected from him was practically unlimited, comprising the
obligations of being fully acquainted with all the system of agriculture and industrious pursuits
followed and all the relations of trade carried on.

Later the government departments too established field administrative units at the provincial
level. Departments of Surveyor General’s, Public Works, and irrigation were the earliest
departments came to the provinces. The technical departments and the departments which had
more day to day administrative works at the local level established direct control over their field
administration. This created a parallel organization of departmental field units functioning
alongside with the Kachcheriya.

4.2.2 Transition from Colonial Bureaucracy to politically neutral Bureaucracy – 1931-48

With the Donoughmore Constitution of 1931 the Colonial Bureaucracy faced the challenge of
transforming itself to a politically neutral Bureaucracy to be led by the politicians elected by the
people. The new constitution granted universal franchise and enabled the Ceylonese politicians
to take over 07 Executive Departments (Ministries). These measures had a significant impact
upon the structure and style of functioning of the bureaucracy.

The introduction of universal franchise completely transformed the character of the political
institutions. The political institutions were now under compulsion to be sensitive and responsive
to the needs of ordinary people though the system provided a limited self rule. The bureaucracy
was now made accountable to political power emanating from the people. Now it has to shift
from the colonial concern of law & order and revenue collection to universal welfare. The
establishment of difference between politics and administration became a prime importance in
order to distinguish imperial interests and the local concerns and also the smooth functioning of
procedural standards and technical requisites.

For the first time the demarcation between politics and administration became a necessity. The
Constitution created a Public Service Commission (PSC) as an advisory body which advised the
Governor who continued the powers entrusted to him in the past constitutional practice on
appointment, promotion, transfer, dismissal and disciplinary control of public officers. However,
the bureaucratic transition was not properly addressed as the politicians were interested in
“Ceylonization of Civil Service” and consolidating the newly gain power by distributing the
“spoils” among the personal and political friends. This has created political practices of abusing
power to help the people loyal to them getting positions, grant allocations and other fringe
benefits to be drawn from the public offices.

43
4.3 THE NATIONAL BUREAUCRACY
The constitutional order facilitated by the granting of independence in 1948 required a national
bureaucracy which has to be the executive arm of the government dealing with twin challenges
faced by the new state, namely, nation building and development. The first constitution provided
constitutional protection to the public service by establishing an independent Public Service
Commission, which was also identified as a measure of minority protection against the abuse of
recruitment process in favour of majority community. However at independence the public
service was breathing with the legacies of colonialism. It was still within the mindset of law and
order maintenance administration of the colonial state.

As stated earlier the transition from Colonial Bureaucracy to National Bureaucracy was not
properly addressed by the national leadership during 1931-1948. However, the common class
and elite outlook shared by both the political and the administrative leaders and, the continuation
of most of the public policy strategies established during the colonial period had facilitated a
good working relationship between the politicians and the administrators. But this tranquility did
not last long.

The change of governing regime and the introduction of somewhat “radical policy changes” in
1956 the country drifted towards a period in which tension between the political leadership and
the administrative leadership became a visible feature. The tension between the administrative
and the political leaders produced a conflict between new political leaders and the leaders of the
administrative state. The allegation of non-corporation by the administrative leadership was
leveled against the public servants by the political leaders. The constitutional protection provided
for the administrators were identified as one of the obstacles for the political leaders to fulfill
people’s aspirations.

The final onslaught was the abolition of constitutional protections in the constitution against
politicization when the new Constitution was adopted in 1972. However, several actions were
initiated some eight years ago in order to facilitate the measures that consolidated the political
power over the public administration. In 1963 the government abolished the Ceylon Civil
Service, the administrative class that led the colonial state which was based on meritocracy and
the Village Headman System which was based on aristocracy and replaced them by Ceylon
Administrative Service (now Sri Lanka Administrative Services) and Grama Sevaka Service
(now Grama Niladhari Service). Though the abolition of these services hailed as to get rid of an
outdated “Brahmin Class” the changeover helped the politicians appoint political favorites over
looking seniority and the abilities of the persons. In 1970 the establishment of Department of
Public Administration further strengthened the politicians’ grip on the administrative system as
the country was moving towards the centralization of political as well as economic power.

The First Republican Constitution abolished the Public Service Commission (PSC) established in
1948 and handed over the powers of the public service to the Cabinet of Ministers which

44
received the constitutional protection under “Parliamentary sovereignty”, entrenched in the new
Republican Constitutions. New constitution established the Public Service Advisory Board and
the Public Service Disciplinary Board to replace the PSC. In 1973 the Political Authority System
and the Decentralized Budget for District Development was inaugurated enabling the formation
of district political leadership over the local administration in Sri Lanka. The constitution of
1978 crowned the political centralization process by establishing an Executive Presidency and its
leadership in the system of governance. The new system established the Presidential leadership
over the administration. Consequently appointment of leaders of the administrative system
became the constitutional function of the President who now appoints the Secretary to the
President, the Secretary to the Cabinet, Secretaries of the Ministries and Chief Secretaries of the
Provincial Councils.

4.4 THE DEVELOPMENTAL STATE AND THE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

Though the post-independent constitution changes targeted at the public administration

envisaging greater political control over the bureaucracy these changes did not address the real
issues confronted by the administrative system. The post-colonial state was to take up nation
building and national development as its key objectives while the public administrative system
needed certain technical and cultural capacities to undertake the tasks associated with these twine
objectives. One such need was to move from procedural oriented centralized administrative
system to development oriented decentralized administrative system. Though the requirement
was to establish a development administration which means “development of administration”
and “administration of development” the system went towards the politicization of bureaucracy.

The second Republican Constitution continued the process of politicization of bureaucracy and it
was taken to its height under the Presidential system. The politicians engaged in administrative
business and administrators doing political business became the hallmark of governance process.
The final outcome is the creation of an administrator subservient to the politicians in power.
This has created a “bureaucratic imbalance” i.e. the administrators failing to stand between the
positions of “despot and subservient”.

The establishment of Provincial Councils in 1978 created an “Inter-mix of administrative

delivery system”. The establishment of three tiers of governance, namely, Central, Provincial &
Local governments have changed the administrative landscape at the Provincial, District and
Divisional Level. The practice of both administrative de-concentration and devolution was
witnessed by the people. However, Sri Lanka has to go a long way to achieve real benefits of
multilevel governance in terms of efficiency, cost effectiveness and citizens’ satisfaction. The
criteria to be developed to assess the performance of these changes using conceptual frameworks
such as “centralization and decentralization continuum”; “politicization of bureaucracy”,
“imbalance in resources transfer” and “stability, allocation and distribution functions”.

45
4.5 REFORMING THE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

In the 1990s management efficiency and the productivity of the administrative organization came
to the forefront. The less-government idea promoted by the liberalization of economy and the
donor pressure had made these aspects as urgent considerations of the policy makers and the
administrators.

Several attempts were made in the recent past to this effect. An Administrative Reform
Committee was appointed in the early 1980s. An Administrative Task Force was established in
the Presidential Secretariat and a Minister for Administrative Reform was appointed during
1995-2002. After 2002 the Prime Minister’s Office took up the responsibility of creating
management oriented administrative culture. Within the public administration E-governance
became a catch word among the administrators. Some departments and ministries have
computerized public information system to expedite the service delivery. As a result services
such as the issuance of birth certificate, National Identity Cards, Driving License and Passport
have been expedited. The department of examination releases results of the public examinations
through internet. The use of internet by the many ministries has been used mainly to provide
information on programmes undertaken by the government. It seems these information systems
have been used to attract non-citizens who are interested in investing in the country. However
the public administrative system has a long way to go to help the citizens to have responsive
governance through the use of internet. The low rate of using the internet by the people could be
identified as one of the contributor factors for non-availability of fully developed proactive
governance in Sri Lanka. In 2007 HE the President has announced the establishment of Council
for Administrative Reform.

The proposals such as establishment of a Senior Management Service and a Management

Assistance Service, introduction of Flexi Hours, Citizens’ Charters and Staff redundancy
schemes were included in the reform agenda. However, the establishment of Senior
Management service was abandoned during the time of President Chandirka Bandaranaike as
there were political pressures for appointing their favorites. The establishment of a Management
Assistant Service, accommodating all clerical, steno and office assistant services is still
continuing but the senior members of these services have not shown any enthusiasm and in this
respect the Trade Unions have reservations. The whole process lacked the commitment from the
political leadership. Although there were projects funded by the World Bank and other donor
agencies to inculcate culture favorable to e-governance these activities did not lead to
comprehensive changes due to lack of continued commitment from the political leadership.
Consequently these programmes have become spare-time-work for the senior managers in their
internal organizations. However, the most important issues to be addressed by the public
administration in Sri Lank today are high level of administrative corruption, low productivity and
the prevalent of politicized culture among the administrative personnel.

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5 - THE CONSTITUTION AND THE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION IN SRI LANKA

5.1 INTRODUCTION
The present constitution consists of several legal directives for the public administration. Most
important of them are the articles that elucidate the nature of state, the source of state power,
principles of state policy, fundamental rights, public finance, exercise of executive power and the
conditions applying to the public officers.

Many of these constitutional directives are related to the process of centralization of political
power that is associated with the state craft strategy followed by the makers of the constitutions
of 1972 and 1978. The centralization of political power became a popular attraction in the 1970s
as the people were interested in decolonizing polity and move towards rapid economic
development and a socialist democracy. Consequently the constitutional arrangements
necessitated for the strengthening of fundamental principles such as political neutrality of public
administration and independence of judiciary were diluted to suit the political power objectives.
Following is a brief survey of these important constitutional provisions and their implications on
the public administration.

5.2 THE NATURE OF STATE AND SOURCE OF STATE POWER

The first three Articles of the Constitution stipulate the nature of State, the source of State power
and the sovereignty of State. Article one declares that Sri Lanka is a Free, Sovereign and
Independent Republic and the Article two pronounces that the Republic of Sri Lanka is a unitary
state. These provisions later became the sacred principles to be followed by the members of the
public service. In 1983 the Parliament approved the sixth amendment to the constitution and
made it compulsory for the public employees taking an oath, promising that they “…will not
directly or indirectly, in or outside Sri Lanka, support, espouse, promote, finance, encourage or
advocate the establishment of a separate state within the territory of Sri Lanka”. As such the
public officers must not just show their allegiance to the state but also to its territorial integrity
and unitary nature. Accordingly a public officer will lose his/her employment if proved guilty
for abetting or associating secessionism.

The most important implication of this constitutional requirement is keeping the public servants
inside the bureaucratic maze inherited from the colonial state. The Financial and Administrative
regulations introduced during the colonial period were continuously followed by the public
administration. This has been the feature even in the administrative organs belonged to the
devolved system of governance today. Though the country has been experiencing multi-level
governance for more than two decades it has become a daunting task to change from rule
imposing to customer driven service delivery approach.

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5.3 SOVEREIGNTY OF PEOPLE
The Article 3 of the constitution declares that “In the Republic of Sri Lanka sovereignty is in the
People and is inalienable. Sovereignty includes the powers of government, fundamental rights
and the franchise.”

As such the Article 3 of the constitution unfolds and broadens the content of sovereignty
declaring that powers of government, fundamental rights and franchise are the means of
exercising sovereignty by the people. This interpretation has far reaching consequences as the
Article 83 states that “approval by two thirds of Members of Parliament and the approval by the
people at Referendum” is required to pass any legislation affecting or amending the particular
Article.

The most fundamental implication is that the constitution empowers the people to participate
directly in the legislative process through referendum. These constitutional provisions have
become the protective of peoples’ right to exercise franchise at elections to be held in six years
time and enjoy of fundamental rights declared in the constitution and interpreted by the Supreme
Court. The referendum clause has made transparency as an important element in governance as
the actions of the executive and legislature is subjected to review by the people at open platforms
during the process of referendum. As such the governance decisions cannot be taken in secrecy
overlooking the rights of citizens and due legal processes.

The chapter on fundamental rights together with these provisions has empowered the people to
take up their rightful place in the polity. They have the legal right to challenge the action of
government and public administration in the courts seeking judicial remedies. This has been
straight forward in the chapters on fundamental rights and powers of Supreme Court. Article 126
of the constitution declares that “…the Supreme Court shall have sole and exclusive jurisdiction
to hear and determine any question relating to the infringement or imminent infringement by
executive or administrative action of any fundamental right or language right declared and
recognized by chapter III and chapter IV.” Therefore the member of any governmental
organization, especially the members of public service could be trued at the highest court of the
country. The people have legal entitlement to filing complaints, expressing their grievances and
seeking redress and compensation against the administrative decisions violating their rights.
Theoretically these provisions made the rule of law the pre-eminence aspect of the political
system though the politics has the ability to manipulate the system in its favour, using the level
of political awareness of the people.

5.4 CHAPTER ON FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS

The fundamental rights declared in the constitution could be arranged into following broad
categories:
(a). Protection of life:
Freedom from torture or cruel treatment or punishment

48
 Right to protection before the law
(b). Dignity
Freedom from inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment
Freedom of thought and conscience
(c). Justice
Right to have equal treatment before the law
Right to have a fare trial
(d). Protection by the law
Right to free from unlawful arrest
Right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty
(e). Liberty
Right free expression
Right to assemble freely
Right to association
Right to form and join Trade Unions
Right to engage in lawful occupation, profession, trade, business or enterprise
(f). Religion
Freedom of religion including to have or to adopt a religion or belief of his choice
Freedom to manifest religion personally or with others
(g). Citizenship
Freedom to return to Sri Lanka
Entitlement non citizens, permanently and legally residing in the county to the rights
declared in the constitution.

The constitution stipulated that the fundamental rights recognized by the constitution shall be
respected by all the organs of government. As pointed out in the previous section the
administrative actions violating the fundamental rights could be challenged at the Supreme Court
which has the sole judicial jurisdiction on fundamental rights declared in the constitution.
Apart from the provisions empowering Supreme Court the basic law has established the Office
of Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration (OMBUDSMAN) to enable the people and
the members of the public administration to seek informal redress for fundamental rights
violations by the public administrators. Later the government established a National Human
Rights Commission [Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission (SLHRC)] to promote human rights
and to inquire about the complaints on fundamental rights violations enabling the people to find
redress without going to the complex and extracting process at the Supreme Court.

The office of the OMBUDSMAN was established with the view that the people need an
institution which could facilitate easy access to justice with regard to the arbitrary actions of
public administrators. The constitution stipulates that any person can complain against the
actions of administrative officers who have infringed his/her fundamental rights or about to
infringe their rights. The OMBUDSMAN has the constitutional authority to enter into any

49
government institution and access to any official document which is not named as a classified
document. However, the OMBUDSMAN does not have legal jurisdiction to issue binding
judicial orders. The task of the OMBUDSMAN is to settle the dispute by offering informal
redress and submit a report to Parliament and the President.

The Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission was established with a mandate of promoting human
rights and finding a mutually agreed settlement to disputes involving fundamental rights
violations. The Commission therefore involved in investigating complaints of fundamental
rights with a view to settling them informally. In the recent years it has involved in resolving
such complaints and also assisting the Supreme Court undertaking detailed investigations of FR
cases directed by the Supreme Court.

However, the working of these institutions in the field of fundamental rights is far from
satisfactory. Both institutions lack basic human and financial resources to function
independently. These institutions have failed to gain confidence among the people because of
their inability to provide legal redress. Therefore critiques have labeled these institutions as
ornaments in the political system.

5.5 PUBLIC FINANCE

The control of public finance is vested in Parliament by the constitution. Accordingly the
approval of Parliament is a must for both the collection and the disbursement of state revenue.
The constitution has established two funds, namely, the Consolidate Fund and the Contingency
Fund for this purpose and provided detailed legal procedures for the use of these funds.

The direct outcome of this constitution provision is the continuation of centralized system of
fiscal management initiated by the colonial bureaucracy and further strengthened by the 1948
and 1972 constitutions. Traditionally it was the Department of Treasury and Department of
Auditor General that evolved as the central departments responsible for the management and the
disciplinary control of public finance. The main functions derived from the above constitutional
provisions such as the management of national tax policy, effective use of government revenue,
enforcement of government financial regulations, execution of the national budget and
enforcement of budgetary controls, have been identified as key function of the Department of
Treasury (see webpage of the Ministry of Finance, Sri Lanka).

The Auditor General’s Department is responsible for assisting Parliament to exercise its
authority in controlling the handling of public finances by the administrative agencies of the
state. According to the website of the Department of Auditor General its mission is to promote
public accountability by carrying out audits and reporting to Parliament on the discharge of
accountability by the executive to enable Parliament to exercise control over public finance. Its
key functions are auditing of the accounts of all the Departments of the Government, Provincial
Councils, Local Authorities and Public Corporations and of any Business or other Undertakings

50
vested in the Government and to report to Parliament annually (see website of the Department of
Auditor General).

These constitutional and administrative arrangements demonstrate that Sri Lanka is following
“the principle of external financial control which stresses the role of the Legislature in exercising
the supervisory control over the finances handled by the executive branch.” This is an acceptable
practice in the Westminster system of government where complete divorce of finance and
administration has become an established practice.

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and the Committee of Public Enterprises (COPE)
appointed by Parliament from among its members scrutinize the reports submitted by the Auditor
General on behalf of Parliament and recommend the necessary measures to Parliament with
regard to the violation of budgetary discipline set forth by Parliament and the Financial and
Administrative regulations.

As the central department involving in preparing the annual appropriation bill and maintaining
the state revenue the General Treasury has the responsibility of maintaining the financial
standards within public administration. It exercises discretionary powers over the approval of
cadre positions in the government departments and the allocation of funds within the
government. This practice of using centralized regulatory mechanisms to control the fiscal
functions at all levels of governance was inherited from the colonial administration.

Since the centralized regulatory mechanisms inherited from the colonial administration did not
face a serious paradigm shift after independence these institutions have become the bureaucratic
rule imposers inhibiting the changes in the style of service delivery. The general view within the
public service is that these institutions are interested in maintaining the procedural standards but
unable to help the public service to create a development oriented - pro-citizenship approach in
the implementation of public programmes. Some have even argued that the politicians’ answer
to the negative approach of these rule imposers was politicization of bureaucracy in order to push
the administrators to violate their rules. Finally the administrative system in Sri Lanka has
become a yet another system of administration which is interested in the well-being of the
organization and not the well-being of the people.

5.6 CONTROL OF THE PUBLIC SERVICE

The Public Service of the Country is now virtually under the leadership of the President as the
appointment of all the leaders of the public administration such Secretary to the President, the
Cabinet, the Ministries and the Provincial Councils are vested with the President. The President
can also influence the appointment, promotion, transfer, disciplinary control and dismissal of
Heads of Departments as these functions are vested with the Cabinet of Ministers.

51
This situation is unavoidable as the Executive Presidency is the focal point of the constitutional
mechanism created by the constitution for the exercise of executive power of the people. The
constitution declares that the President of the Republic is the Head of State, Head of the
Executive, Head of the Government and the Commander of Armed Forces. Further President is
the sole authority in appointing all the Officers of State including the Heads of Armed and Police
Forces and the Judges of the Superior Courts. The constitution has offered him legal immunity
for all legitimate actions he has done as the Head of State and Government. As past experience
tells us that the President who is elected by an island-wide electorate with an absolute majority
can establish autocratic governance overriding the powers of the Legislature and the Judiciary.

With the passage of 17th amendment to the constitution the Public Service Commission (PSC)
has been empowered to be in charge of the public service. Now the constitution has assigned the
powers to appointment, promotion, transfer, disciplinary control and dismissal of public officers
to the Public Service Commission. With the passage of 17th amendment an Administrative
Appeals Tribunal (AAT) was established with powers to hear appeals from decisions of the PSC
and the Police Commission. Therefore the public officers have been offered the option of going
before the AAT rather than going before the Supreme Court for alleged violations of their
fundamental rights by the superior officers.

The passage of 17th amendment reflected the change of mind on the part of the politicians who have
understood the damage they have done to the public service through politicization. The politicization of
bureaucracy refers to the violation of the Principle of political neutrality of the public administrators as
envisaged in the liberal system of government. Thus the liberal system of government envisages the
political parties alternate in government required a non-political administrator to play the role of advisor
to the political executive comes from any political party. The notion that recognizes “the policy making
as a political activity and the implementation of such policies as a bureaucratic activity” emerged out of
this political practice adopted by the statesmen who have shaped the politics in the modern democratic
governments.

In Sri Lanka the principle of political neutrality of public administration became an entrenched element of
the system of governance since the Donoughmore constitution which introduced the idea of having a
Public Service Commission to safeguard the political neutrality of public servants. The Constitution of
1948 once again established the Public Service Commission entrusting with powers for the appointment,
promotion, transfer, remuneration, disciplinary control and dismissal of public servants. However, the
independence of public administration was not to the liking of the political elite ascending to power since
the 1950s. The need for a strong centralized state was promoted by the politicians since the 1960s and
finally the culmination of this became apparent in the two republican constitutions. Since the
inauguration of the constitution of 1972 the trend was to make public servants subservient to the political
bosses in the executive government.

The fundamental argument promoted through the passage of 17th amendment was to reveres the process
of politicization of bureaucracy and to create an independent professional public service in order to
improve the efficiency in the delivery of services. However, the experiences regarding the 17th

52
amendment tell us that its implementation is far from satisfactory. The Constitutional Council is non-
existence since 2005 as the tug-of-war among the small parties in Parliament regarding the nomination of
their member to the Council was manipulated by the President not to reconstitute the Constitutional
Council. It is worth mentioning here that in its First Report the Constitutional Council noted that
“…(though) the Seventeenth Amendment is an important step in the direction of good governance, but it
should not cause a thrill of a delirious joy through the country, as though at last a sovereign medicine
were found for all the diseases of the body politic.”

SECTION – 3

6 - CITIZENS’ PERCEPTIONS TOWARDS THE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION IN SRI

LANKA – The Survey Results on the State Service Delivery in Selected Locations

6.1 INTRODUCTION
‘Public services and goods’ refer to the basic needs and collective needs of communities that are
usually supplied by some form of government, like water, sanitation, solid waste collection,
transport, health and education. The main reason for the existence of the Public Service
therefore is to provide goods and services to the community.

Public institutions and employees play a major role in ascertaining, producing and providing
public services that are responsive to community needs and expectations and is supposed to be
accountable, impartial, open, accessible and responsive to all sections of citizens irrespective of
class, race and region. However, there are bureaucratic waste, inefficiency, corruption,
discrimination, underrepresentation, irresponsiveness and other maladies prevalent in this
primary duty of delivering goods and services to people.

One of the best ways to focus on these issues is directly consulting citizens through public
opinion surveys to understand the perceptions of citizens on the public service delivery.
Citizens’ perception of the role of public administration in delivering public services and their
assessment of public services can provide valuable information for improving service delivery.
This is because citizens have direct experience to public services in terms of their efficiency,
adequacy, accessibility and reliability.
Perception of citizens particularly matters as it helps to develop an analysis of the nature and the
quality of service delivery on the basis of the experiences of people themselves. When citizens
identify specific issues and problems of government service we intellectuals are able to articulate
them as feedbacks for citizens’ dialogues, to appropriate government channels for action or the
mass media. It offers the government the opportunity to investigate and resolve the problems, if
they are real. If they are not real, then take step to change public opinion if the perceptions are
based on misunderstanding.

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6.2 THE SURVEY

The present survey was conducted simultaneously in three different locations, namely, Nuwara
Eliya (A plantation District), Dehiattakandiya (A Mahaweli Settlement Area in the Eastern
Province) & Kalmunai Coastal (Semi urban area in the Eastern Province) during the period
between 23-30th of July 2009 to find out the state of public service delivery by Government
institutions (GIs) in the respective survey locations. The questionnaire was prepared to collect
data employing both quantitative and qualitative methods.

The field survey examined primarily the question of equity and efficiency in delivering services
by government institutions. In general, questions were asked from respondents focusing on three
important aspects of service delivery relating to the citizenship: (1). their knowledge about the
institutions and services available in their respective area of residence, (2). their experience with
government institutions and, (3). their attitudes and perceptions on the functioning and
performance of government institutions.

As this is an opinion survey of beneficiaries of government services, the study was limited to an
investigation of perceptions held by ordinary citizens who had experience of visiting government
institutions for receiving state services particularly during the last one year period of time. Since
this survey was a rapid appraisal, we used both quantitative and qualitative questionnaire
methods (i.e. asking questions to collect information to put into tables and having long
discussions with the people allowing them to express their own personal views) to collect the
data.

Also we have used the studies conducted by other organizations in the recent past, particularly on
the corruption and the delivery systems in the public sector as comparative data and to fill the
gaps in our survey as well.

6.3 THE ISSUES FOCUSSED IN THE SURVEY

Since the study will be incomplete without at least a brief account on certain important issues
that inhibit the efficiency, effectiveness, equity and responsiveness in the service delivery they
will be briefly discussed before reporting the results of the opinion survey.

The study noticed that corruption, favoritism, regulatory procedures and lethargy of personnel
have been identified as the key problems faced by the people who visited the government
institutions for receiving services. These are the maladies that have been identified by the many
researchers who had examined the administrative systems in developing countries as factors that
undermine good governance, distort public policy, lead to the misallocation of resources and
harms the private and public sector and their development.

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Corruption can be regarded as the abuse of public office for private gain, when an official
accepts, solicits or extorts a bribe. Corruption is one of the greatest challenges facing the
contemporary world. It undermines good governance, distorts public policy, leads to the
misallocation of resources and harms the private and public sector and their development.

It is worth noting that according to the Global Corruption Perception Index, Sri Lanka ranked 84
in 2006 in a list of 115 countries (Transparency International 2006 & 2001-2002, Sri Lanka
Economic Association (SLEA) White Paper 2007). In the case of Sri Lanka, nevertheless, there
are some other specific causes for corruption in addition to the aforesaid common causes. A
White Paper prepared by the Sri Lanka Economic Association (SLEA) in 2007 has discussed
factors responsible for corruption in Sri Lanka under several headings. They include Poor or Bad
Governance; Low Financial Remuneration in the public Sector; Cultural Background: Foreign
Aid; The Failure to Take Punitive Action; Failure of Civil Society; Too much Discretion
Allowed to Public Officers; Lack of Competition in the Supply of Public Services; Weak
Accountability. The report also discussed the cultural attitudes of society, especially among the
villagers as reasons for prevalent of corruption. Accordingly, corruption exists not only due to
flawed procedures within the institutions, but also due to the encouragement by service recipients
(Ibid.).

In the current opinion survey, people have identified Police and the G.N. Offices as most corrupt
institutions in their areas. From the survey we noticed that the practice of corruption takes place
largely due to the lack of awareness about the nature of state services on the part of beneficiaries,
excessive discretionary power of certain public officials such as police and Grama Niladharies,
and lack of service driven mentality among the public officers.

Favoritism refers not only to the normal human inclination to prefer acquaintances, friends and
family over strangers but also to the favored treatment given to the people who have political,
economic, educational and social power. Whatever the form it may take, favoritism is also a
corrupt practice as it deprives ordinary people of their right to access to government service.
When public (and private sector) officials demonstrate favoritism to unfairly distribute positions
and resources, they are guilty of cronyism or nepotism, depending on their relationship with the
person who benefits. Like corruption, favoritism also exists within most of the state institutions
that provide service to citizens. It’s visible through the survey that favoritism is a common
practice nearly in all the public service institutions with the health sector scores the highest.

It should be therefore understood that the major reason for the prevalence of both corruption and
favoritism within public service institutions is the ignorance of people about the services they are
entitled to receive and the proper channel to get those services in a way they are supposed to do
it.

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6.3 People’s Perception and Experience about Public Service Delivery
In this section the background information pertaining to the Government Institutions (GIs)
covered by the survey is reported. In general, it is observed that despite various Acts, Ordinance
and Charters, most of the GIs in Sri Lanka are not in a position to provide a satisfactory and
efficient service by following the formal procedures and practices because of the culture and
attitude prevailing within the state institutional setting and among the citizens as well.
In general the majority of recipients are unhappy about the services rendered by the public
servants and they feel that they cannot expect a proper service unless they have a third party
support. The third party support they used is friends, relatives, politicians and paying bribes
directly to the officers concerned or through an intermediary. Thus, equal and equitable access
to state services by citizens with differing socio, ethnic and cultural background is less possible
through the existing system and the mechanism of the state services delivery.

6.4 PRIMARY INFORMATION

As stated in the beginning, the survey covered eight geographical areas located in the above two
districts. Out of these, four are semi urban areas (Sammanthurai, Nintavur, Akkaraippattu &
Alayadivembu – Amapara District), one Mahaweli settlement area (Dehiatta Kandiya – Ampara
District), one plantation area (Nanuoya – Nuwara Eliya) and one Sinhala village (Kalapura –
Nuwara Eliya). The sample distribution is fairly representative. It covers almost all the
differences in geographical and ethnic concentration of the country. Data were gathered using a
formal semi structured questionnaire with some open ended questions in order to capture
descriptive information. The questionnaire was coded and subjected to tabulation to facilitate
quantification of descriptive information.

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 Geographical Distribution of the sample

26% Dehiatta kandiya

36%
Nintavur
Akkaraipattu
Samanthurai
12%
N'Eliya
12% 14%

Table 2: Ethnic breakdown of the sample by area

Area Sample Sinhala % Tamil % Muslim %
1.Dehiatta Kandiya 40 40 26.0 - -- - -
2.Sammanthurai 20 - - 05 3.0 15 9.0
3.Nintavur 20 - - 05 3.0 15 9.0
4.Akkaraippattu 20 - - 10 7.0 10 7.0
5.Nuwara Eliya 60 30 18.0 30 18.0 - -
Total 160 70 44.0 50 31.0 40 25.0

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6.4 THE GOVERNMENT OFFICES REGULARLY VISITED BY THE PEOPLE
The survey found that the District Secretariat, the Divisional Secretariat, the Grama Niladari
Office, the Police Station and the Government Hospital are the most common institutions visited
by the sample population belonged to different geographical areas and ethnic groups.

The people live in Mahaweli settlements and in the Estate plantations have institutional setup
unique to them. The Mahaweli settlement are being looked after by the Zonal and District
Offices and the Managers appointed by the Mahaweli Ministry and most of the agrarian services
required by the farming communities are channeled through these offices.

The estate plantation communities have an institutional set-up unique to the plantation areas. The
State has now established its own authority system in the plantation districts through the Ministry
of Infrastructure which is now functioning under the Mega Ministry called Ministry of Nation
Building. After the privatization of plantations a new organization called Plantation Welfare
Trust has been in operation. These institutional arrangements have contributed to the weakening
of the Plantation Raj established during colonial period. However, new political alignments in
the area and also the caste based political and trade union organizations are controlling the
peoples’ dealing with the government offices including the Grama Niladari.

Apart from these special arrangements in every locality, it is the Grama Niladari office which has
to be visited by the people for the initial formalities to apply for National Identity Card, Passport

58
Application, Death Registration, Certificates of Residence, Character Certificates, Registration
of electors, Permit for felling tree, Complaints of petty crimes and minor disputes among people.
The functions assigned to Grama Niladhari (GN) show that this particular officer has become the
sole representative of government and the state at the village level. It seems that the area is
remote to the District or Divisional Secretariats the Grama Niladari has too much of
discretionary power on the functions assigned to him by the law. It seems that their discretionary
capacities have further strengthened due to their close connection to the police as the village
level government officers responsible for law and order issues in the particular area.

The majority of the people interviewed have named the District and Divisional Secretariats, the
Government Hospital, the Office of District Medical Officer of Health (MOH), the Grama
Niladari, the Samurdhi Bank, the Post Office, the Agrarian Service Centre, the Police Station and
the Cooperative Shop as the most frequently visited offices by them and their family members
for services offered by the government. It is interesting to note that a considerable number of
people in the villages and the plantation areas do not have a fair idea to distinguish government
offices from the Non Government Organizations one. For example, the majority of the samples
we have met in the Sinhala village in the Nuwara Eliya District had named SARVODAYA as a
government office they visit regularly. This shows not only the level of knowledge and
awareness of ordinary masses of public institutions but also their level of citizenship which
according to the citizenship criterion of Aristotle are not really sharing the public office.
Table 3 presents the information provided by the people about the services available with the
offices in their areas.
Table 3: Peoples’ knowledge about the GIs and their Services
No. Institution Services
01 Hospital Free hospitalization, medication, surgery
02 M.O.H Office Thriposa, Vaccination
03 District Secretariat (Kachcheri) Land Grants
04 G.N. Office Residence or Character Certificate & Income
Verification Certificate, Initiation of National
Identity Card and Passport Application, Birth
& Death Registration, Registration of Voters
04 D.S Office Processing of applications for National
Identity Cards, Passports, Birth Certificates,
Vehicle Revenue License, Rehabilitation Fund
Claim, Registration of business
05 Kachcheriya Driving License,
06 Agrarian Service Centre Fertilizer Subsidy, Seeds and Plants, Irrigation
Tax and Problems Related to Farming
07 Samurdhi Bank/office Loans and Other Samurdhi Benefits
08 Police Civil Complaints, Police Reports, Civil
Disputes and Settlements
09 Cooperative shop Ration (Purchase Rice & Kerosene by the

59
 villages)
10 Post office Parcel, Telegram, Postal letters
11 Veterinary office Cattle Care including Breeding of Animals
and their minor ailments
12 Mahaweli Settlement Office in the Issues Relating to Water for Irrigation, Land
Village (Colony Office) Claims, Fertilizer Subsidy

Table 3 shows the knowledge and awareness of the people about the existence of Government
Institutions (GIs) and the services available for them in those offices. The services named in the
table are the services requested by the majority of people. However, out of 160 respondents,
although over 75 per cent were able to identify the institutions available in their respective
locality, majority of them were not able to identify either most or all the basic services (we have
identified more than 30 services in the questionnaire) available at these institutions.

Some said they seek support of a friend/ relative or an intermediary to approach the government
institutions. Some have openly said that they had to pay money to get urgent requirements such
as National Identity Card or Birth Certificate. This is very common practice in the plantation
areas. In Dehiatta Kandiya we met a person who alleged that he had made a payment to a person
at the Human Rights Commission Office to get his son bail out from the Court but it was not
happened. Another person said that Grama Niladaris are very cunning that they are any how
manage to get something from them in return of the speedy service. One person commented that
the majority of the police personnel don’t know how to talk to people politely and they don’t see
any difference between the bad people and good people when they deal with the people who
come to their police stations.

Many have said that they visit the government institutions without a proper knowledge about the
services available or the procedures to be followed at the offices. Some said that they make
visits to the offices whenever they need a service without checking whether there are fixed time
for them to visit these offices for the particular service. They said that very few government
institutions provide information materials for the people to understand the nature of service
available and the procedures to be followed by the public to receive their services. Therefore the
statement we received from many people that “it is better to go early in the morning to get the
work done” explained this two sided dimension related to the service delivery. .

6.5 EFFICIENCY OF GOVERNMENT INSTITUTIONS

Although the questionnaire does not pose questions to directly measure efficiency of GIs, the
survey included a separate question in the semi structured questionnaire regarding efficiency of
GIs in service delivery. However, the way respondents appreciate the GIs` performance in
delivering service is available. This sub-section is a very brief description of the respondents`
experience and assessments of the levels of efficiency of the GIs in the sample. One key
indicator of the levels of efficiency is the time taken/needed to accomplish a given task.

60
 Average number of time taken to provide services
type of service
Rehabilitation Fund or
Compensation 5
Fertilizer Subsidy 3
Certificate from the GN 3
Police Report 4
Electricity (new connection & repair)
4
Water Supply 3
Samurdhi Loan 1
Obtaining birth certificate (If the
perfected application is submitted) 1
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Number of days

According to respondents, GIs in the survey take an average number of visit ranging between
one and five to accomplish a requested service. This number varies according to the different
locations and services requested. For example, as shown in the above chart registration of death
with G.N in Kalmunai coastal area takes longer time than other locations in the survey.

The table 4 offers the peoples’ perceptions and attitudes about the government institutions in
their respective areas. In the questionnaire we named 12 government institutions which deal
with the ordinary people and asked them to comment whether they are efficient, inefficient,
corrupt or bias for power according to their own experience. Although everyone in the sample
did not answer the questions as they have not visited the institutions named in the questionnaire
the percentages have been prepared for the total number of people participated in the sample
(160). It is observed that large number of people (41%) identifies hospital as the most efficient
among the GIs followed by G.N. Office (26%), Samurdhi (16%) and Agrarian Service Centre
(9%). According to the survey, a vast majority of people (78%) see Police as the most
inefficient, corrupt (28%) and bias for powerful people (28%). The next in line for inefficient
GIs are D.S. office (37%) and Grama Niladhari (33%). An interesting revelation is all the
institutions except Land Department have identified by a section of the sample as efficient due to
their personal experience. The chart appeared after table- 4 offers a comparative assessment.

Table 4: THE PEOPLE’S PERCEPTION ABOUT THE SERVICES OFFERED IN THE GOVERNMENT
OFFICES – All AREAS (Number of people 160)
Institution Attitude (out of 160 respondents)
Efficient % Inefficient % Corrupt % Bias for %
Power
Kachcheriya 10 6.2 15 9.3 03 1.8 05 3.1
D.S office 11 6.8 60 37.5 31 19.3 28 17.5

61
G.N 42 26.2 54 33.7 41 25.6 33 20.6
M.O.H office 08 5.0 15 9.3 02 1.2 03 1.8
Hospital 67 41.8 11 6.8 03 1.8 04 2.5
Police 06 3.7 117 78.0 46 28.7 46 28.7
Samurdhi Bank/Office 27 16.8 12 7.5 09 5.6 08 5.0
Ag. Service Centre 15 9.3 08 5.0 06 3.7 07 4.3
Ceylon Electricity Board 10 6.2 10 6.2 06 3.7 05 3.1
Water Board 10 6.2 02 1.2 06 3.7 05 3.1
Land Department ---- ---- 05 3.1 12 7.4 11 6.8

90
78
80
70
60
50 41.8
37.5 Efficient
40 33.7
28.7 Inefficient
30
corrupt
20
BiasFpower
10
0

The overall picture emerging out of this tabulation is presented below. It is prepared on the basis
of averages prepared for each category. Accordingly the overall percentages for these
identifications are 36% Inefficient; 20% Corrupt; 18% Bias for powerful people and 24%
Efficient.

62
 Peoples' attitudes towards public service
institutions
18% 25%
Efficient
20% Inefficient
37% Corrupt
BiasF power

The people generally accept that the officers in the GIs are not treating every one equal. The
large number of people accepts the fact that the officers tend to treat the powerful people well
and they seek undue advantages form the ordinary masses. Hence the public service in Sri
Lanka is weak in adherence to the rule of law principle.

The people say that always they have to find a third party to get their service done on time. The
officers in Kachcheri, DS Offices are blamed for their disregard to the community and lethargic
approach to the work. Some said that the officers anyhow find a wrong to send them back and
postpone the work for another day.

Some have pointed out that if the government introduces impartial complaint machinery and
redress mechanism the public would have a better prospect of getting their work done. The
biggest complaints were against the Grama Niladharis who have been identified as persons who
are interested in taking anything possible as bribe. Further, they are not available in their offices
on time though they have fixed one or two days as office days to attend to the needs of the
people. Similarly, the police department too does not enjoy a good feeling among the villagers.
The police are infamous among the people for their rude behavior and lack of compassion
towards the people.

We have presented separate tables below in order to provide the regional variations for these
components. The charts prepared using the number of people not the percentages. These tables
show that GIs have different rating in the different areas. This may be attributed to the fact that
the importance of the institutions differ according to the level of development (urban/rural/estate)
and the availability of special institutions to provide services in some localities (Estate and
Mahaweli areas).

63
Table 5 - THE PEOPLE’S PERCEPTION ABOUT THE PUBLIC SERVICE BY AREA - Kalmunai Coastal
Institution Attitude (out of 60 respondents)
Efficient % Inefficient % Corrupt % Bias for Power %
Kachcheriya 25 7.0 4 10 5 2 5 3
D.S office 9 6.0 42 28 15 17 7 25
G.N 12 15 23 23 27 24 8 21
M.O.H office 8 5.0 15 10 2 1 2 2
Hospital 48 32 9 6 3 2 4 2.5
Police 6 4 18 65 35 30 15 30
Samurdhi Bank/Office 20 13 6 4 8 5.5 6 4
Ag. Service Centre 10 7 5 3 6 4 3 2
Ceylon Electricity Board 7 4.5 10 7 5 3.5 4 2.5
Water Board 10 7 2 1 6 4 5 3
Land Department - 5 10 7 8 5.5

People`s perception about govt.institutions-Kalmunai coastal

60 48
Nu.of people

50 42
40 35
30 24 2327
15 12 15 18 15 20
20 9 7 8 8 9 4 6 10 10 10 10
45 5 3 6 86 56 3 7 5 4 2 65 5 8
10 22 0
0

Authority
G.N

Hospital

Police
Kachcheriya

D.S office

Electricity
Bank/Office

Board
Water
M.O.H office

Department
Ag. Service
Samurdhi

Ceylon

Land
Board

Labour
Centre

Institution

Efficient Inefficient Corrupt Bias4power

It is clear from the above chart that among the total of eleven identified GIs in this area only
hospital tops in efficiency with significant number of people (80%) consider it as the most
efficient GI followed by Kachcheriya(40%)and Samurdhi(34%).Further, Kachcheriya is the only
institution which scores very low in all other three indicators. On the other hand, D.S. offices
(with 70% of respondents) and Grama Niladhari offices (39%) and Police (18%) are identified as
the most inefficient GIs in the area. Similarly, Police is deemed as the most corrupt (59%) as
well as the most biased for powerful people among the all eleven GIs. Another interesting
observation is that no single respondent identified Land Authority with efficiency, although they
identified it to a lesser extent with other three indicators. Further, out of eleven GIs five such as
D.S., G.N., Police, C.E.B and M.O.H. offices score high in the inefficient bar than in efficiency

64
one. Also, people tend to associate Police and G.N. Offices more with corruption than the other
three indicators.
Table 6 -THE PEOPLE’S PERCEPTION ABOUT THE PUBLIC SERVICES BY AREA
Nuwara Eliya (Tamil)
Institution Attitude (out of 30 respondents)
Efficient % Inefficient % Corrupt % Bias for %
Power
Kachcheriya 09 30 12 40 08 27 01 3
D.S office 03 10 01 3.0 01 3 01 3
G.N 09 30 6 20 3 10 1 3
Dept. Education 02 7.0 01 3.0 - - - -
Hospital 05 17 03 10 - - - -
Police - - - - 03 10 - -

Samurdhi Bank/Office 02 7.0 12 40 03 10 - -

Agri. Loan 03 10 - - - - - -
Ceylon Electricity Board - - 03 10 - - - -
Water Board - - 01 3 - - - -
Land Authority - - - - 03 10 - -
Labour Department 01 3.0 03 10 04 13 02 7
School 03 10 - - - - - -
Registrar office 02 7.0 - - - - - -
Foreign employment 01 3.0 - - - - - -

People`s perception about govts.Institution in Nuwara

Eliya(Tamil)

14
12
10 efficient
8 inefficient
6 corruption
4 bias of power
2
0
l i
riy
a .N ita rth rd ity f ic
e
e G s p u b oa h or o f
ch H
o
Sa
m
ca
l ut ra
r
ach tc ri d .A s t
k e n gi
El La Re

65
 People`s perception about govt. institutions-Nuwaraeliya Tamil
Foreign
employment 1
Registrar
office 2
School
3
Labour 2
Department 1 3 4
Land 3
Authority
Water Board 1
Ceylon
3 Institution Bias4power
institution

Electricity
Institution Corrupt
Agri. Loan
3 Institution Inefficient
Samurdhi 3
Bank/Office 2 12 Institution Efficient
Police 3

Hospital 3 5
Dept.
Education 1 2
1 3
G.N 6 9
11
D.S office 1 3
1 8
Kachcheriya 12
9
0 5 10 15
nu.of people

Among the fifteen identified GIs in Nuwara Eliya (Tamil speaking area), G.N and Kachcheriya
are considered as the efficient GIs by 30% people while another 20% and 40% of them consider
G.N and Kachcheriya inefficient respectively. Similarly, another 40% associate Samurdhi Bank
& office with inefficiency as for the corrupt GIs, Kachcheriya tops with 27% followed by Labour
department with 13%. Of the perception of the respondents with regard to the GIs biased for
powerful, two of them (7% ) identify labour department while one(3.5%) consider G.N, D.S.
Office and Kachcheriya in that category. Moreover, out of fifteen GIs five such as Kachcheriya,
Samurdhi, C.E.B, Water Board and Labour Dept. are considered as the more inefficient
compared to the score received by the other three indicators from the people.

66
Table 7 - THE PEOPLE’S PERCEPTION ABOUT THE SERVICES OFFERED IN THE GOVERNMENT
OFFICES - Nuwara Eliya - Kala Pura and Shanthi Pura Villages (Sinhala)
Institution Attitude (out of 30 respondents)
Efficient % Inefficien % Corrupt % Bias for %
t Power
Kachcheriya 01 4 12 40 01 4 02 7
D.S office - 05 17 - - 03 10
Agrarian Service Centre 04 13 02 7 -- - 02 7
Samurdhi Bank/Office 02 7 04 13 01 4 02 7
Land Department - - 04 13 01 4 03 10
Foreign employment bureau 01 4 01 4 - - - -
G.N 09 10 6 30 02 7 1 4

Municipal council 04 13 - - - - - -
School 01 4 - - - - - -
Hospital 11 37 -- - - - - -

People`s perception about GIs-Nuwaraeliya S inhala

Nu.of people
14
12
12 11

10 9 Efficient

8 7 Inefficient
6 Corrupt
6 5
4 4 B4Power
4 3 3 3 3 3 3
22 2 2
2 1 1 1 1 11 1 1
0 0
0
a ce a e t .N l l l
riy fi ay ffi
c en ea
u G ci oo ita
he of dr ur un Sc
h sp
hc .S en /O rtm tb co o
ac D K nk ep
a l H
K na Ba D en ipa
i ym ic
Institution

ji a dh nd l o un
ov ur La p M
G m em
Sa n
ig
re
Fo

The above chart shows that among the total of eleven identified GIs by all thirty respondents in
Nuwara Eliya Sinhala division around 37% of them consider hospital is the most efficient GI in
their area followed by G.N. Office with 30%. Meanwhile another 40% consider Kachcheriya as
the most inefficient GI among the total of eleven GIs followed by G.N offices (30%) in the area.
Similarly, it is obvious that just less than 7% people see G.N and Agrarian Service Centre as the
most corrupt GI among the all eleven GIs in the area. Out of total eleven GIs three such as

67
Kachcheriya, Agrarian Service Centre and D.S. Office top in inefficiency than in the other three
indicators. Another striking observation emerging from this chart is that people in the area tend
to consider GIs such as School, Municipal council and hospital as purely efficient. Further, not a
single respondent consider Land Dept. as an efficient GI.

Table 8 - THE PEOPLE’S PERCEPTION ABOUT THE SERVICES OFFERED IN THE GOVERNMENT
OFFICES- Dehiatta Kandya
Attitude (out of 40 respondents)
Institution Efficient % Inefficient % Corrupt % Bias for %
Power
Mahaweli Area Office 03 15.0 06 20.0 ---- ---- ---- ----
(Kottasha Office)
Mahaweli Office in the 09 12.5 02 15.0 ---- ---- ---- ----
settlement (Colony Office)
D.S. Office 02 5.0 13 32.5 06 15.0 18 45.0
G.N. 08 20.0 04 10.0 03 7.5 1 2.5
School 02 7.5 ----- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
Hospital 08 20.0 02 2.5 ---- ---- ---- ----
Samurdhi Bank/Office 05 12.5 02 ---- ---- ---- 1 ----
Ceylon Electricity Board 03 7.5 03 7.5 01 2.5 01 2.5
Police ---- ---- 25 62.5 05 12.5 05 12.5
Colombo – Health Ministry ---- ---- 03 12.5 ---- ---- 01 2.5
Kachcheriya ---- ---- ---- ---- 01 3.0 01 3.0
Agrarian Service Centre 01 2.5 01 2.5 ---- ---- 02 5.0
Foreign Employment Bureau 01 2.5 ---- ---- ----- ---- 01 2.5

68
 30
25
25

20 18

15 13 E fficient
Inefficient
10 8 8 8
6 6 6 C orrupt
5 5
4 55
5 3 3 33 3 pwr bias
2 2
1 1 11 1 1 1 11
0
ff ff ff ff ol ta
l i ity e l a r
iO O O O o i dh ric l ic C o e riy i S e
el ol S N ch sp ur ct Po is
t h r
aw aC D G S Ho m
El
e in c h c ra
M M Sa M A g
Ka

The above chart shows that in Dehiatta Kandiya area only hospitals and G.N offices top in
efficiency with sizeable number of people (20%) consider them in that way among the total of
twelve GIs. On the other hand, as the chart demonstrates, Police as well as D.S. Office are
identified as the most inefficient GIs by63% and 33% respondents respectively. Further, another
20% of them consider Mahaweli Office in that way. Another notable finding is out of total 40
respondents 18 (45%) consider D.S office as the GI of highly biased for powerful. Similarly, in
the corruption index, again D.S office and Police top with 15% and 13% respectively. It is
noteworthy that out of total 40 respondents, not a single one identifies Police, Health Ministry
and Kachcheriya with efficiency. Moreover, 8% of them identify Samurdhi and school only with
efficiency among the all four indicators given to them. Another interesting point is among the
total twelve GIs in the area five GIs (Mahaweli Area Office, Mahaweli Colony Office, D.S
Office, Police and Health Ministry) score high in the inefficiency bar than efficiency.

Tables 9 to 12 appeared below are useful in understanding the utility value of having offices in
the remote areas by the central government departments. In the questionnaire we have asked the
people to name the GIs visited last six months. Also we have asked them to comment on what
are the reasons they have identified for the non delivery of service or delay in delivering the
service.

It is observed that the 96% of the Tamil people in the estate sector have visited Kachcheriya
(District Secretariat Office). Next in line are Samurdhi Office (46%) and the Labour Department
(33%). Samurdhi relief was not taken by the people in the estate sector sometime back. The
large number of visits to the Samurdhi Office shows that the people in the estate sector are

69
looking for government poor relief. The large number of visits to the labour department is
understandable as most of these people are working as labourers in the plantations. However,
the table shows that the people in the plantations are not regular recipients of public services. No
one said they have visited the GN office during last six months. This can be attributed to their
employment in the estate plantations where the workers are channeling their service
requirements through Estate Superintendent’s office or the plantation sector Trade Union
Offices. In contrast the people from the Sinhala villages in the Nuwara Eliya District have
visited G.N. (100%), Hospital (93%), Kachcheriya (53%), Samurdhi Office (46%), and Agrarian
Service Centre (43%).

Interestingly in Dehiatta Kandiya the two offices belong to the Local Administration, namely
Kachcheriya (2.5%) and DS Office (1%) are the least visited GIs by the people. The most
number of people have visited Water Board (100%), Hospital (100%), Veterinary Office (85%)
and Department of Labour (92%). It is interesting to inquire about the large number of visits to
the labour department by the people live in agricultural area like Dehiatta Kandiya.

The information gathered in Kalmunia area show that a large number of people have visited DS
Office (81%), GN (78%), Hospital (75%), MOH Office (61%), Samurdhi (58%), Cooperative
Shop (58%), Agrarian Service Centre (58%), Police (48%), Water Board (41%) and Kachcheriya
(33%) for services. Compared with other localities the people in Kalmunai area have more
requirements with the GIs. This shows that the people live in urban areas have more service
requirements with the GIs than the people in rural areas or the estate sector. These regional
variations are given in the tables and charts presented below.

Table 9 - Number of people visited main government institutions in Nuwara Eliya (Tamil)
Institutions Nu. of people visited Percentage
Kachcheriya 29 96.0
D.S 08 26.6
Samurdhi 14 46.0
G.N 06 20.0
Hospital 09 30.0
School 03 10.0
Dept. Labour 10 33.3
Police 04 13.3

70
 Nu.of.people visited main govet.institution in
Nuwara Eliya(Tamil)
35
30
25
20
15 Nu.of.people
10 visit.
5
0
a .S hi .N al ol ur e
eriy D urt G spit cho abo polic
ch m l
Sa Ho S pt.
ch De
Ka

Table 10 - Number of people visited main government institution during last one year (Dehiatta Kandya)
Institutions Nu of people visited Percentage
Kachcheriya 01 2.5
D.S 04 1.0
Samurdhi 26 65.0
Water Board 40 100.0
Hospital 40 100.0
Dept. Agriculture 11 27.5
Dept. Labour 37 92.5
Veterinary Office 34 85.0

Nu of people visited main govt.institutions in

Dehiatakandiaya

Veterinary Office 34
in
Dept. Labour 37
st
it Dept. Agriculture 11
u
Hospital 40
ti
o Water Board 40
n
Samurdhi 26
s
D.S 4
Kachcheriya 1

0 10 20 30 40 50
Nu.of people

71
Table 11 - Number of people visited main government institution in Kalmunai coastal.
No Institution Num. of Percentage
people
1 Hospital 45 75.0
2 Post office 08 13.3
3 D.S. Office 49 81.6
4 Agrarian Service Centre 35 58.3
5 Water Board 25 41.6
6 Samurdhi Bank 35 58.3
7 Kachcheriya 20 33.3
8 Bank 10 16.6
9 Cooperative shop 35 58.3
10 M.O.H Office 37 61.6
11 Veterinary Office 09 15.0
12 Fisheries Cooperation Office 08 13.3
13 Police 29 48.3
14 G.N. Office 47 78.3

Number of people visited main government institution in Kalmunai coastal

Num. of people

60

50 49
45 47
40
37
35 35 35
30 29
25 institutions
20 20

10 8 10 9 8
0
l e e r d a k p e e n e e
p ita ffic fic tre ar ank ri y a n ho f ic f fic ti o lic f fic
s o o f n o B e B s o f o r a o o
t . e B i h e P .
Ho os .S ri .c ter dh chc tiv O .H ar oo
y p
.N
P D g a r a a
r M . in c G
A W mu K e e r h .
S
a
o op et fi s
C V

72
Table 12 - Number of People visited main government institution in – Nuwara Eliya (Sinhala)
No Institution Num. of Percentage
people
1 Hospital 28 93.3
2 Post Office 02 6.6
3 D.S. Office 02 6.6
4 Agrarian Service Center 13 43.3
5 Urban Council 05 16.6
6 Samurdhi Bank 14 46.6
7 Kachcheriya 16 53.3
8 School 12 40.0
14 G.N. Office 30 100

Num. of people visited main got.institution in Nuwara

Eliya(Sinhala)
35
30
30 28

25
20 16
13 14
15 12
10
5
5 2 2
0
e l e
tal ce fic ya cil nk iy
a
oo ff i
c
pi f fi of ra un Ba er h o
Ho
s
s t o S. n d co h i c h Sc N.
Po D. a ke
ban u rd a ch G.
jan Ur Sa
m K
o vi
K

7 – CONCLUSION - EFFICIENT, EFECTIVE AND RESPONSIVE GOVERNANCE

7.1 INTRODUCTION
The previous chapters have provided discussions on the issues related to the public
administration which is the executive arm that helps the government to implement laws, policies
and programmes. Further, these discussions have identified “rule of law” and “rights of citizens”
as essential requisites to be incorporated into the actions of public servants. Therefore not only
the competence but also the commitment of the public administration is crucial in the
improvement of quality of the service produced by the public service.

73
Another important dimension identified in these discussions is the linkages between the State
and the public administrations. When involving in the delivery of services the public service
personnel have to represent the state and enforce its power on the people. There are certain
services that are instrumental in enforcing the authority of state on people. This particular aspect
compels the administrators to follow the procedural and regulatory frameworks that have been
prepared to implement law and order in society. Nevertheless the public administrators cannot
ignore the two important principles named above, namely, the rule of law and the rights of
citizens. These two principles are interdependent and intertwined. The synthesis of these two is
very crucial for good governance.

The present chapter focuses on citizens’ rights. However, the focus is not the civil, political,
social and economic rights but the citizens’ right to efficient, effective, equitable and responsive
governance. These aspects have an important place in the administrative discussions. These
terms may have different meanings to the economist, the sociologist and the managers in the
private sector. In the discipline of public administration they are measured in terms of the public
administrators’ ability to synthesize the principles of rule of law and citizens’ rights. This paper
provides administrative definitions to these terms, namely, efficiency, effectiveness, equity and
responsiveness and, discusses how they become rights of citizens. The intention is to facilitate
an informed civil society dialogue on these aspects in order to understand the space available
outside the proper sphere of constitutional changes in the improvement of quality of life as well
as the unity and diversity of our society.

7.2 DEFINITIONS
Efficiency, Effectiveness and Equity (Three Es) are the central organizing concepts of public
administration institutions in the modern democratic states. All of them are equally important
public service values and the citizens can expect the administration to decide matters in
accordance with them. If these values are entrenched in the processes and structures of the
public administration and the people working in the organization are really committed to these
values the system would produce the “Responsive Governance”.

First, we shall explore the three value outcomes: Effectiveness, Efficiency and Equity as rights of
citizens. Then we can properly think about these three outcomes and develop our perspective in
line with the discussions we already had on the system of public administration.

Bent Christensen, Professor of Law, University of Copenhagen, noted that efficiency is used in at
least three different meanings in the academic literature (Bent Christensen, “Efficiency and Rule
of Law in Public Administration”, Paper presented at the Twenty-sixth Meeting of Scandinavian
Lawyers, Helsinki, August, 1972, pp.55-56).
“First the word is use to indicate the degree of goal achievement. By this definition
administration or a particular administrative activity is efficient if it achieve the specified

74
 aim. Second the most general use of the world, which is rooted in the thought process of
managerial economics, where production is customarily called efficient if it leads to the
greatest possible return measured in money. Third definition sees administrative activity
similar to industrial production. Then administration involved in manufacturing certain
goods and services. Thus efficiency has to be measured in terms of the goods and
services produced.”

To economists, efficiency is a relationship between ends and means. Accordingly we call a

situation inefficient when we are claiming that we could achieve the desired ends with less
means or that the means employed could produce more of the ends desired. The economic
efficiency mainly concerns the monetary values in the means applied and the ends achieved. In
the classical administrative literature this view was widely accepted and the administrative
organization was seen as a technical mechanism for achieving desired goals. This view, namely,
equating efficiency with a rational consideration of the organization of the administration was
later criticized as it provided a poor guide to public administration because it ignores values
other than money. Critics of economic efficiency contend that the public administration cannot
always stick to the monetary values as it gives priority to the peoples’ satisfaction, public
security and the fulfillment of social goals. It is the term equity that takes a deeper view on these
non-monetary values involved in the public administration.

Equity refers in the public administration to fairness in terms of social groupings that are
suffering from inherent social and economic inequalities. As such the task of public
administration is not just delivering public goods and services in a fair and reasonable manner
but also to address separately the needs of the weakest sections in the society such as poor,
marginalized communities, people with disabilities, elders, children and women. Then the
service providers should treat the customers differently and try to address their different needs
differently. Formal equity means you give people the opportunity and leave it up to them to
make the most of it. Therefore, offering free education in government schools mean everyone
has the same chance of a decent education and it is then up to each student to make the most of
it. Further, equity principle makes the public administrators responsible for making people feel
better by not taking up a great deal of time to deliver the services and avoiding steps that build
complicated work-place arrangements. The most important aspect is to address the social justice
issues through the services delivered. For instance it is now recognized that the welfare policies
employed to re-arrange income distribution and achieve some re-distribution are essential in
establishing equity in society. Therefore equity is a cost and it must be addressed through
efficient management of resources.

In dictionaries the term effective is applied to that “which has the power to, or which actually
does, produce an effect”. Effectual is used especially in the processes which produces the
desired effect. Thus the effective public service must be economical and efficient in its use of
tax payer funds. That means the public sector must be an on- merit employer with a focus on

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outcomes rather than its own cumbersome internal processes protecting the well being of
underperforming lethargic bureaucrats. But it’s also true that an effective public service is one
which responds well, and in a timely way, to the demands of the people. Under democratic
governance one of the criterions of measuring the effectiveness of public service is applying the
principle of political responsiveness. It refers to the need of responding to the political demands
of the day by the public administration with policies, programmes and processes that are low in
administrative cost, well targeted, fair and transparent. Since the public sector enjoys a
monopoly over state power, it is only the public sector that can enforce legal contracts aimed at
the fulfilling of demands of citizens channeled through politics. If any such demand to be
fulfilled by the private and non-profit sectors it is the public sector that has to enter into legal
contracts with them on these specific subjects. Therefore the quality of public sectors
management becomes very important dimension of overall effectiveness of democratic
governance. This overall effectiveness of public sector includes the competence of public sector
managers and the quality of service delivery. They determine the level of equality or inequality
in society. If the service is provided only to rich and powerful it would naturally result in better
income opportunities for the powerful. The result would be the same when the public sector is
not efficient in getting things done. If the public service is provided evenly it will help to
improve income distribution and as a result marginalized groups have greater chance of coming
out of poverty trap.

7.3 EFFICIENCY, EFFECTIVENESS AND EQUITY AS NATIONAL GOALS

As we noted above these three Es guarantee economical use of resources belonged to the people
and justifiable distribution of outputs to be produced by the use of these resources. That makes
the government not only less costly for the people but also an instrument of removing social
disparities in society. Such a government first uses their resources and money economically;
second it provides equal choices and just opportunities for its citizenry.

The less costly government encourages the people to use their capital and entrepreneurial skills
to become the driving force of economic development. This in turn strengthens the civil society,
the real force in making the state and government more strong. The existence of a strong civil
society promotes equal freedom, dignity and rights among the members of society. In that way
the society and the state becomes a closely knitted entities guaranteeing good governance in
which people enjoy real freedom. The government which provides equal choices and just
opportunities for its citizenry establishes practice of a fair treatment. It makes sure -women have
the same chance of economic security as men -no one lives in poverty -no one suffer from social
disabilities in their old age -children from both rich and poor families have a same basic start in
life.

The role of the public sector is to ensure that they meet all these requirements as employers as
well as policy implementers. Thus efficiency and equity become national goals. The
administrators have to do with the fundamental right to opportunity of all our citizens. Then they

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have to do with the management of difference between genders, races, capacities, even classes. It
is true that public administration which is efficient and follows equity principle in their every day
practice becomes a catalyst in enabling us to attain other national interest goals such as economic
growth, low unemployment, reduced poverty and improved competitiveness. In this sense these
three Es promote national security as it strengthening human security. Therefore they are
essential to the survival of democracy. As such efficient, effective and equitable governance is a
national goal that would help the citizens to enjoy their rights in a democratic system.

7.4 RESPONSIVE GOVERNANCE

The forgoing discussion pointes to the fact that public administration of a country by associating
with the above three values would strengthen the state security and serve for national interests
better. If the administration of the country is efficient in producing outputs in terms of the
monetary as well as non-monetary values and guarantees fairness to the marginalized groups the
country has a well established practice of rule of law.

In business, to be “responsive” to the customer is the responsible thing to do. In politics the
governing institutions of the state to be responsive to the citizens as the rationalization of state is
based on the sovereignty of people. In politics responsiveness is defined as affirmative decision-
making by the policymakers and administrators to fulfill the demands of the citizens. The
democratic theory identifies “responsible government” as a government that respects mass
opinion in making of policy decisions. This has influenced the democratic societies to produce
governance frameworks that make the government receptive to the demands of the people and
maintain high standards in the use of public resources. The term responsiveness in governance
also referred to the ability of the policy makers or the public administrators to respond quickly
and affirmatively to the needs of the people. In this regard as noted above rule of law and rights
of citizens are the two important aspects to be reckoned with by the policy makers and the
administrators. Hence responsive governance is a government which is keen on maintaining
efficient, effective and equitable governance through its legislative, executive and administrative
decisions respecting rule of law.

In this respect the policy makers or politicians have more responsibility than the administrators
as they are the representatives of people who hold the ultimate responsibility of deciding public
policies. The politicians play a crucial role in transmitting the public opinion and demands of the
people into policy making. Therefore the politician should participate in the public affairs to
discuss the issue and demands of the people and communicate these demands to the places where
policies are formulated. They also responsible for establishing rule of law and ensuring the
rights of people. Some countries have special mechanisms to recall the politicians who are not
following the principles of responsive governance. A certain number of electors can demand a
by-election to check the popularity of those politicians. Another mechanism is allowing certain
number of electors to submit a draft legislative bill to the national Parliament for ratification.

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These measures highlight the importance of setting legal obligations for the politicians who have
been elected to the governing institutions established at all levels of governance. This is an
imperative to establish responsive governance as “responsiveness” is not spontaneous and
automatic outcome.

As noted above the political leaders alone cannot establish responsive governance. The
existence of an efficient and effective public administration is a pre-requisite to achieve this in
society. The establishment of merit based recruitment, training, placement and remuneration
policies are important in producing efficient administrative system. Since the second half of the
19th century political interference was identified as a danger to the merit based personnel
administration system. Hence politicization of bureaucracy has long been recognized as an
anathema to the responsive governance. If the merit system is abused by political or societal
vested interests ultimate outcome would be the declining of the quality of service delivery. This
will open the floodgates of politicization making it a normal thing in the life of public servants.
Since the public administration system is the final delivery point of the policy process it is the
public administrators which be evidence for the level of responsiveness existed in the governing
process. If the public service is corrupt; lethargic; inefficient; or bias for power when they
deliver services no one could say that rule of law is respected in the governing process.

7.5 HUMAN RIGHTS AND RESPONSIVE GOVERNANCE

The effective, efficient and responsive governance is now recognized as a universal human right.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights issued in 1948 claimed that “everyone has the right
to take part in the government of his/her country, directly or through freely chosen
representatives and …equal access to public service in his/her country” (Article 21). This has
become a directive for the states and community of states when they proclaimed themselves as
the duty bearers of the universal human rights by signing of two major human rights treaties.

The International Covenants of Civil and Political Rights recognized that the citizens of a
country have a right to participate in the government directly as well as indirectly. This right
includes the right to franchise, right to have free and fare election and participate in the affairs of
government etc. These political rights clearly recognize the citizens’ right to take part in the
government of their country. The reasons for requiring such participation have been explained in
the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. It explicitly recognized that
everyone have the right to adequate standards of life, featuring right to food, shelter, health care,
social security and education. Although most of the countries in the world have allowed the
private sector to become providers of most of these social and economic requirements the
ultimate responsibility of guaranteeing the enjoyment of these rights by everyone is always a
government responsibility. Hence citizens expect the government and the administrators to be
non-partisan. They want participation for all citizens in government policies, programmes and
projects. They want to have a share in governance. To enable them to do that, they need to
ensure easy access to information. They want effective delegation and decentralization of

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decision-making powers and resources to local bodies. “Citizens demand that the state must
respect the education for all principle. Community and civil society leaders, on the other hand,
want a more accountable and transparent system and culture of good governance rather than
government” (adopted from Commonwealth Foundation, Citizens and Governance: Civil Society
in the New Millennium – National Summary Report from India, 05 October, 2000).
As such under responsive governance we must expect from the State:

• To respect rule of law and basic human rights

• To guarantee efficient and effective public service

• To deliver basic services to all citizens

• To organize the education, health care and social security for every one

• To help the poor and marginalized groups to enjoy human rights

• To promote economic development and livelihoods

• To protect life, property and rights of citizens

• To ensure participatory and democratic governance

The public service and the administration system must organize with a clear vision to support the
state and society to achieve full realization of each of these components to have a good society.

7.6 CONCLUSION
The chapter presented definitions for efficiency, effectiveness and equity in order to understand
what responsive governance is in the context of democratic governance. It is argued that since
the public administration is responsible for assisting the state to achieve social objectives its
performance to be evaluated in terms of non-monetary values while adherence to the modern
public management methods such as value for money, operational and personal performance
evaluations. Although the modern new public management promotes features such as user pay,
privatizing and contracting out public provisions the public administration cannot ignore the
large number of poor, minority, and marginalized people who do not have any other protection
other than the state.

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