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THE World Bank has announced that it is giving the Jit Gill Annual
Award for Outstanding Public Service (named after a well-regarded
officer who worked for integrity and good governance in the public
sector), to a Filipino government official in ceremonies to take
place at its headquarters in Washington, DC, on April 14, 2008.
The government official? She is Karina
Constantino David, newly-retired chairperson of the Civil Service
Commission whose seven year constitutionally mandated term has come
to a close accompanied by modernizing reforms instituted in this
vital government agency.
The commission, an independent constitutional
body, is—unlike its peers the Commision on Elections and
Commission on Audit—much less dramatic and less public by nature
of its work. It is now 100 years old, having begun in the days of
the First Republic. It is a regulatory body dealing with government
bureaucracy consisting of clerks, professionals, managers,
specialized and scientific personnel, including the foreign service.
It deals with people and its rules apply to people. Since people are
not robots or machines, but flesh and blood creatures, managing the
civil service is a complex administrative act. There are the
eligibility rules, the rationalization of government allowances,
travel rules—all of which are day-to-day happenings in myriad
places and among thousands of civil service employees in the
country. And many times there is the intrusion of politics.
One of the first steps Ms. David had to take was
rationalize the organization in step with the times and to clarify
the rules, factor in the variety of situations that would emerge and
use the very best of information technology and internal audits to
come up with the checks and balances, modernized improvements and
clear management policies.
As she said, “Changing paradigms is easy
enough, changing the attitudes to accept the new paradigms, is
not.” But slowly, by consensus-building through discussion and
debate as well as an updated database and up to date management
tools, the civil service has institutionalized many reforms in the
bureaucracy these last few years. It relies on merit as a basis for
eligibility, compensation, promotion, using uniform rules. It has
improved the promotion and compensation structure using a system
based on collective output from where individual performance can be
pinpointed and rewarded. It has delineated efforts towards identity,
empowerment and recognition for better management and better morale
in the organization. New techniques such as the ethics personality
test for applicants (an IQ on right and wrong) plus an anti-cheating
law (for exams and credentials) have been incorporated on the theory
that a civil service employee has to have the qualities of capacity,
competence and character to serve the public best. Ms David has
caused these principles to be spelled out, reviewed and reiterated
for every civil servant to keep in mind. She has also tried as much
as possible under the present clime to insulate the civil service
from politics. She has lost some battles, but she has not lost the
war. Some victories are, taken seriously following the rule of the
ban on appointments during election periods, no midnight
appointments after elections, having appointees meet the standards
of employment. These include controlling the hiring of casuals and
contractual employees (who do not pass the standards required)
through job orders and contracts. Aside from maintaining standards,
discouraging and preventing the hiring of casuals and contractuals,
whose salaries are not budgeted and therefore come out of the cash
flow of the agency involved, the wasteful use of public money is
avoided.
In her time at CSC, Ms David has mainstreamed
the gender issue with informed human resource personnel to recognize
and implement it as well as have clear rules for sexual harassment
cases. Salary standards with benchmarks from the private sector have
been enforced for realistic wages. Each employee has received
P75,000 plus P10,000 declared for government employees by the
President. All of these increases have been implemented without a
budget increase since 2000. Moreover, upon her retirement Ms David
left P200M in the CSC trust fund and savings account, a nest egg to
be emulated by all self-respecting government agencies.
Ms David has stayed the course at CSC and leaves
her mark in the rationalization of the organization in keeping with
modern conditions as well as in reinforcement of its mission to
serve the public. This is cause for our satisfaction. That she has
been recognized for her achievements by the World Bank is cause for
our pride and celebration.
May we have more of her in our government
agencies.
miongpin@yahoo.com
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