"Politics and Public Service Delivery in the framework of Development"

["This article though not exhaustive of all the pros and cons of the subject is a short reflection on the current trend of posts trending on social media and our line of thoughts in the nearness of the forth-coming elections."]

There have been many a social media post lately connecting the development of the District with our current Political Leader.

In this context, whilst people have the right to express frustrations on the performance against or for our current Political Leader; It is very sad to see misconceptions and myths surrounding public service, public administration, development and politics all mixed up. Points have been scored for and against our incumbet leader and most are baseless in the context of Public Service Management.

Those in the "know how" of public administration and public service management know very well that "public sector" is always "slow" as compared to the "private sector". In practise, the famous "DSIP" and PSIP (at the Provincial level), the words widely known by everyone irregardless of their educational qualification and edifices is a joke. Almost all districts and provinces within the country do not receive their fundings on time. Not to mention the least that some receive only small percentages in a year. In this light, it poses challenges to achieve all the planned "key focus or key result areas" at one time.

This leads to the question "why do other MPs perform better in terms of development than others?". The simple answer in the light of the forgoing statement is that, "it is impossible to do mega developments costing millions that surpasses the DSIP and PSIP budget ceilings given every year, let alone small percentages that the Districts and Provinces receive. In this context, MPs through their own capacities at-times, source support from their own ministerial positions and power to fund projects in their respective constituencies. Others go through developing partnerships and through investments to get things rolling. Most often than not, illegal means always come into play. Only certain smart MPs play around with their priorities and their public service machines to get desired results. As it is, development is and will always be a very challenging exercise, even should a new political leader is appointed (he will be crucified sooner rather than later).

Secondly, people in the "not know how" are ignorant of the fact that "Politicians" are only policy makers and are not implementors. Often times, poor politicians are blamed for the incompetencies of the implementors (public machineries). Most times, we have incompetent District Program Managers ( and Provincial Directors) who do not know how to do simple planning, budgeting and carry-out implementation. This, compounding on the ignorance and incompetency of the CEOs/Administrators (and PAs) creates dark-ages in service delivery. Thus, submissions and projects can be voted upon by the DDAC ( and PEC Assembly) but the implementors out of their incompetency most times in most situations fail to implement (please note that your ward Councillors through their Presidents and your MP can be your voice but they are arm-less without the public machineries' support).

This leads to the misconceptions regarding the role of the Politicians in development. A Politician's role is to create laws, propose and support development agendas. Their role should not be mixed up with those of the implementors (public servants). Hence a good understanding of the Public Service Management will help one realise the myths and misconceptions and false expectations surrounding the perceptions held against the politicians.

Conclusion

I can add more points regarding the misconceptions surrounding politicians, public service management and devopment but we have to stop here.

The main points that I want to point out are:

1. Ignorance should not drive us in our pursuit of and for development. We must educate ourselves for knowledge is liberating. In this regard we will have a clear sense of vision and direction in our pursuit of development.

2. Ignorance and misconceptions of politicians' and implementors' role in development should not be abused in our political dispositions.

3. Development is a challenging exercise to undertake. Those who wish to raise their hands to represent us should at least have a fair knowledge on public service delivery and their role in development. With the challenges currently experienced by our public sector, it is no guarantee that a new MP will perform better than our current MP, special interventions though may be a refresher.

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*Ps-- The author does not support or condone our current Political leader or the intending candidates. Moreover, the author is only presenting the facts to clear misconceptions and abuse of the concepts of public service delivery, public administration & politicians & their relationship to development.