The 11th Ethiopian Civil Service Day is being marked nationwide with a theme: ‘Ethical Civil Servant for Ethiopian Renaissance.’ Indeed, the contribution of Civil Service sector as a staunch force in the advancement of development and transformation goals of the nation is beyond measure.
A country that has built responsible Civil Servant can successfully usher its peoples in a bright future. Conversely, if strait jacket and corruption reigns in the sector, the country is likely to remain in a viscous circle of problems. Thus, the Day is crucial to renew commitment and lay the country’s overall advancement on a sustainable base.
For Ethiopia, a country that had been plagued with several socio-economic and political misfortunes, equipping the sector with the entire professional ethos as well as commitment would not only keep the ongoing economic growth momentum but also makes up the past backlog of works. Understanding this fact, the Ethiopian Civil Service has been taking different reform actions. However, challenges of various kinds have been rolling in the sector.
Among the challenges which potentially erode the ethics and commitment of the civil service is rent-seeking, and its manifestations are all too common include chauvinism and parochialism, failure to provide prompt response to customers and diverting public resources to personal. The experience of other countries and ours too, proves that the prevalence of such bugs in the public sector completely derail democracy, development and good governance. It is one of the major threats to the democratic developmental state building which we have embarked upon over two decades ago.
As a mechanism to tackle such problems, the government has been taking rigorous measures. The application of BPR, BSC, Kaizen and all the other management tools are some of the measures taken by the government to improve the performance of public servants. And the public servant has been passing through series of reform actions. Besides, the ongoing deep reform process is the other important mechanism which is triggering ethics and commitment to prevail in the sector.
The country is in a fast track of development, detaching itself from poverty- which almost was synonymous with its name a few decades ago. Ethiopia has already become important global partner in various respects from a desperate country in the Horn of Africa. No doubt, the civil servants’ roles have been seamless in the course of achieving the developmental feats which ascend the nation to this level, tributes to the successive reform actions taken so far.
Moreover, the country’s peace and stability, despite its location in the volatile Horn, is also the result of the reform actions as well as swift responses to public grievances.
Due to this and the government’s unceasing efforts of attracting investors through incentive packages, a number of anchor investors have made their way to Ethiopia. In addition, the industrial parks built so far and those under construction are also a magnet for foreign investment. For this and several other reasons, quality and responsive civil service remains too important. The current moves, such as the deep reform, should continue with increased fervor as it is a profound mechanism to ensure ethics in the sector. The leadership at both levels is also expected to further provide innovative management tools that bring about tangible results in the service delivery besides following up the proper application of the existing ones.
Development partners are also no less important in supporting the sector. Thus, all pertinent bodies which have been taking part in modernizing the sector need to expand their intervention in all logistics, researches and finance which is a requisite to build ethical and committed civil service.