Public Service Week 1997 - Conference for Senior Public Officers

The Conference of the Public Service Week 1997 was brought to a close with a plenary session entitled 'A Professional Public Service for a Better Served Public'.

In a joint presentation, the rapporteurs, Mr. Philip von Brockdorff of the Staff Development Organisation and Mr. Charles Polidano of the University of Manchester, summed up the main issues arising from the three previous sessions. They stated that in moving towards an output orientation, central organisations need to adopt a strategic role and give the opportunity for managers to manage. Within a scenario of declining resources and rising expectations of the citizen, line managers have to offer proper leadership and bear responsibility for results.

The conference was addressed by Mr. Joseph FX Scicluna, Director General of the Management and Personnel Office and Mr. Joseph R Grima, Head of the Public Service.

Mr. Scicluna stated that it was important to equate professionalism of public officers to the service rendered to the citizen. He advocated a holistic approach to change by improving the service culture, strengthening the Department of Corporate Services in Ministries, upgrading the level of competency through customer satisfaction surveys, business process re-engineering and information technology, and finally effective management structures.

Mr. Grima said that the citizen and value for money were the two important benchmarks for change. He felt that public officers were caught in incompetent systems and there were functions in central agencies that needed to be decentralised, delegated or removed. Professionalism, integrity and impartiality, Mr. Grima said, were the traditional values of the Maltese Public Service that had to be safeguarded. He praised new initiatives like the Merit Award Scheme, the Institute of Public Administration and Management and MBA scholarships as steps in the right direction.

The concluding address was later delivered by the Prime Minister, Dr. Alfred Sant and was covered by the media.