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Monday, December 08, 2003
Sienes: Merit and fitness in the government
By Cris G. Sienes
Different Strokes
'The reason why favoritism continues to rear its ugly head in some government offices is the discretionary power given to appointing authorities in hiring or promoting employees. Appointing authorities always invoke their discretionary power in hiring or promoting their favorites on the flimsy excuse that they want to hire or promote people that they are comfortable with.'
AS A mater of policy, the government is supposed to give top priority to merit and fitness in admitting people into the bureaucracy. This is the main reason why government offices have selection and promotion boards.
Members of selection and promotion boards assess and evaluate job applicants and those due for promotion according to merit and fitness, rank them, then submit their rankings and recommendations to the appointing authorities in their respective offices.
As a matter of policy, too, appointing authorities are supposed to follow the rankings and recommendations of their selection and promotion boards in hiring or promoting employees.
But appointing authorities do not always follow the rankings and recommendations of their selection and promotion boards. Somehow favoritism manages to deal a hand in the hiring and promotion of employees.
Thus, even if job applicants or those due for promotion are ranked lower, if they are close to the appointing authority, they get hired or promoted.
In one government office, for instance, employees complained that items and positions for promotions were reserved for the favorites of the appointing authority.
The reason why favoritism continues to rear its ugly head in some government offices is the discretionary power given to appointing authorities in hiring or promoting employees.
Appointing authorities always invoke their discretionary power in hiring or promoting their favorites on the flimsy excuse that they want to hire or promote people that they are comfortable with.
As if promoting good human relationships in an office was not part of the function of an office manager.
Favoritism in some government offices breeds sipsipism. Our employees union before had a fitting acronym for sipsips in our office: Aids, meaning ako'y isang dakilang sipsip.
Sipsips in government offices make it a point to tell on their fellow employees, spread ugly gossips about them to put them down, in order to ingratiate themselves into the good graces of the tingods in their offices and get promoted.
Others literally lick the boots of the tingods in their offices or purr before them like overzealous Siamese cats in order to get their nod.
Gifts, too, are almost always given even if there are no occasions for the gifts. Gifts, to our mind, are forms of bribery, and there is supposed to be a law against bribery.
One level in government where merit and fitness are not sometimes followed is in the appointment of assistant regional directors and regional directors.
To qualify for the posts of assistant regional director and regional director, aspirants must be career service executive officers or CESOs. But there are government offices where non-CESOs, whose performance in office leaves much to be desired, are appointed assistant regional directors or regional directors.
The trick is to have somebody higher up to pull strings for them. These shameless employees are proud of their undeserved positions, too, and strut around like mating peacocks.
But nowhere is the requirement of merit and fitness more abused than in the qualifications of candidates for President. Most level II positions in the government require a college degree. Too, one cannot be a division chief unless he or she has a master's degree.
But in the case of the presidency, even nincompoops may run for President. Seeing as the President manages the affairs of the entire country, a candidate for President ought to have a master's degree in public administration. But such is not the case. Small wonder this country cannot heal itself from its lingering illnesses.
Even some elective posts in local governments are occupied by misfits. There was this illiterate municipal mayor who attended a meeting of his staff one day. When the presiding officer announced that the meeting would now come to order, the illiterate mayor suddenly blurted out: "Ah, you want to order? Go ahead. What do you want? Coke, orange, maruya (translated from the vernacular)? Mind you, this is not just a mere joke. This actually happened in a municipality outside Davao City and the Davao provinces.
That's why we sometimes think that the requirement of merit and fitness in the government service is one big joke.
Point to ponder: "Life is a wondrous joke with all of us as the gag line." (Leo Buscaglia: Bus 9 to Paradise)
(December 8, 2003 issue)
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