Improve the civil service

WHEN the CEO of a private company receives a lot of complaints back from the retailers of the goods manufactured by his company and are remaining unsold on their shelves, it is his duty to discover and remedy the problem.

In government, the finance minister should have the same duties and responsibility and the courage to make decisions. The late Mr Brian Lenihan was a very educated man but it did not incorporate economics. For some time before he took over in the ministry of Finance he had suspected that something was amiss and his suspicions were confirmed after taking office. He was intelligent enough to realise that he could not rely on advice coming from the existing herd of sub-managers from the Finance Department to help him solve the problem. The CEO of the Government has an urgent duty to perform because some of the managers in the civil service had been shirking this constitutional duty in allowing those dysfunctional people to remain in their jobs and continue to upgrade them, salary-wise. It could be regarded as cowardice or criminal. Our country needs better service than this.

Richard Prendergast