EDITORIAL: Is the public service really oversized?

President Hage Geingob has repeatedly groaned about the size of the public service – suggesting as recently as last week that it should be cut even in half.Amid all this clamour and blast, there has not been any proper scientific analysis of whether there are more people in the public service than the workload requires – or that the government mandate would be compromised if the workforce was slashed.Geingob last week remarked that the oversized public workforce was a result of government trying to be inclusive of all Namibians, especially those who were left out during the apartheid era.If that theory is correct, then it means the public service is stuffed with people on populist grounds and therefore deployments were not needs-based. And that is dangerous.Thus, a proper audit must take place to determine who occupies positions in government in order to satisfy the perceptions and egos of the groups they hail from.We cannot invent positions just to stuff the public service with people who spend their days picking their noses while waiting for payday.If an office doesn’t need an administrative clerk, do not recruit one just because they come from a group FW de Klerk or DF Malan discriminated against.The public service must be fit for purpose, and every single dollar spent on remuneration must be for necessary work done.

EDITORIAL: Is the public service really oversized?

Comments

Namibian Sun 2025-05-13

Please login to leave a comment

EDITORIAL: Is the public service really oversized?

Comments

Namibian Sun 2025-05-13

Please login to leave a comment

Login