Good Governance Or Efficient Public Administration

By R.M.B Senanayake –February 19, 2016

RMB Senanayake

All governments must be efficient in addition to being representative. There is no formal thinking about efficiency in governance in our politics or administration. There is also little or no reflection on the process of efficient governance, although keep condemning it as full of red tape.

Much of our Public Administration including the Ministerial level is not planned. But the people know when there is efficient governance and when there is not. Hardly anybody would say that the so-called “Yaha Palanaya”, the latest political slogan means the same thing as efficiency. Instead the concept of ‘Yaha Palanaya’ refers more to the genuineness or ethical nature of the administration. But those engaged in administration know that the administration is not efficient and they invariably blame political interference to be the bane of efficient public administration.

Inefficiency in administration has a cost- a cost in terms of resources which go to waste or are inadequately utilized. The burden of the cost is ultimately on the people.

The efficiency of the Administration is important for the welfare of the people. It is the people who suffer from the inefficiency of the government administration. Public Administration encompasses the activities of the Executive branch of the Central Government, the Provincial Councils, the Pradesiya Sabhas and the so-called independent Boards and Corporations. Specifically excluded from the scope of Public Administration are the Judicial and Legislative Agencies of the State although they too have administrative problems of their own in their fields. But Public Administration in theory confines itself to the Executive branch excluding the legislative and judicial branches.

There is a widespread conviction not only in Sri Lanka but even in the West that what governments do is done inefficiently and hence there is a demand for privatization of some public service handled by a government department or agency.   Read More