Restoring dignity in country’s public service

Bradman Weerakoon, one of Sri Lanka’s most eminent public servants passed away this week at the age of 94. He began his career in the Ceylon Civil Service in 1954, serving in various regions across Sri Lanka before taking on the role of Secretary to Prime Minister for the first time under Sir John Kotelawala. Over the years, he went on to serve as Secretary to seven Prime Ministers and also worked with three presidents. 

Weerakoon was of a class of public servants who have all but disappeared from the public’s service of this country. He is likely one of the last who held their own before any politics and did their job to the letter according to the law.

State sector jobs are still much sought after in Sri Lanka. It is the same case when Bradman Weerakoon sought to enter the Ceylon Civil Service as it was known then. The crème de la crème that passed out of university vied for coveted positions in the public sector.

Sri Lanka’s eminent historian Professor K.M. de Silva in his memoir ‘The Making of a Historian’ describes the competition to get into the civil service at the end of one’s undergraduate education as a ‘civil war’. He describes the struggle for an entry to a place in the civil service, once the elite position of influence if not power in the administration, which later become subordinate to the political masters.

The Sri Lanka public sector today stands at over 1.3 million strong and employment levels in the sector are highest among countries in the South and Southeast Asia region. In 2023, 15% of the total 8 million workforces (1.16 million people) were employed in the public sector, including central government, subnational units, and the military. In 2023, the Sri Lankan Government spent Rs. 940 billion—20% of its recurrent Budget and 31% of its revenue—on public sector salaries. State sector pensions also take up a massive chunk of Government revenue.

From the days of glory of the public sector, what we have today is a system that has become corrupted as much as the political system in the country. The number of senior public officials being arrested for taking bribes or for misappropriating funds, etc. shows how deep the tentacles of corruption run within the public service. There seems to be no fear, no shame in making money on the side while taking a State sector salary, bending the rules to win favour with politicians or other powerful individuals and using the authority they hold as State sector employees for personal gain.

There was a time that public officials were looked up to with awe by the public. There were names of certain public officials whose names unsettled politicians who knew that they could not mess around with them. But that all seems distant and looking at the sector today, it is hard to imagine that there were straight talking, fearless and intendant public officials at one time.

It is hard to pinpoint where the problems set in but for decades Government sector institutions have become the refuge for politicians to give employment to their supporters or their kith and kin. A letter from a politician would be the only qualification to get into a public sector job while those with better qualifications but no political backing were not so lucky.

The new Government has said they are recruiting more to the public sector citing vacancies in the cadre. These include over 6,000 to the Sri Lanka Police. There will be a big rush from Government supporters to get their kith and kin jobs and politicians, whose aim is to win votes at the next election, will once again fill up these posts with their loyalists.

So while we pay tribute to Bradman Weerakoon, the country can only hope that the Sri Lanka public service wins back at least a little measure of the respect and dignity it once commanded.