Strengthening a civil service that has become a victim of its own success

The October 31 open letter by Public Service Commission (PSC) chairman Lee Tzu Yang covered much ground on the challenges facing Singapore and the need for greater diversity among our civil servants to bring about the next phase of progress for our country.

Media reports have headlined his idea of enhancing the diversity of PSC scholars by adopting new tools such as games to assess candidates for various attributes in addition to intellectual capacity.

Commentators, including former civil servants and scholars, are overwhelmingly in support of this initiative.

This perhaps reflects sentiments that our current and past crops of scholars have been selected from too narrow a base, mostly from the elite schools and fewer from the heartlands.

I guess many are concerned that our scholars, who would subsequently be fast-tracked into public sector leadership positions, would engage in group think, and increasingly be disconnected from a more diverse and even polarised society.

This is not unfounded. Last year, the Institute of Policy Studies conducted a study which found that people who study in elite schools also tend to be less close to those in non-elite schools, and vice versa.  

Those who live in public housing estates have fewer than one friend living in private properties.

Given the recent spotlight on social mobility, some people have suggested that PSC bring about greater diversity in civil service by awarding the scholarships to candidates from poorer families.

Such needs-based scholarships appeal to the sense of justice by giving students from disadvantaged families the opportunity to have access to a world of opportunities from attending a world-class university beyond Singapore as well as a career head-start from being placed onto a public service leadership track with higher pay, access to leaders, and better promotion prospects.

It would also be reasonable to assume that if someone from a disadvantaged background could made good and become a public service leader as a PSC scholar, he and she would work to make sure that the system continues to benefit all Singaporeans, especially those from the lower income segments.

I found it noteworthy that Mr Lee pre-empted these views in his letter.

He highlighted that the PSC scholarship was not a reward for either achievement, hard work or overcoming the odds, but an opportunity to serve that is to be allocated based on merit, i.e. the ability to contribute to the good of the country.

I fully support the idea that the PSC scholarship be first and foremost a talent recruitment scheme to attract good people, who would not only serve as public servants but develop to become future leaders in the public service.

The competition for talent is an intense and global one. Besides the public service, banks and other multi-national corporations in sectors such as petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals and fast-moving consumer goods are using scholarships and management associate programmes to attract talents as well.   

Talented Singaporeans are being head-hunted from Oxbridge and Ivy League Universities and increasingly from local universities which have grown in reputation in recent years.

The public sector plays a critical role in any country’s development, more so in a small country with limited resources like Singapore.   

In the United States, studies have found that scholarships have attracted talented individuals into the public service, particularly the teaching and medical workforce in underserved communities.   

I believe PSC scholarships have similarly enabled our public service to attract its fair share of talents.

Mr Lee alluded in his letter that the public service can build resilience by drawing on diversity as a strength.

While the move to increase diversity among PSC scholars is to be applauded, it would not be enough to enhance the innovativeness and robustness of policy thinking among public servants that Mr Lee painted out in this letter.

Tweaking the way PSC scholarships are awarded is only one part of the solution.

This must be accompanied by other changes, most pertinently, the values and incentives structures of the public service, which drive how our public servants behave and perform.

In an increasingly uncertain, complex and polarised world, public servants need to engender trust among different interest groups and bring them together to co-create solutions.

This requires not only different skill sets but that public servants have the integrity to do what they say, and be competent to deliver results. They must also be seen to be working in the best interests of the people they serve.

Most Singaporeans would agree, even if grudgingly, that our public servants are capable and honest.

But I fear public servants are being seen to not know or care about the struggles and difficulties that Singaporeans are experiencing.

Our public service is among the best in the world, but I still meet people who lament that public servants are unwilling to make exceptions to the rule even for very deserving cases, or are not prepared to pursue an issue that crosses into the territory of another agency.

Fundamentally, our public service is a victim of its success.  

With a strong track record of improving the lives of Singaporeans over the last few decades, Singaporeans are looking to public officials to solve more, if not all, problems in their lives.  

This is not something that can be fixed simply by changing the criteria for awarding PSC scholarships.

In fact, we may even end up with a less competent civil service if we move away from a merit-based system and lose the talent war.

It is a necessary condition that public servants have the diversity in skills, backgrounds and way of thinking to tackle a more disparate set of social and economic issues.

But it will also require strong public service leadership to create a more open, collaborative and innovative culture that spurs our public servants to work better among themselves, and bring the different stakeholders across all levels of our society together to address the challenges that lie ahead.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Lee Kok Fatt is a director of consultancy and executive education provider Future-Moves Group. A former PSC scholar, he spent two decades in the civil service, including a stint as Principal Private Secretary to the President and as director of fiscal policy at the Ministry of Finance.