WASHINGTON (August 20): Recognising the need for some kind of Civil Service reform in the United States, the non-profit Partnership for Public Service has suggested a five-point plan as the best way forward for Agencies.
This includes: Developing better Government leaders; making Federal hiring and retention easier; holding poor performers accountable; making better use of data and technology, and ensuring efficient Federal services to the public.
The Partnership’s vision comes in sharp contrast to the strategies laid out by officials of the previous Administration of Donald Trump in the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025.
In particular, the Partnership’s document rejects the controversial Schedule F proposal.
The Schedule F Executive Order in the last days of the Trump Administration created a new classification of Federal employees who could be more easily fired. However, incoming President, Joe Biden rescinded the order before Agencies could implement it.
While Trump officials said the goal of Schedule F was to address poor performance in Government, the Executive Order received strong pushback from critics who said it was an attempt to politicise the career Federal workforce.
With the possibility of Schedule F’s revival in a future Trump Administration, the Partnership warned of deleterious effects the changes would have on Federal operations and services.
“A Federal workforce filled with employees hired for their political beliefs rather than their skills and qualifications would move us further away from the type of Government the public deserves,” the Partnership wrote in its Civil Service reform vision statement.
“It would strip Federal Agencies of expertise and hamper their ability to provide good service to everyone, not just to those who support the President of the day.”
While saying that Schedule F is not the answer, the Partnership maintained that poor performance at Agencies was a concern.
It called for managers and supervisors to closely evaluate new hires in their first year on the job, and in cases where a new employee was not meeting expectations, Agencies could take steps to address the issue early on.
“Depending on the circumstances, that can involve anything from offering the employee more job training, to terminating them,” the Partnership said.
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US Ambassador’s comments ‘impudent’
MEXICO CITY (August 23): United States Ambassador to Mexico, Ken Salazar has got himself into hot water over comments he made on the Government’s judicial reforms, which have been termed was “unfortunate, imprudent” and “lacking in respect”.
In a statement, the Ambassador declared that the proposed judicial reforms, which seek to allow citizens to directly elect judges, posed a threat to democracy in Mexico and the US-Mexico trade relationship.
Mr Salazar also said it would benefit drug cartels.
This drew a rebuke from President Andrés Manuel López Obrador who said a note of protest had been sent to the US Embassy in Mexico over what the President called Mr Salazar’s “meddlesome declaration”.
Mr López Obrador told reporters that the Government did not accept interference in Mexico’s internal affairs.
“We don’t accept any representative of foreign Governments intervening in matters that are solely up to us to resolve,” Mr López Obrador said.
He said he would also send a diplomatic note to the Government of Canada after its Ambassador, Graeme Clarke said in an interview that Canadian investors were concerned about the judicial reform proposal.
Mexican opponents of the Bill say the direct election of judges from candidates nominated by the sitting President, the Congress and the judiciary itself threatened the independence of Mexico’s justice system.
Judicial elections, in some cases, would coincide with political elections — a situation that critics believe could lead to politicisation of the judiciary.
Mr López Obrador said the Government’s motivation for overhauling the judiciary was because it was “plagued by corruption”.
However, the critics point out that the President has been irked by court decisions against his Government’s policies and infrastructure projects.
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Row over UK Government jobs widens
LONDON (August 22): Criticism of the United Kingdom Government’s handling of senior Civil Service appointments has intensified after it emerged that a former staff member at a Labour-affiliated think tank had been appointed to the Cabinet Office’s Ethics Group.
Jess Sargeant has taken up a role in the Department’s Propriety and Constitution Group (PCG).
Ms Sargeant, who spent the past year as Director of Constitutional Change at the Labour Together think tank, is understood to have been hired through the ‘exception’ process, meaning her job was not advertised externally.
The appointment comes amid growing scrutiny of Civil Service appointments after two Labour donors were handed senior jobs.
Critics took aim at Ms Sargeant's appointment to a role at the PCG, which has overseen investigations into allegations of Ministerial bad behaviour, also giving advice on conflicts of influence, saying it could undermine the unit's impartiality.
However, a senior Government source said Ms Sargeant, who will become a Deputy Director in the Civil Service, will work exclusively on constitutional issues, providing policy expertise, and will not be involved in proprietary casework, inquiries or investigations.
Before working for Labour Together, she was an associate director at the politically impartial Institute for Government, where she worked on constitutional reform.
It had previously emerged that former credit card company chief executive, Ian Corfield had been appointed Director of Investment at the Treasury using the same exception process.
Mr Corfield has donated £20,000 ($A38.800) to the Labour Party over the past decade. It was later reported that he had resigned his post in favour of an unpaid role as a Treasury advisor.
Earlier, former consultant, Emily Middleton had been made a Director General in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, having been seconded to the Labour Party while it was in Opposition.
Senior Research Fellow at think tank, UK in a Changing Europe, Jill Rutter said Labour was making a "presentational mess" of the way it was bringing expert outsiders into Government.
She said the party should have made absolutely clear that Ms Sargeant would not be working on individual cases in the propriety team — “but will Government be better, and the Civil Service helped by having Jess there? Yes," Ms Rutter said.
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Lateral entry halted after political pushback
NEW DELHI (August 25): The Indian Government has suspended lateral entry into the Federal Civil Service —a significant setback for Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, who has advocated the measure of part of his modernisation plans for the bureaucracy.
The policy, which allowed individuals in the private sector to be drafted into key positions, by-passing the annual entry examinations, created widespread anger within the Civil Service, and after Mr Modi’s weakened position following the General Election, it has been reported that senior bureaucrats decided to move against it.
According to sources, there was a fear among the existing bureaucrats that if lateral entry were to continue, it would affect the premier position of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) within the bureaucracy.
One senior official stated that lateral entry was against “natural justice”, as the existing bureaucrats would be shut out of senior positions, disrupting a process that had been in place for decades.
Commentators said the IAS staged a significant pushback from within the system to ensure that lateral entry was not continued.
“It is quite possible that the upper echelons of the bureaucracy, not wanting to be openly resisting the reform process, relied on their relationships with some political leaders, both in the Opposition and in the governing National Democratic Alliance, who eventually raised their voice against lateral entry,” one source said.
According to statements made by Minister of State, Jitendra Singh, 63 appointments through lateral entry have been made over the past five years. As of now, 57 of these lateral entrants are actively serving in various Ministries and Departments.
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Argentine President rages over Senate pay rise
BUENOS AIRES (August 23): Argentine President, Javier Milei has reacted with fury at the decision by Senators to vote themselves a pay increase amid the ongoing economic crisis, calling it a “betrayal of the Argentine people”.
The Senate increased the pay of its members on the back of a collective bargaining agreement concluded by the trade unions of State workers, awarding itself 6.5 per cent in two stages, taking Senators wages up to nine million pesos ($A5,342) a month.
The first stage of the increase will be 3.5 per cent retroactive to July 1, with the other three per cent applying from August 1.
In a statement, Mr Milei said he repudiated the “disgraceful pay increase”.
“Who earns nine million (pesos) a month? Nobody. While millions of compatriots struggle to emerge from economic catastrophe, the Senate should empathise with Argentines. It seems they do not understand that the money they receive comes from the taxes paid by all Argentines,” Mr Milei said.
“Collecting nine million pesos in this context is more than a mockery; it is a betrayal of the working people. Once again the political caste refuses to let go of its privileges while the people suffer the consequences.”
Vice-President, Victoria Villarruel who presides over the Senate, said she did not agree with the decision to include Senators in the resolution increasing the pay of State workers and had tried unsuccessfully to detach them from the increase.
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Congressional backlog leaves officers in limbo
WASHINGTON (August 26): More than two years ago, United States President, Joe Biden nominated senior career diplomat, Robert Forden to be Ambassador to Cambodia. He is yet to take up the job.
Mr Forden’s nomination’s process remains stuck in the Senate, emblematic of a wider backlog of senior national security posts that have sat empty for months or even years amid political impasse in Congress.
Dozens of Mr Biden’s nominees for top national security jobs, including many Ambassadorial posts, have sat unfilled as political disputes and crowded Congressional calendars delay or entirely halt the confirmation process.
Both Democrats and Republicans agree that the backlog poses a national security risk as the United States tries to compete on a global scale with adversaries, including Russia and China. Each side blames the other for the mess.
Mr Forden’s nomination has sat in the Senate for nearly 600 days, but he is not alone. Margaret Taylor, Mr Biden’s nominee to be the top legal advisor to the State Department, was initially nominated more than 480 days ago.
Andrew Plitt, the nominee to head the US Agency for International Development on Middle East issues, has sat in limbo awaiting Senate confirmation for more than 330 days even as the humanitarian crisis in Gaza spirals to dangerous new levels.
Meanwhile, Erik Woodhouse, the nominee for Sanctions Coordinator — a key post for coordinating the economic response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — withdrew his name from consideration after nearly a year of impasse. That post has been vacant since October, 2023.
A senior staff member on the Senate Committee dealing with nominations, speaking anonymously, said that in the past when there was a backlog the Chair and ranking member from the other party worked together to make sure nominees moved quickly through the committee process.
“The opposite has been happening in this Congress. It’s making the prospect of them getting confirmed in a timely fashion almost impossible,” the staff member said.
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Diplomat ‘ashamed’ to represent North Korea
SEOUL (August 28): The highest-ranking North Korean diplomat to defect to South Korea since 2016, Ri Il-kyu, says he felt humiliated every time he had to reveal which Korea he was from when he was serving in overseas missions.
Speaking at a National Assembly event hosted by lawmakers, Mr Ri said North Korean diplomats “absolutely hate being asked which country they are from”.
Mr Ri served as a Counsellor for political affairs at the North Korean Embassy in Havana before he escaped last November.
“When North Korean diplomats are sent abroad, the first thing they do is take the pin (of their flag) off their collars,” he said.
“It is the most heartbreaking thing, to be ashamed of the country you represent and to be painfully aware of how people from other countries view you. Knowing what I know, I could not be proud of my country.”
He said he found his presence to be unwelcome in diplomatic communities. Even countries that have ties with North Korea, like Cuba, did not seem to appreciate the association.
“I would meet with my counterparts and other diplomatic officials, and I could tell they were only begrudgingly listening to what I had to say, which was all propaganda,” Mr Ri said.
“Despite the reality faced by North Korean diplomats, he said North Korea would often use State media to portray the other side as having made supportive remarks or gestures toward Pyongyang.”
He decided to defect because he was disillusioned with the North Korean regime. “I saw no future. I couldn’t see the country going anywhere,” he said.
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Police fooled by jobless fake officer
BUCHAREST (August 26): Romanian security forces are investigating how a jobless man with no qualifications was able to pass himself off as a policeman at the Intelligence and Internal Protection Service, taking part in investigations alongside real police officers, without anyone suspecting he was an imposter.
For more than a year-and-a-half, Costin Oprea (25) described as a "skilled mythomaniac", infiltrated the Prahova Police Department and was allowed to interview witnesses, search drivers at traffic stops and even have access to confidential documents.
Mr Oprea was finally caught after a person who knew him reported him to the police for deception, and on August 21, the Ploiesti Court issued an arrest warrant.
The court was told the man acquired a police uniform, a Glock pistol and an identification card. He even managed to obtain a policeman's identification and had a strobe lamp mounted on his car.
Investigators said that although he did not have a job, the fake policeman lived in a luxury residential complex, rented expensive cars, and on at least one occasion took an extravagant holiday.
During this time he apparently befriended two women, both of whom thought he was a senior police officer, eventually swindling them out of goods and money.
The court was told that investigations were continuing.
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Concern voiced over Civil Service census
MONROVIA (August 24): The Association of Liberian Human Resource Professionals (ALHRP) has expressed “grave concerns” that the Civil Service Agency’s recent attempt to determine the exact number of serving bureaucrats was heavy-handed and possibly illegal.
In a statement, the ALHRP said while the objectives of the project — to enhance pay efficiency, eliminate payroll fraud, and reinforce transparency within the public sector — were fundamentally sound, the Agency’s methods had not complied with Civil Service Standing Orders.
“Some recent actions, particularly those relating to employee status verification, may not align with the legal protections afforded to Civil Servants under the Civil Service Standing Orders,” the statement said.
“In particular we are concerned at actions such as suspensions, pay deductions, warnings, and terminations risk violating the rights of Civil Servants who should not be unduly penalised for systemic failings that are the result of historical inadequacies in administrative oversight.”
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South Korean nurses prepared to strike
SEOUL (August 23): The Korean Health and Medical Workers' Union plans to launch a nationwide strike of nurses and medical workers, calling for a pay raise and the “normalisation of the crippled medical system” amid a prolonged walkout by trainee doctors.
The union, which represents 30,000 nurses and medical workers at 61 hospitals, said more than 91 per cent of its members supported the strike plan.
Union officials said they had been urging hospitals to swiftly resolve the medical vacuum caused by a months-long walkout by 12,000 junior doctors and agree on a 6.4 per cent increase in wages.
Nurses and medical workers in essential services will continue to work in accordance with the law, union officials said.
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Officers ordered to back digitisation plan
ABUJA (August 22): Newly-appointed Head of the Nigerian Federal Civil Service, Didi Esther Walson-Jack has wasted no time setting out her priorities for the bureaucracy, saying officers must embrace the digitisation policy embedded in the Federal Civil Service Strategy and Implementation Plan.
During a tour of designated centres for the 2024 computer-based test for promotion candidates, Mrs Walson-Jack said Civil Servants must align themselves with these technological advancements to remain relevant.
“To be relevant in today’s Civil Service under the digitisation program, you must be computer literate. If you’re not, it’s imperative to improve your skills because programs are in place to train officers in line with global best practices,” Mrs Walson-Jack said.
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