Making  Government WORK

This week around the YB we had yet another of those frustrating conversations about the lack of progress in our medical system. You might recall we highlighted five key measures, in our first column of 2025, that the Government will face come the elections in 2026 and the state of our hospitals is definitely on the list.

This was of course covered in detail in the Straight Talk interview with the Minister of Health, but the real cost came home in a recent conversation with a member of Government who recounted their experience with a member of their family who ended up in ICU at the CWM Hospital recently. The story was a familiar one…. an absence of medical supplies.

This person was required to buy and supply all the medication, and not only that, received regular calls from ICU staff pleading that any excess medication be shared with other ICU patients. YB heard of another case where a staff nurse in charge of a health centre was afraid to go to work because of threats coming from the public frustrated by her inability to provide medicine. They seem to feel she was deliberately preventing the supply.

The issue isn’t a lack of care. Stressed as they are our doctors and nurses do a great job, and it isn’t about money. As Minister of Finance Biman Prasad has highlighted the funds are there. It just isn’t being spent resulting in the Ministry of Health apparently giving back to Finance $80 million last year. In the case of our parliamentarian, he discovered that the medication was in the CWM building just locked up downstairs in the Government Pharmacy but for various reasons it couldn’t make it up to the ICU!!

What is going on? Government appears paralysed and it isn’t a new issue. Consistently across nearly every Government, in our short post independent history, our Civil Service has struggled to spend allocated funds particularly for capital i.e. construction works. Now it would seem this also applies to general spending on supply of services and maintenance. Why is it so difficult for Government to build internal systems that drive action and deliver services to the taxpayers who paid for it in the first place.

Welllll let’s start with the fact that bureaucracies across the world struggle with this largely because they are caught in a dilemma. On one side of the problem, a taxpayer is demanding a certain service while on the other the same taxpayer requires accountability for funds spent delivering that same service. The civil servant stuck in the middle usually leans towards the accountability side because that is what is going to get them fired.

Better to spend time creating rules to protect oneself than deliver a service that could get me into trouble. In Fiji this has been made worse by a general culture of suspicion driven by leaders who require absolute power. This was a central feature of the Bainimarama / Khaiyum Government who centralised all financial decision making. Even the smallest transaction required Ministry of Finance approval unless of course you were in favour of “you know who”. To police this mine field of rules were created to trap any who threatened their rule with FICAC lurking as the ultimate “bogey man”. Oh, and let us not forget our favourite past time of liu muri or aaage peche.

This environment is a wonderful playground for those inside and outside of government seeking to chop down rivals or those who are just too successful. Little wonder why our civil servants decided either to leave or go into survival mode taking the safest route which was … do nothing! This in turn leaves us with a civil service populated, except for some recent recruits typically at Permanent Secretary level, by the very young or the very old and incompetent whose only objective is to stay safe until retirement. Government has a Fiji Procurement Office promising efficient effective procurement. That sounds promising BUT in reading through some of the detail it looks suspiciously like the civil servants setting it up have focused on regulation rather than efficient decision making.

The recent discussion around the draft Employment Relations Act is another example of what we are talking about. With the best of intentions, the Government is proposing new employment regulations that reflect best practice in the first world but could drive many private sector organisations in Fiji, a developing third world nation btw, out of business. Yes …. yes, consultations are ongoing but why propose obviously impractical legislation in the first place.

As we said not a new issue and certainly not unique to Fiji…… in recent times the United Kingdom has come to the realisation that one of the reasons for a general lack of economic growth was over regulation, often by local government, of building and development. In recognising the problem, the current Government alarmed many by announcing that they were turning to the regulatory organisations to review their processes and systems. We say ALARMED because bureaucrats are terrible at reducing regulation just as they are terrible at reducing the size of Government for one obvious reason ….it is not in their personal interest to do it! Now we aren’t suggesting an Elon Musk solution i.e. burn it all down……

BUT at least start with recognising that the problem isn’t control, it is getting stuff done quickly and efficiently. Any new policy needs to focus on speeding up Government not slowing it down with additional levels of regulation. Oh, and BTW seeking feedback or “consultation” is a classic go slow tactic used by bureaucrats seeking to block change. Sounds great but is it really required when the problems are so obvious.

YB was amused to see our new Assistant Minister for Health launching a complaints line to receive feedback from the public re the state of our hospitals. Nice idea but do you really need the public to tell you what needs to be done. Have you taken a walk around our hospitals lately?? Once again time is being wasted when action is required. Speaking of dancing around a problem, as we raised last week, our favourite Commission of Inquiry drags on.

If it wasn’t expensive enough already, a Kings Counsel’s opinion was sought on whether they could suspend Ms Malimali for allegedly terminating a staff member who gave evidence. While Malimali’s action was questionable, did we the taxpayers, really need to divert the COI down yet another rabbit hole.

Then it was announced that the JSC can suspend Malimali. What is going on!! YB is unsure who to hold responsible for this latest blunder. Surely this should have been done the moment the COI was announced and certainly when she took the alleged action. Get on with it …. File the report …. stop this very expensive meter from running up what is going to be an astonishing bill!