The
importance of balance and fairness is the underlying strength of a nation and
must be known and respected by every member of that society. Democratically
elected political representatives, policy-makers, law-makers, and appointed
executives, who oversee implementation, are vital to the process. Noting that,
the true work is done by the permanent staff in the public service. Hence,
policies and directives, crafted by such politicians, are at the very root of
strong enforceable laws. While, the execution, implementation and reporting
documentation, is done by permanent staff. Members of society, therefore, must
understand the powers that politicians have and do not have, and where control
legally exist. For example, it is the security services that maintain order and
the judiciary that enforces existing laws, with permanent skilled employees,
keeping the peace in the society.
Permanent staff are the record keepers, the repository
of institutional memory, as opposed to political appointments, who are mostly
concentrating on short-term benefits, and society needs to understand and
respect both roles. For it is such a historical record, of successes and
failures, which guides current decisions and future predictions. The permanent
staff can review, analyze and point out system failures and fixes, in
regulations and executions faster and more accurately than anyone else. While,
the politician, listening to voters, can learn of mistakes and missteps, and
the necessary improvements needed in policy and in law, to fix and make better,
what was done by predecessors, in the last political period.
Regulations and recurrent executions are important
functions passed from politicians, law-makers to the permanent staff. The permanent
staff is, therefore, able to change regulations; appointments, times and fees,
and executions; methods and procedures, without altering the governing laws.
Party politicians, having selected policies, plans and programmes, to drive
improvements, implemented via executive order or through the passing of laws,
and promoting such promises through their public manifesto, and having been
elected, are obligated to get it done. In other words, once the politicians
proclaim laws, it is mostly left to the permanent staff to adjust operations in
reaction to eco-socioeconomic changes.
Power and control, at any implementation agency,
execution branch or ministry, lies with the accounting officer, who is the
permanent secretary. However, it is the politician, sitting in the cabinet that
exercises power and control over the treasury. The permanent staff are the ones
responsible for the budgeting and accounting of every activity under their
ministry. While, the politicians, the ministers, who are policy-makers,
collectively design plans and programmes to improve voters' lifestyles and win
the next election. Nevertheless, funding an approved allocation to each
budgetary head to meet their plans and programmes relies more on the minister,
a politician, than on the permanent secretary.
Law and order is essential to the peace and happiness
in the society. The Executive Branch of Government, its ministry of national
security, with all its divisions and working directly with the independent
office of public prosecution to file cases, is responsible for order in the
nation. Fire, immigration, prison, army, coast and air guard and police services,
that run toward emergencies to protect people and property, are funded,
supplied and with adequate permanent human resources as needed. So, it falls
to, the permanent staff of the Justice Branch of Government, with its
operational budget, its infrastructure and its case management systems with access
to timely proceedings and appeals, to settle matters, reduce incarcerated populations,
and punish lawbreakers but not to mix up abject poverty with hardened
criminals, to maintain a law-abiding society.
Rationale
T.A.J
& Associates Company Limited uses this occasion to
comment on topics that have been covered, both academically and by the
mainstream media, to add its opinion and point out investment opportunity, not
to invoke any social action.
