Urgent need to improve public sector efficiency

Dear Editor,

THE issue that I would like to point out is about Brunei's human resource capacity. Why is the government sector so backed up with paperwork especially in the area of administration?

I keep hearing that letters are not being answered or processed and that some papers or reports that government servants are processing were dated as far back as the year 2009.

Are we too laid back? Or that we just do not have enough people?

If the latter is true, why doesn't the government open up more jobs for the public because obviously it would also solve the unemployment issue in Brunei, beside making public sector more efficient.

The government officials keep stating in their speeches that Brunei needs to work on building its human resource but there is apparently no practical move to achieve that objective.

I mean, it is always the common story when a person goes to one of the government departments and requests for something, they would almost always ask him/her to write a formal letter. However, nothing ever comes out of it. Its seems like a waste of time when people submit these formal letters but do not get an answer from the government department.

I have even heard from some people that they had to keep sending in formal letters and sometimes had to wait for at least two years to get a reply.

Sometimes people really needs something urgently from a government department but it is sad that they only get an approval letter or rejection letter after a very long time.

A friend of mine had to deal with two government departments because he needed letters of approval from both sides. He was given a one-month deadline from one of the departments but he only got the approval letter after the deadline had passed.

I would request the authorities to please look into this matter and do something to improve the public sector efficiency.Yours truly,

Letter guy