Uncivil servants

Quote from the first annual re port of the Fiji Ombudsman, Mr Justice Moti Tikaram: . . . There were many com plaints about Civil Service laxity in answering mail . , . while the Civil Service is aware that mail must be answered promptly, the General Order is more honoured in its breach than in its observ ance by certain Departments.

The Department of the Public Service, which administers the General Order, is itself the main offender and, inter alia, many persons, including civil servants, have found themselves needing to complain about that Depart ment. Unfortunately, I too must join their ranks. On a number of occasions I have had to draw the attention of the Secretary for the Public Service to the fact that he had not replied to correspon dence that I had addressed to him and in many cases, even those reminders were ignored.

The problem, unfortunately, con tinues to exist.