Island bureaucracy
p. 38 · Read in the full issue
THANK heaven not all public servants are bureaucrats not if your definition of a bureau crat is the dictionary one, that is,
somebody “having power without
responsibility ... an official who works by fixed routine without exercising
intelligent judgment”.
But unfortunately it’s in the nature of bureaucrats that we do meet with some people like that when we have business with governments. But they are prob
ably a minority.
What brings this subject up in what, after all, is a column in which I invariably discuss matters of business and commerce, is something that was said to me recently by a Samoan small businessman visiting Australia. He wanted my views on whether metro politan and island bureaucrats were different kinds of people, and did I have any general hints about dealing with
bureaucrats anyway?
Interesting questions. In my career I have spent large slabs of my working life both in private enterprise and as a public servant. But I disclaim ever being a bureaucrat in the dictionary sense. Probably this is because as a trade commissioner in different parts of the world my responsibilities and con tacts not to mention my training and preferences have always been about practical questions of business and commerce.
But of course I’ve come to learn a lot about the methods of public servants and bureaucrats, and I can say, as I said to my Samoan friend, there are differences in the attitudes of island and Australian public servants (which is what he really wanted to know).
They do have something important
in common, however, which no busi nessman who has to fight the system to
get a result should overlook. That is, in
private enterprise the responsibility for
making decisions is pushed as far as possible down the line. In a bureauc racy, the responsibility is pushed as far as possible up the line.
As to the differences, island bureaucracies can be particularly frus trating because sometimes people are so
terrified at getting things wrong, they
make a decision only with reluctance.
The island deference to seniority, particularly in the top people in the departments are of a higher rank, such as can happen in Polynesia, is one explanation for this. There are small communities and deference is part of the social system. Island bureaucracies also tend to be patriarchal, with few women at the top. And the staff is inclined to move around a lot, with people going in and out of the service, so there is often no continuity in the lower positions. The problem thus is
how to get through to the positive people who make the decisions (for decisions are what we usually want from a bureaucracy).
Australian public servants are typical of those of the big metropolitan bureau crats. Deference is not particularly important, they feel secure and inde pendent of pressure and the system is extensive enough to provide for many
very hardworking and intelligent
people, alongside very mediocre people
who think they know everything, and time-servers who know nothing, and don’t care.
Ask one of the latter what tariff you should pay to import something direct from Suva and he won’t tell you he doesn’t know, he will say you must pay full duty. If he bothered to check, there is no duty, but he has moved the problem off his desk and protected himself at the same time. (If you asked the same sort of person at Suva end, he may want to give you an answer at all).
How should business people deal with the bureaucracy? In a word, with
persistence!
They must first ensure that they have
a good case, clearly presented, and
having presented it, they must keep
hammering until they get a decision a clear decision, properly explained. No answer at all from the bureaucracy is
certainly not acceptable. I know plenty
of people who have got a decision, and often the one they want, because they have not let up in demanding answers and have not let public servants run for cover.
As a personal footnote to this subject of bureaucrats, this is probably the place for me to say I shall be breaking ranks in July. It’s now 22 years since I became closely involved in islands trade, and 12 years since I took over the post of South Pacific Trade Com missioner for the Forum Island Countries, based in Sydney. The com mission’s task is to help develop island
business, particularly indigenous
businesses, and promote investment in the islands, and working for these objectives has made the past 12 years among the busiest, most satisfying of my life. But I’m getting no younger so I have decided to retire from the commission. After July, I plan to retain my interest in the Pacific, without the
same workload, by undertaking private
consultancy work.
• Bill McCabe is senior com missioner of the South Pacific Trade Commission, Sydney an arm of the South Pacific Forum. □