Public administration—a culture of success
| Published date | 01 November 2006 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/pad.4230150315 |
| Date | 01 November 2006 |
| Author | Edward Fenech‐Adami |
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
AND
DEVELOPMENT, VOL, 15,263-266 (1995)
Public administration-a culture
of
success
EDWARD FENECH-ADAM1
Malta
There are few subjects that are universally more topical than public service reform
and thus
I
feel that the concept
of
CAPAM has much to laud it, promoting as it does
opportunities for sharing of knowledge and experience in public administration and
management. It was Heraclitus who said that ‘Everything flows and nothing stays’.
Although Heraclitus, a Greek philosopher who lived in 400 B.C., was talking about
change long ago, the same principles apply today in our public service. Public
services have to adapt in order to maintain their currency and their value.
In order to provide the context of Malta’s current public service reforms, some
background information is called for. Malta is a small archipelago of islands in the
centre of the Mediterranean covering an area of 125 square miles with
a
population
of
just under 400,000. Situated as it is,
at
the cross-roads of the Mediterranean just
60 miles south of Italy and 180 miles north of the North African coast, it has a long
and rich history stretching back some
5000
years. Indeed its strategic position has
served to attract every major power to its shores, seeing itself colonized in turn by the
Phoenicians, the Romans, the Arabs, the Normans and the Spaniards, with the
island passing to the Order of St John of Jerusalem in
1530.
The Order ruled over
Malta for 270 years, repelling the attack of the Ottoman invaders in an event that
is
commonly known as the first Great Siege of 1565.
The decline of the Order’s influence led to Napoleon’s occupation of Malta in 1798
on the way to his conquest of the East. The Napoleonic reign, however, was short
lived. The Maltese, helped by Nelson, ousted the French and by the Treaty of Paris,
Malta was granted to Britain in 1814 by ‘the voice of Europe and the love of the
Maltese’. The first Great Siege
of
1565 was repeated in World War
2,
and Malta was
in the front line from the very first day of the war in the Mediterranean. It was in
recognition of this fact that Malta was awarded the George Cross by King George
VI in 1942 for the ‘valour shown by its people’.
In 1964 Malta became independent with the attendant challenges this posed jn
breaking away from past traditions and dependencies and forging a new future.
Although the overriding influence in our civil service has no doubt been British
because of our long association, there are other aspects that are continental
European, such as our Roman-Napoleonic legal structure and the conduct
of
business. Malta’s civil service has a long and much respected tradition, its structure
until quite recently being patterned on the Whitehall model, i.e. structured and
hierarchical with its main General Service stream complemented with discrete
departmental grades in certain areas of specialization such as engineering, law,
medicine and information systems.
The
Rt.
Hon.
Dr.
Edward Fenech-Adami is the
Prime
Minister
of
Malta.
CCC
0271-2075/95/030263-04
0
1995
by
John
Wiley
&
Sons,
Ltd.
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