Overtime abuse is an endemic problem in some government entities, drowning them in avoidable expenses and wearing thin their resources meant to serve the public. There is, at times, little evidence of public officials working hard to ferret out employee abuse of overtime pay, which costs taxpayers millions of extra euros.
An auditor-general report on the Gozo ministry found “employees’ attendance sheets revealed that overtime was carried out ‘habitually’, often with vague justification for its requirements". In reply to the auditor general, the ministry defended the system and its officials. They said that "all overtime was approved".
This is not a good-enough justification. The auditor general does not reach his conclusions lightly. The whole thing smacks of a racket. Taxpayers are owed yet another explanation as to why their money is being squandered. The minister of finance, known for his no-nonsense attitude to the management of public funds, needs to convince a sceptical public that their hard-earned euros are being used properly and not frittered away into undeserving employees’ pockets.
Abuse of overtime in any organisation can be attributed to various causes. These include failure to have a clear overtime policy, specifying that supervisor approval is mandatory and defining the consequences of abuse. Another cause could be ineffective time management and inadequate demand-planning by incompetent managers. Lack of controls and inadequate investment in efficient technological systems to track overtime work is another cause of poor management.
However, it is obvious that the main reason for overtime abuse in some areas of government is a clientelist mindset that puts political expediency before the public's interests. The fact that the Gozo ministry employs 800 workers in one of its divisions indicates that shortage of workers is not a primary reason for the “habitual” overtime done there.
Such abuse of overtime pay is a violation of public trust and a gross waste of scarce government funds. All public officials and their political masters have an obligation to the taxpaying public to take practical steps to curb this abuse.
Ministries that persistently flout the public spending rules set out by the ministry of finance should be subjected to a management audit. Stiff sanctions must follow in cases of incompetent management and clearly-defined corrective action with strict deadlines imposed on such ministries.
Just as business organisations do, public ministries funded by taxpayers' money must review and re-engineer their management processes to introduce proper controls and prevent squandering. When necessary, ministries should consider investing in tamper-proof tracking measures to minimise abuse.
Moreover, progressive disciplinary actions must be defined to hold abusers accountable for their illegal or illicit behaviour.
The lack of political will to make enforcement of sensible regulations more visible and effective is one reason why the public feels short-changed by the various enforcement entities. Finance Minister Clyde Caruana has often spoken openly about his anger at people failing to honour their tax obligations, making it that much more difficult to improve public services. Well, there’s another side to this coin: it is time he reads the riot act to ministries found to have squandered taxpayers' money through poor management or the wilful permitting of abuse.
The public expects that government finance officials take their responsibility seriously to ensure proper use of taxpayer funds. As part of their ongoing commitment to reducing waste, they must undertake a comprehensive, department-wide review of overtime use and ignore protestations that may ensue from ministers.
The honest taxpaying public has every right to clamour: “Stop squandering our money.”