Performance bonus breeds the culture of avoiding responsibility

The culture of avoid responsibility and minding turf has grown to be very bad in Singapore. Political leaders and civil servants spend a significant part of their energy in explaining why they should not be addressing a particular problem, i.e. that another agency should be responsible to deal with the problem.

Often, the problem was not attended to, as there are many issues that "fall between the cracks". The situation is so bad that a Member from the ruling party, Ms. Indranee Rajah, had to raise this issue in Parliament. See this report: http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC120301-0000073/More-coordination-among-govt-agencies,-please

If the honourable Member of Parliament had to face this difficulty, one can imagine how much worse the situation would be for the ordinary people in Singapore!

What cause this culture? I can hazard a guess - it is the performance measurement and bonus system of the
Government. It may seem to be a good idea to reward good performers - Government ministers and top civil servants - with a big bonus. But it does have its unintended consequences, such as encouraging the culture of avoiding responsibility.

If any agency takes the challenge of dealing with the problem, they would have to employ more people and incur higher expenses - and this would probably result in a lower performance rating (as the additional work is not likely to be recognized and accounted for). So, to improve the performance rating, it would be better to avoid taking the responsibility!

I have always considered that honourable people, especially top leaders, should do their best out of a sense of duty and not for a bigger bonus. This is why I have been against the payment of high bonus for performance - at the top levels!

This is just a personal point of view, and is probably one sided. I know that there is a good side to pay more bonus to encourage good performance. But, on balance, I think that this has probably produced a negative outcome.