Civil Service Commission

Any government needs a large number of public servants to carry out its orders. The birth of the civil service commission was partly due to this need. Do you know the history of the commission in the country? After president Garfield was killed, the Pendleton Act created the civil service commission in the year 1883. Therefore, the commission is one with a very long history.

Since then the role, powers and number of civil servants involved in the activities of the commission has changed drastically. Various reforms have also changed the nature of the civil service commission. This commission is a very important one, not just to the public servants but for the country as a whole.

Before the commission was created politicians could meddle with the civil service and could hire and fire civil servants at will. Thanks to the birth of the civil service commission things became much more transparent. Everyone who aspires to join the civil service now has to sit for an exam and applicants are chosen according to their merits. If not for the civil service commission each and every government could flood the civil service with its own party members. The commission brought the ideals of fair play into the public service.

What exactly is civil service? The definition could vary from country to country. Generally, excluding the members of the armed forces, all other personnel employed by the government would fall within the jurisdiction of the civil service commission. However, in certain countries this is not the case.

The federal government is not the only body that makes use of the services of such a commission. You might have heard of the civil service commission in the state of New York or of some other state. Those employed by the state would fall under the jurisdiction of the commission belonging to the particular state.

In many developing countries like those in Asia and Africa these commissions are not independent ones. Political interference is common and thus some civil servants are extremely inefficient. The lack of an efficient civil service commission could lead to much corruption and wastage of public resources as in the case of many of these countries. Democracy in civil service is crucial.

Various reforms in 1978 caused a change in the nature and even in the name of the civil service commission. Some of the functions of the commission were transferred to different ones. Office of Personal Management was the new name given to the commission. The president of the civil service commission is an individual who wields significant powers and various people have presided over the commission up to now.

There is no doubt that some aspects of the commission need to be reformed to make it more efficient. However, the role of the civil service commission in any country is a very important one and success of many government policies would depend upon its effectiveness.