I received a letter recently from a civil servant who was head of a department, which got me thinking. The writer mostly made excuses for some error in advertising, basically involving having too many officers to supervise and passed on the blame to some junior person.

I found this to be repulsive, shameful and repugnant. If my juniors were to do such things, I would sack them on the grounds of irresponsible behaviour.

In both my professional and personal life, there have been many occasions where superior officers have not the taken blame, although they have clearly reviewed and approved the work.

Once a piece of work has been reviewed, then the highest authority must take the blame for errors, at least publicly, before pointing out the error was a junior's work. If someone senior with more experience (and a fatter paycheck) can't spot the obvious, how can a junior person?

Not many do though. Professional services partners are quick to pass on the blame to juniors. My colleague commented that if bosses are not willing to take responsibility for the work they have reviewed, then why bother having a review in the first place?

I recall a visiting risk management expert who espoused the theory that risk management generally fails in Malaysia as it is all about fault-finding and not problem-solving. This skew makes many just try and hide their mistakes.

This is not merely a problem in the public sector but also a serious problem in the private sector. Perhaps it is time to change our attitude and mind set.