I would like to respond to the letter Gov't depts should be more sensitive . Civil servants enjoy many privileges and are spoilt rotten by the government. Spoilt children usually are self-centred and have no feelings for others.

Once you enter civil service, it is very difficult to get sacked. Quality is not the norm as your breakfast and tea time are more important. Besides you get a pension and your healthcare expenses are taken care of.

With such privileges secured for life, is there any incentive left to work hard? If civil servants don't feel like doing a job, they will simply pass it on to the next person. If you are vocal, the civil servant may look into your case. If not, you will have to wait while your case is being pushed around. They don't care if you are suffering. In the end, the poor and the lesser educated will suffer.

Take the example of a civil service secretary. If she has to type a letter, it has to be done a few times before it is okay. This is because she will not check the letter before printing it out. Her boss will then find all sorts of typing errors, edit it and ask her to type again.

She will do it without much pride in her job, print it out and pass it to her boss again. There will still be mistakes and she will have to do it again. But she is not worried about being sacked as this will not happen. The worse possible scenario for her is just a transfer to another department.

Compare this to the private sector where every second is money, let alone wasting paper and time. If the same secretary from the civil service were to be put in the private sector, she would not survive. She would be sacked immediately.

In the civil service, nobody really cares about quality. Anybody who complains internally will be seen as a villain. If the boss is tough, he or she will be the target of malicious rumours and, of course, the famous poison-pen letters.

Of course, not all civil servants are bad. However, the number of bad civil servants are significant enough to give the public a bad time and the civil service a bad image.