“Under Structural Adjustment in the 1990s, the government gave golden handshakes to senior civil servants such as Permanent Secretaries and Directors. These inducements were very attractive, and many accepted them. The result was a loss of institutional memory and experience that has led to greater incompetence in the civil service … As a result functions which we in government could easily do in the 1980s cannot be done today. Those of us in senior positions in government failed to create new and strong institutions, so that too much depended on strong personalities. When these strong personalities moved on, some of the innovations collapsed.”
At no time did she make reference to parastatals or the defence forces. She was specifically talking about the civil service. We apologise sincerely for not quoting Chung accurately and for imputing to her an interpretation that she did not specifically state.