administration. Every file has to be
seen by 3–4 staff members (Section
Clerk, JS, SS, and Sr AA) before it
reaches the Commissioner.
If each guy takes 3 days, that
is 12 days for the file to reach
Commissioner’s desk. Then the file
comes back through the same route
with Commissioner’s order. Then
again it will be put up with some
clarification, going on the same long
journey.
If a file goes up and down a few
times, that is a month or two gone
by easily. When I say easily, I mean
‘no sweat’ easily. This is assuming
that nobody decides to just park the
file for 6 months.
This was the speed of file
movement within an office. Now
imagine communication between
different offices, and ultimately
between different governments.
Hell will freeze over before anything
happens on its own. People who
are affected by the files follow up
with the babus, flatter them, and
sometimes bribe them to get things
done. Else, you can wait forever.
Job security breeds laziness and
‘don’t care’ attitude: All kinds of
people join government but many
are looking for a secure job for life.
What does job security mean? It
If the CEO of Hindustan
Unilever or Tata
Steel wants to hire a
consultant or buy a
product, he can often
decide without too
much process and
issue orders quickly. In
government, you have
to float a tender, which
will take months and
sometimes years. Even
after the tender, you
have to often go for the
cheapest product or
service, not the best one.
means, “I can do whatever I like but
I still won’t lose my job”. With that
mindset, don’t expect magic. Mind
you, not everybody is like that and I
guess for every 5 lazy guys, there is
one hard working soul as well. That
guy carries the burden and all work
is dumped on her or him. I have
done that too.
Not convinced? Have you ever
gone to a government office, where
the employee refuses to look up at
you, or tells you to come another
day with some excuse like, ‘Saahib
meeting mein hain’?
Even a hard working
conscientious person joining
government will get disillusioned
pretty quickly. Else he will be
slogging all his life with no reward
whatsoever, and some do that.
Decline and stagnation: In
private sector, you have to become
somewhat better over time.
Obviously there are exceptions in
both places, but in government,
you can stagnate for 30 years and
nothing will happen to you. And
most people do stagnate. I suspect
many decline quite a bit.
No incentive to move fast and
take decisions. If you work hard and
take quick decisions, something
may go wrong. If that happens your
life will be hell. But if you chill, and
defer decision making, nothing
happens.
This especially true for senior
officials. How often has someone
been hauled for slow decision
making?
Look at our defence
procurement. It takes years to get
anything done. And if someone
tries to be a Rambo and push things
quickly, just wait long enough, and
CBI will probably knock on your
door. And I am talking about honest
guys, not the crooks. So everyone
plays safe. One proof of that: If a
clerical staff puts a noting on a file,
virtually nobody will overrule him/
her without thinking 100 times. I
have seen that first hand.
www.smartgovernance.in | February 2020 23