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by Lloyd Fernando Former Secretary to Governor, N. W. P.

"Even in this modern age", a former Minister of Public Administration observed that" the public servant fights shy of the telephone to transact official business, may be from one cubicle in his office to another in the same office, or from one section or division to another". The senior Minister was addressing his mind to administrative delays, with particular reference to an instance where the delay was barely and squarely laid on the non-delivery of a file from one table to another when, in fact, this matter could have been settled over the telephone in just a few minutes.

The tete-a-tete was between the Minister and the time-honoured stickler for administrative and financial regulations in the public sector, the late D. B. I. P. S. Siriwardhana.

'Do it yourself

When the officer dealing with the subject was questioned as regards the delay, he gleefully told the Minister "the file has been put up for Mr. X's signature. "Surely, you could have gone up to your superior officer and obtained his signature within a matter of minutes, and now this has taken well over one week", the Minister admonished the stereotype public servant who just waits for things to happen but rarely gets it done.

The late President, R. Premadasa who was undoubtedly a dynamic administrator adopted a "Do it yourself" method of file clearance. The officer dealing with the subject should be so well versed enough to advise the Minister, of the problem and hence provide the answer as well to the question in the file, himself. If he falters, we betide to him.

The officers in charge of various subjects had to line up with their respective files - and "Do it yourself" answers. The scheme worked very successfully - and no wonder things 'moved' so quickly under his regime.

Duty-conscious

If the files are dealt with promptly as and when they arrive on the officer's desk, delays could certainly be minimised, provided the Minister's approval is not required, in which case it is required, the people's representative should be advised by the Secretary of the paramount importance of the speedy flow of files.

However, when an officer is on leave or absent, stagnation inevitably occurs. Apparently, very often no acting arrangements are made to tide over such periods - and so the files keep piling up.

The late Siriwardhana who had been showered with many an accolade for able 'Public Administration', never had a single file on his desk at the end of the day, or for that matter any time of the day. The reason, of course, was his prompt attention to work in hand. That the cleanest, if not the barest office table in the public sector was his belonging, was surely no secret!

Dedication

Some years ago, I had the good fortune of being awarded a fellowship to France - and on that occasion, for a brief spell, I was attached to a newspaper office: The Agency France Press (AFP).

What struck me most here was the absolute sincerity of purpose, dedication and responsibility, with which every officer worked right through the working hours. The officers were all seen at their desks ten minutes before the scheduled time, leaving just enough time to ready themselves for the day's work i.e. to ease themselves by removing their jackets and peer over their respective tables.

On the dot, they begin to work conscientiously and undisturbed until the short coffee break only to continue till lunch-time for the last lap.

At the end of the day, what I so appreciatively observed was the way they all cleared their tables for another day. All's well that ends well!

Challenges

Many are the challenges that the average public servant has to face during the course of his day to day official life. To begin with, the public transport system leaves much to be desired and all his energy is spent in trying to make an honest attempt to beat the "red line" in office. Eventually, Mr. Perera arrives in office a 'spent force' - and red tape it is that takes him to task for late arrival. However, Mr. Silva arrives in office half an hour early through the good offices of his neighbour who owns a vehicle.

But, Mr. Silva, even though he signs up early, spends the next hour or more in the office canteen, while Mr. Perera gets to work as soon as he gets to office. Perhaps, at the end of the day Mr. Perera would have scored less for incremental consideration than Mr. Silva even though the former would have put in more work than the latter. It is time we realised that credit should be assessed by work performance and not by clock-watching. Clock watchers are so many in the public service while performers are so few!

Work-to-rule

The phrase, "work-to-rule" that is being used so freely these days by disgruntled members of trade unions seems highly paradoxical to many in the context of its usage. If the employees are working to rule.

It is well and good - there is nothing seemingly wrong in that, in fact, apparently it speaks well of a disciplined administration. But it is not to be so. Work to rule has become a trade union action: paradoxically a protest against the management. Quite logically, if working to rule as a protest is not the done thing, then the converse i.e. not working to rule, is the norm. Surely, there is something wrong somewhere! Perhaps, the answer lies in 'overtime'.

Overtime

It was Benjamin Disraeli who said that 'man is not the creature of circumstances but circumstances are the creature of men'.

Overtime is the time worked in addition to regular hours, and the payment for this is also referred to by the same name. the obvious inference is that there should be enough and more work to be done to justify overtime.

But, what has happened in the public sector over the years is that overtime has been woven into the norms of the Public Service. And so whether there is additional work or not, overtime goes on with gay abandon and claims for payment made accordingly. At times, without proper supervision by a superior officer, overtime hours have been spent elsewhere. I remember an incident related to me by the General Manager of the Mineral Sands Corporation in Pulmoddai off Trincomalee.

While going through the working records of the workforce he had observed that one worker had "throughout" against his name in the attendance register for quite some time. On inquiries made, to his utter consternation, he had discovered that "throughout" was a terminology used to denote working round the clock. He had then called up the particular worker and the officers concerned and severely rapped them that there won't be any more "throughouts" throughout his tenure of office.

Put the record right

On the basis of honesty and integrity, and sincerity of purpose, not to speak of dedication and loyalty, excessive bureaucracy or formalities in public business in effect has been devised for a smooth administration, under the Kachcheri system of Public Administration.

The official formalities or red-tape may be there at all times; but as we move on with confidence in a new century and another millennium, let us put the record right by paying more attention to the quantum of work performed rather than the number of hours spent doing nothing other than clock-watching; let us work to rule but not make that the basis to 'go slow' and eventually to derive undesirable 'overtime' at the expense of the ratepayer!

Let us use the red tape sparingly yet cautiously, towards a development-oriented administration for better, surely, not for worse! Let us remember in the words of Elbert Hubbard that "human service is the highest form of self-interest for the person who serves".

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