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In the public service : Is honesty the best policy?

by Lloyd. Fernando

He profits most who serves best. - Arthur F. Sheldon - Motto For Rotary International

It is said that one must be thankful for small mercies. It would not take long for a public servant to be in the public service to realise the veracity of this adage, for, sooner than later, pennies should start to fall from heaven when you would find yourself working late into the evening or travelling on official duty, perhaps, with an overnight stay in addition.

Unjustifiable?

Overtime commonly referred to as 'O.T.' is a payment made out to the rank and file for working beyond the normal working hours either after the closing hour or before the usual office opening time. This situation crops up occasionally when there is some urgent work to be attended to such as the clearance of a backlog of work due to unavoidable circumstances, or undue shortage of staff.

However, considering the long hours public servants spend in office canteens sipping those innumerable cups of tea over unending bouts of personal narrations and unadulterated gossip; or reading newspapers, exchanging pleasantries, or hanging on the office telephones, the need for overtime, one might be compelled to give second thoughts. Is it unjustifiable?

Necessary evil

Even in offices where there is hardly enough work to justify for the number of employees working, there seems to be enough work after office hours to involve the employees on overtime.

Overtime has become a part and parcel of the normal office package of the rank and file of the public service.

Over the years, overtime has been woven into the norms of the public service. Under the circumstances, someone interpreted overtime as a necessary evil.

There was this very revealing account of a worker at the Mineral Sands Corporation in Pulmoddai, Trincomalee, related to us by the task master of a general manager when we were the resource personnel on a Workers' education seminar at the corporation.

The genial manager told us that while he was on a familiarisation tour of the premises when he first joined the state institution, he happened to pick up the attendance register and browsed through the pages. Being very observant at all times, he noticed a name against which carried the word "throughout" through the week and into the months gone by.

He had immediately sent for this worker and subsequently asked him to explain.

Very nonchalantly, the worker had responded: "Why, sir, I work right through the day and night - overtime! The G. M. had cried "Halt" to "throughout with immediate effect; and so, throughout his tenure of office, there was no more 'throughout' and 'overtime' began to get monitored thereafter.

Realistic approach

'Overtime' is often a creation of the workers themselves.

Among the veterans of the rank and file, overtime is spoken of as an integral part of the monthly emoluments.

He could be even demanding at times; or maybe he would go elsewhere, to new pastures where he would find his 'overtime'.

Irrespective of the ever-increasing cost of living, for a long period of time, the allowances paid out to public servants on the move while on duty was grossly insufficient.

But, thanks to the realistic approach of the powers that were in a past era, public officials could now enjoy the luxury of, at least, a circuit bungalow.

The staff officer in the public sector could, very rightly, be thankful for small mercies, for, his subsistence while out of the station, on duty, is subjected to some and corrections to his advantage if he happens to stay overnight for a couple of days or more. However, when it comes to making an official fast buck, in no uncertain terms, from travelling, it is really those privileged few, those 'fast' ones, indeed, who make those lightning trips abroad making fortunes by way of prudent savings on their foreign entitlements.

It is surely not my intention, at this stage, to elaborate on those dubious ways of making a fast buck from some key sectors of the public service.

The late Mr. Athulathmudali who had studied in-depth this whole issue of financial dealings in the Public Service, once remarked that corruption can only be minimised but cannot be totally eliminated, particularly, in the developing countries. "So, let's carry on with development and endure what we cannot cure", he very meaningfully observed.

Honesty the best policy?

The subject being "Travelling and Subsistence still, at the turn of the Seventies, I was confronted with a situation where I was forced to ask myself over and over again whether it pays to be honest in the Public Service.

During the preceding reign of government, I has done a fair amount of travelling but not submitted any travelling claims, inferring, of course, to the subsistence.

Far from being acts of forgetfulness, it never occurred to me (not even as a passing thought) to do so as I had been right royally hosted wherever I had gone - and so absolutely no out-of-pocket expenses were involved by me in any way; perhaps, due to the unusually close rapport I had built up with my brother colleagues and associates.

Amidst an ocean of gross irregularities, this seemingly honest exercise was, I guess, too good to be true and so the tongues started to wag that 'so and so' was so close to the powers that were, he did not even make any 'claims' on his legitimate travelling.

The end result was that I was politically misconstrued and eventually 'put on the mat' on an unwritten charge: "I was too close to the Minister". I was sent on 'Compulsory Leave' and returned after over a year on to become close to another Minister of a different regime, of course! Under such circumstances, is honesty yet the best policy in the Public Service?

Everybody lives for something better to come. That's why we want to be considerate of every man who knows what's in him,

why he was born and what he can do.

-Maxim Gorky

(The writer is Former Secretary to Governor, N. W. P.)

 

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