THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY AND PRESIDENT RAMOTAR SHOULD TAKE NOTE OF THIS MAN’S EXPERIENCE

October 28, 2013, By KNews, Filed Under Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom, Source

It is the sort of case study that bolsters the arguments of those who are calling for a reduction in government bureaucracy.  But it is also one that both the President of Guyana and the international community should take note of because it points to just what is chronically wrong with our systems.

For seven years,  a man who was given a contract to cut the grass at three schools has been running back and forth to the Ministry of Education trying to get his payment of a mere US$ 650.

That poor man has suffered great misfortune because of not being paid.  While he was running back and forth begging for what was rightly due to him, both of his parents succumbed. Now they may not have died because of the lack of payment. But imagine the additional burden that this simple man had to endure simply because he did not do the “right” thing or rather the wrong thing.

The man who was not being paid for services rendered to the Ministry of Education had to deal with the deaths of both of his parents plus the task of trying to find money to feed his family. But it did not end there. The man ended up having to sell his grass cutting machine just in order to make ends meet, thereby ending that source of income.

I am sure somewhere along the line he would have been asked to look at the bigger picture. To forget the small freck that he was owed by the Ministry and look at the tremendous development that had taken place in the country. But what did that development do for this small man?

It took away his livelihood and all because he was not being paid what was rightly his.  After being given the runaround he was told he should move on. In other words forget about what was rightly due to him for services rendered.

This man is not the first and will not be the last to suffer from the sloth and inefficiencies of the government bureaucracy. This is one of the main reasons why many private companies do not wish to do business with government. They are hardly ever paid on time and the end up making bad relations with their suppliers and workers because they cannot pay them on time, that is if they refuse to do the “right” thing or rather the wrong thing.

It needs no explaining as to what is the “right” thing that needs to be done. There are some contractors – big and small- who have no reason to complain at all about payments. They get their payments in time because they do the “right” thing or rather the wrong thing.

Also there are some contractors who are paid upfront for services to be rendered. These are the special ones who do not have to worry about finding the money to pay for the goods which they have to deliver. The government makes a full advance.

If you know how to do the “right” things or rather the wrong things, if you have the right connections and know how to grease the wheel, the fate that befell that poor man will not befall you. You may even end up being paid for services not rendered.

At the heart of this problem is the bureaucracy. It simply does not work. And because it does not work it breeds skullduggery.

The government bureaucracy needs to be taken down and stripped of all various layers of approvals that are required. A person should be paid promptly after completing a job. But for this to happen, it means that greater autonomy will have to be given to accounting units.

If everything has to be centrally cleared at the level of the Treasury, then bottlenecks will develop. Once the accounting period passes it means that those unpaid accounts have to receive special permission so that they can be honored. Given the way in which the opposition is chopping things left right and center in the National Assembly, there will be causalities when it comes to unpaid accounts from previous accounting periods.

The system has to be simplified. Right now the system is computerized but this has not made it any more efficient. There is more information available but processing times have not been cut. They are not likely to be cut unless there is complete revamp of the system.

Any such revamp requires reducing some controls. But this is what some bureaucrats are afraid of because it gives them less control. Less control means less leverage to force innocent persons to do the “right” thing or rather the wrong thing.

The ex- weeder has received assurances that he will be paid what is now due to him. He should not worry, except that he will have to wait until next year to actually see the cash because approval has to come from the Treasury and since this approval will have to be in relation to unpaid accounts, this is not likely to happen until the next Budget.