Ruining Work Ethics

Our ministers and politicians talk about our lack of work culture at every available opportunity. Ironically enough, they are the people who have forfeited the right to talk about work ethics because it is they who have done everything possible and necessary to destroy work ethics and work culture completely in government offices. Outside government offices and in the private sector, there is some work ethics still left in Assam; but in government offices and public sector undertakings work ethics has been ruined permanently due to a combination of surplus appointments, inability to enforce discipline and punctuality, too many holidays, total lack of any time-frame within which a particular job has to be completed, pay increases not related either to the consumer price index or to the quantum of work done, and finally, the government’s unwillingness to punish chronic absentees, shirkers and people who work only about two hours a day or not at all. One can see this comprehensive mollycoddling of government employees as the ultimate form of populist appeasement calculated to achieve the maximum electoral benefits for the ruling party. The net result, of course, is a kind of administrative structure that will not be endorsed by any civilized nation in the world. In fact, it is a perverse administrative structure designed to hinder all progress because no file moves even to the next table unless the bribes demanded are paid.

This perverse model of so-called democratic administration has just had yet another dose of inoculation against proper work ethics by three major recent developments. The first is a revised pay scale not linked so much to the consumer price index as it is to what Central government employees get paid. We have nothing against periodic revisions to pay-scales that enable government employees to cope with inflation. But the principle that State government employees must be paid what Central government employees are paid without regard to work-load and the much higher cost of living in Delhi will find few supporters except among State government employees. The other major irritant is that the State government, like the Centre, has paid no attention at all to the unorganized sector to which the majority of Indians belong. Is the responsibility of any government restricted only to looking after government employees? Secondly, the State government has decided to switch over to a five-day week for government employees without first ensuring that they are punctual and put in the number of stipulated hours in their offices and work places. In order to ensure that the total number of working hours remains almost the same for government employees, the State government has decided on a five-day week with working hours from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in summer and 9.30 a.m. to 4.30 p.m. in winter. Can this government, that has never been able to impose any discipline about working hours at any time, enforce a strict adherence to the new timings? We are certain that nothing of the kind is about to happen. As a corollary to this, one can legitimately ask whether with a significant increase in their pay and allowances, State government employees will reduce the normal rates of bribes demanded from citizens who have to deal with them. The third major blow to work ethics comes from the State government deciding to retain about ten departments that have clearly been white elephants for several years. The government does not conduct State lotteries any more, but the Department of Lotteries is still there. There are other such white elephants like the Directorate of Language Implementation, Office of the Chief Editor of District Gazettes, Land Acquisition and Reforms Department, Directorate of Trade Advisors (based in Kolkata), Minor Irrigation Department and so on that have ceased functioning long ago and should logically be wound up. Nearly Rs 3 crore a year are spent on these white elephant departments where the employees have had no work to do for years. Think of the health centres and rural schools that can be supported on Rs 3 crore a year. Is the government not directly responsible for destroying work ethics by continuing to pay salaries to people who are quite visibly without work? How can our ministers, MLAs and bureaucrats presume that they have the right to preach sermons to lay citizens on work culture after all this? THE SENTINEL