When the new Cabinet was formed several months ago, many writers concentrated on the limited changes in a Cabinet where most ministers kept their jobs. As a citizen, what I want to talk about is the provision of easily-performed services for minimum costs. What I want to say to our ministers, whether they are old in their jobs or new, is that there is much room for reform and change in government departments and agencies. There are serious needs for honest discussion and effective solutions. I suggest the following as some of those solutions.
1. Central authority and central control need to be reduced. Branch offices and agencies should be given more financial and managerial authority; they would thus assume responsibility for their duties and at the same time, be able to provide services more easily.
2. Discrimination between ministry employees and branch employees must be eliminated. Those in the ministry itself have better chances of good jobs, promotions, training, scholarships, bonuses and government cars than branch employees who are often cut off from these perks.
Citizens who visit these government offices are always surprised by the many divisions and units — all with important-sounding names — within the ministries. And a very real and stifling bureaucracy is immediately evident if you want to meet the minister.
You must first get permission from his office manager, then from the manager of his private office and finally, from the minister’s private secretary. If you go to the under secretary’s section, you will see his offices for financial affairs, for managerial affairs, for planning and development and for executive affairs.
If you go to the general manager’s section, you will see before you the general manager for managerial and financial affairs, general manager for employees’ affairs, general manager for maintenance and services, general manager for storage — and all this in addition to the general manager of the general manager’s office.
You will have to meet them, greet them warmly and be kind to them so that they will allow you to meet the general manager. Deadly bureaucracy and routine has taken over our ministries to the extent that some general managers in branches cannot employ a servant or a worker on the existing salary scale without getting permission from the ministry first.
3. I ask and urge the ministers to visit villages and small towns so that they can see for themselves what is missing and what is needed in these areas. The ministers should not only visit big centers of population where they are assured of lavish and flattering receptions. Those in villages and small towns are just as much a part of our country as those who live in big cities and just as worthy of official attention.
