Office attendance + a mixed bag

Khekiye K. Sema [dropcap]I[/dropcap]n the greater interest of the general public, this guy is opting to candidly address the subject captioned in the header ... “+ A mixed bag”... which must obviously sound meaninglessly ambiguous. This crafty guy is just opening a window of liberty to ramble into unchartered, seemingly unconnected territories in the same breath beyond the immediate subject of attendance along the way. So adjust your antenna accordingly as you travel with him.Just the other day the Chief Secretary had made an official statement that the attendance in office in general was not being affected on account of the present political turmoil... that the office attendance was normal. He was genuinely expressing the first part of the half truth because absenteeism has always been a chronic disease suffered by the government even under normal circumstances and therefore it is nothing different from the usual....a normal scenario with or without the jokers in the guise of ‘leaders’ within the NPF party on both camps, each washing their soiled underwear in broad daylight and doing their best to cause destabilisation and confusion with the end objective of gaining greener financial pastures of a personal kind. The descriptive truth of the other half of ‘normalcy’ has been conveyed by the Chief Secretary who has expressed his “serious concern over poor attendance of employees in office” as carried by the local dailies in their 31st January 2015 publication. It is of interest to note that the focus is on the ‘employees’ (meaning the subordinate ministerial staffs) as has always been the case even in the days gone by and not so much on the ‘Officers’ who too are ‘employees’ of the Government. This misplaced concern has been addressed over and over again in the past by all the other Chief Secretaries before him, during ‘Administrative Heads of Department’ (AHOD) and Heads of Departments (HOD) meetings, and will continue to be addressed way into the future after his departure unless this focus undergoes a drastic overhaul on a realistic plane where the senior bureaucrats come to terms with their behavioural attitudes first. As a senior retired bureaucrat, this guy too was privy to all the discussions that used to be had on this subject. Most of the senior Controlling Officers would invariably proffer ‘visitors coming to the house in the morning hours causing them the delay’ or ‘attending to their respective Ministers/Parliamentary Secretaries at their residence’ as a consistent excuse for coming late to the office or not come at all. At the cost of earning their displeasure, this guy had often expressed the need for the AHODs and HODs to show the first example before attempting to demand disciplined attendance from the subordinates, during such meetings. A faint voice of the minority in the wilderness was always drowned by the overwhelming cacophony of the sounds emitting from the majority who had other ideas. Proactive leaders ought to be saying “follow me” rather than say “go ahead, I am coming”. Unfortunately we have more of the latter kind at the helms of affairs and this misplaced focus still persists as is evident from the Chief Secretary’s expressed ‘concern’. The disciplining arrow never point to the Controlling Officers who too are expected to attend office in time without exception, without excuses and expect the subordinates to follow suit... Mr. Chief Secretary Sir, as an old work horse, let this guy assure you that the subordinates will do their bit if their controlling officers show them the way. It defies all sense of natural justice when accountability is fixed only on the subordinate staffs and not on the Officers who in fact are more rampantly guilty of defiling the system. The principle of “no work no pay” must begin with the Officers club as a starter. Unless the upper echelon in the bureaucracy is prepared to own up to their default in all fairness and shoulder their responsibilities honourably and squarely, coining catchy phraseology like “no work no pay”... in imitation of the NPGs’ “Nagaland for Christ”... would amount to nothing. Attendance will always remain “normal” as usual. Having said that, this guy would however concede that there is a modicum of truth in the claims of Controlling Officers, citing the hazards of attending to the calls of the Ministers/Parliamentary Secretaries in their residence at odd official hours, as an impediment to attending office in time. Therefore, on behalf of the senior bureaucrats, who seem to have lost their voice somewhere, let this guy tender a well intended suggestion that ought to have been made a thousand years ago to the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Nagaland. Superficially speaking, as it may, one would assume that every Chief Minister would want to see a smooth functioning of his Government machinery, whether productive or otherwise. However, this is not about to happen as long as the CM along with his Ministers and Parliamentary Secretaries conduct their official and ‘not so official’ business in their residence and expect the Secretary/Director of the Department to call on them at all hours at their pleasure. Logistically consider the location of the New Secretariat and the residences of the Ministers/ Parliamentary Secretaries...throw in the problem of traffic congestion in between...the disruption of their official hours become genuine. While exceptional circumstances will always be there to warrant such a need, such exception should not be transformed into a regular operational norm instead, as is generally the ongoing practice. At the end of the day, it is the people who suffer the consequence of an unfinished work that may only require the ‘dhobi’ mark of a Secretary/Director. Why then continuously harp on a stable Government for the welfare of the people...when the people that they refer to are nowhere in their prioritised mind frame by way of action? The Government is annually spending a tidy sum for the upkeep and maintenance of offices of the Chief Minister, the Ministers and Parliamentary Secretaries in the Secretariat which mostly remain a ‘vacant decor’ throughout the year(s). Being a political animal does not necessarily relieve them from performing their elementary duty. Even if they have been able to purchase their status, they too are expected to function under the government laid down rules and regulation of management that include attending office. This contemptuous attitude of living above the law should be brought to an end both within the political and the bureaucratic circles. It is therefore imperative that the Hon’ble Chief Minister issue a strict directive to himself and to all the Ministers and Parliamentary Secretaries to punctually and regularly attend office and conduct their ‘business’ in their regular designated office instead of calling the Secretaries/ Directors to their residence. Leading from the front is a lesson yet to be learnt in real earnest in Nagaland. Learning the use of official time economically is another virtue that both the politicians and bureaucrats need a serious crash course. Many a Minister/Parliamentary Secretary/ Senior Secretaries of the Government are known to sit over a cup of tea with friendly visitors needlessly reviewing the world history while the public anxiously wait in the anteroom for hours to get their work done. In the first place, attendance is irregular but when in office this is what happens. It is pathetic. During his visit, the Prime Minister of India crisply dealt with hoards of public and NGOs on a strict timeframe. Perhaps a lesson should be learnt from this and be adopted by those in authority. It is pointless for a Chief Minister to voice his disenchantment against the bureaucrats for poor attendance when the force of disruption beings from within his own kitchen cabinets. The mixed bag of the story is that, perhaps the Hon’ble CM could fix accountability at least on his Ministers if not on himself... threatening them with withdrawal of their plumb portfolios and get reassigned to independent charge of other ‘big’ departments like Arts & Culture/ Labour & Employment/ Weights & Measures etc. with ‘big’ budgets that even chickens ignore. Finding a Chief Minister with a political will to establish an honourable facade to his government and streamline the issue of discipline within the rank seems to be an impossible nightmare as is being experienced by Mr. T.R. Zaliang. For whatever he may represent, Mr. T.R.Z at least showed an exemplary political spunk. Where Mr. N.R, his predecessor, glorified the garbage with a ministerial berth, Mr. T.R. Zaliang dumped this foul waste to where it belonged... away from his ministry...despite jeopardising the equilibrium of his government. That same unfortunate garbage was not thrown far enough behind the bars and is now on the other side of the fence polluting his backyard with a loud hypocritical noise as a spokesperson. Be that as it may, he salvaged a modicum of Christian propriety, dignity and honour for the Nagas. For that, he deserves a pat on the back... one should give credit where it is due. Other than this little saving grace, the larger picture of the value system in Nagaland is at its negative best that the Church is praying for. The NBCC is now probably worried that a prolonged confusion in the political world would only destabilise their dependant resources and sees the need to pray for the “leaders”... their greatest provider. Yes! Yes!! We know! We know!! The Church must pray for the sinners. The sanctimonious guys out there do not need to convince anybody about this expected retort. It is only the unnerving motive behind the prayers that is being brought to question ...that’s all. The Church seems to have run out of Christian ideas and now they have come down to praying for an inanimate contraption called cars/vehicles in Nagaland. Three cheers for the Church...in fact why three? Four and a half cheers! Perhaps the time is rife for them to now spend a meaningful moment of prayer for the Churches and its ‘leaders’ in our land for a change. Meanwhile, coming back to the core issue of office attendance... it would serve the Nagas well if the Hon’ble CM, the Ministers the Parliamentary Secretaries ... the Chief Secretary, his AHODs and HODs can begin to set the example of following the beaten track of governance with their ‘dignified’ presence in their respective offices in time, conduct the official duties in office as is expected, desired and required...at least the subject of attendance would recede to the background...even if real honest work output would remain a question mark in the forefront. It is as good as asking them to make their pocket money from their officially designated stations... but at least it would be the better of the two evils because the lucky few may still get their job done by default. Set these two eschewed towering citadels in order and then, only then perhaps one would expect to see an improvement in attendance downstairs, even in the absence of “no work no pay” threat...but not before. The writer is, IAS (Rtd) Forest Colony, Kohima;