The cost of doing business is so high when one is faced with red tape everywhere he turns. But red tape is the reality in every government office in this country. For emphasis, the results are: the high cost of doing business due to lost man hours, low productivity due to delays, and the slowing down of business processes.
Through the years, the government has adopted programs in an effort to lessen red tape and improve the quality of services it is giving the people. Thus, the “fix the fixer” and the no lunch break policy, to mention only two.
As always, however, the government is only good in the drafting of laws and programs. Proper implementation is altogether a different story. So the fixers still remain to be fixed. They are still all over government offices where the masses transact. The no lunch break policy is where some success has been attained. But still there are so many offices where you are confronted with a long face when you disturb the usual leisurely and extended lunch time of office clerks and other lowly government office functionaries.
Why such usual government incompetence in management or in the implementation of programs and policies?
One of the causes are the impractical or not doable programs and policies arrived at. Often, these are finalized in offices with not much input from those people on the ground who are to implement the same or those who had been implementing old problematic programs whose bad effects or results were intended to be solved.
Another reason is the failure of government managers or officers to closely monitor the results of programs. They never go down to the level of the public who are supposed to be the beneficiaries of such to see how the lower ranks are executing the plans. If they could not disguise themselves as some of the supposed beneficiaries, then they should send others to monitor the implementation in cognito so real inputs can be had and the parts of the programs that are not working well would be fine-tuned.
This simple process, however, which will result in less government money being wasted is often too much for government managers or officers to undertake.
In sum, the top honchos of the bureaucracy should wield their whip a lot more often.
And we the citizens should complain more about illegal conduct like corruption and inefficient or incompetent practices.**