Is it too much to expect professionalism from government officials?

By Nikita Butalia

As Indian citizens, we are indifferent towards government officials

seeking bribe or being dishonest. Such incidents of irresponsible
behaviour by government officials- whether the police, beurocrats, public
sector employees or municipal corporation staff, is a regular sighting.

And such a sighting has led to a perception that India is a largely corrupt
country. In fact, it is ranked 84 out of the 180 surveyed by Transparency
International’s corruption perception index 2009.

This negative perception is caused by lapses in the government

machinery. To provide welfare to citizens, it is imperative for the state to
function in an honest manner. Yet, upon seeking help from government
agencies or accessing public services, we usually remain dissatisfied -
such as the case with public transport facilities.

But the problem is much more deep-rooted. Worse is the knowledge that
in spite of receiving taxes, the government fails to deliver services to us,
in the promised manner. Scandals and misuse of power by government
officials are regular news. Questions raised upon improper, exploited use
of resources are suppressed or dodged, even with the RTI legislation in
place.

So what encourages acts of unprofessionalism? Perhaps it is the

knowledge that public-sector jobs are secure. Appointing and dismissing
employees in the public sector is a rather tedious, lengthy procedure. This
ensures job security to these officials, which they frequently use to their
advantage. The existence of unionisation may be regarded as a major
encouragement to corruption, as their presence helps protect the jobs of
public-sector employees, making it difficult to terminate their services
and fix the problem.

What’s the solution? Government should include unions in their approach

to increasing efficiency and rewarding them for good results. This would
encourage them to work towards assisting in service delivery rather than
becoming barriers to productivity.

The bigger problem, however, is that we are promoting corruption in

various forms. Almost always, we prefer bribing police officers as a
means of escaping heavy fines; or paying government employees for
faster assistance. We get along by our ‘chalta hai’ attitude.
The vicious circle of people paying bribes to government officials and
vice versa, has to stop with us.

Each one of us can make the change. And we have every right to demand
the services that are our right in the first place.

I saw this message on the wall of a public sector bank: "A customer is the
most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us. We
are dependent on him. We are not doing him a favour by serving him. He
is doing us a favour by giving us the opportunity to serve him.” -
Mahatma Gandhi"

It is time to actively seek such service. Now.

(Nikita Butalia is a freelance writer and writes social commentary.)
-ENDS-