Last week high-ranking bureaucrats went on a surprise inspection to offices of various State government departments across all talukas. What they found in the offices is nothing surprising. The department heads coming late to work is not news to the people of Goa, nor is the fact that government servants are lethargic and that there are works pending in the offices. Any individual who has ever visited a government office will attest to all of these and more defects of the Goan government servant and the offices. The inefficiency of the government departments is so legendary that one hardly needs an inspection to ascertain that what the people talk about government departments is true.
Surprising is Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar expressing his disappointment over the various lapses that were noted in the inspection and the manner in which a majority of the taluka head offices of government departments are functioning. Did he really expect that the inspection would give him a report that all was well in the functioning of the offices? If he so expected than all he needs to do is visit any government office in the State capital where he will find a similar, if not worse, situation prevailing.
One of the aspects noted in the inspection is the poor public services in various departments. Again, everybody knows that, but now it is official. It will be the rare citizen who can claim that he was able to complete an errand in a government office by just one visit. And here, we are not talking about payment of electricity and water bills. That happens in one visit, but woe to the consumer who finds an error in his bill. His or her trips to the department office will never end in the effort to get the bill corrected.
But now that the government, the Chief Minister in particular, has got firsthand information of how government services are doled out in the departments, will there be a change? The Chief Minister has called for corrective measures, but these won’t work unless the corrective measures that are drawn out are also enforced.
This makes it imperative on the government to ensure that The Goa (Right of Citizens to Time-bound Delivery of Public Services) Act, 2013 is made effective immediately. The Act exists, but is lacking in implementation. Of course, government staffers will not be pleased if the Act is implemented strictly, but then the government is not here to please its staff. The people want service from the government and a change for the better will always be welcome.
Almost everything about government service needs a change in today’s prevailing situation. Starting with the manner in which government staff deals with the common man to the facilities available for the citizen who visits a government office. Can a person, entering a government office be made to feel welcome, rather than being made to feel that he is intruding into somebody’s personal space?
There is a change that is needed but it can come only if there is a concerted attempt made to ensure that government staff work like professionals and do so on a daily basis, not just when there is an inspection expected or in the days immediately following an inspection when the fear of action still exists. Can this government bring about this change in attitude in the government staff? No amount of inspections will help improve the quality of the services until the attitude of the staff in the government offices changes. That is the first challenge for the government – to get its staff to understand and accept that they are sitting in offices to help the citizens.
