Billions Wasted

The headlines in one of our local dailies read 'Billions wasted in repairing public buildings....' - statement made by our Prime Minister. "Due to poor maintenance of buildings and amenities, we have to allocate big sums of money for repairs. This is a loss,” he said.

All he has to do is to get the Works Minister to tweak the Public Works Department to carry out their job. They have the technical expertise and the manpower but due to poor leadership the department is not functioning as it should. As I have commented before it all goes back to management. The managers need to 'prune' their staff. Get rid of the dead wood for the good of the department as a whole. Many times the lazy and good for nothing staff are not reprimanded but instead are promoted so that they can be transfered to another section. The idiot is still an idiot but with a higher rank and more pay.

This also happens in the education ministry. The teachers hardly go to class and do their core business - teaching. They are involved in co-curriculum activities or some beautifying campaign started by some idiot education official higher up.

The Prime Minister also suggested that schools assign teachers to take charge of the management and maintenance of buildings and other facilities, adding that owners of other public buildings and amenities should also do the same. This will give another reason for the teachers not to go to their respective classes and teach.

It is better to flog the Public Works Department who already have the various technical staff to handle such matters throughout the country to start doing their jobs. It is not necessary for any more working paper or new guidelines for this problem to be handled by teachers or other non-technical staff. Just make sure the technicians do their job and make sure the teachers go to their class and teach. Good management, empowerment and enforcement...that's all you need.