Zuhairi visited a government department to get some documentation work done that should normally take no longer than an hour. But nothing was done until three days later. The reason? The employee responsible for the work was attending his sister's wedding. “Why should we suffer for this?” Al-Zuhairi asked. The same happened to Hamid Al-Ossaimi, a villager from a remote village in the Taif area. He was told to come the next day because the government office worker concerned had taken a day's emergency leave to attend his relative's marriage. For Khalid Al-Harthi, it was even more agonizing because he waited two days in a government office before finding out that the employee responsible was on emergency leave. Saleem Eid Hajras, another citizen, waited two days just to get a document stamped because the official who had the rubber stamp was away on emergency leave. In the case of Ali Al-Amri, it took three weeks for his documents to move from one office to another, which he felt should not have taken more than three days. When would e-governance ever be introduced so that government transactions with the public are swifter and more efficient? Al-Amri wondered. These are just a few examples of the state of affairs in some government offices, particularly during the summer. The problem is particularly acute at government offices such as the Civil Status and passports departments, mayoralties and various ministries, where there are always crowds of service seekers. Most often during the summer, more employees in these offices go on vacation and so people get turned away as files pile up unattended. Government offices are very disorganized, Eid Hajras said. “Why isn't there a mechanism in place to organize work flow during the absence of one of the employees, so that people's interests do not suffer?” Sa'eed Aal Abdullah suggested a solution for the summer vacation crisis in government offices: get secondary school students or university graduates to fill on a part-time basis. This would solve both the problems of government staff vacationing in summer and of students wanting summer jobs, he said. However, it would not solve the core problem of lethargy in bureaucracy, said Sulaiman Al-Maghdhawi. He called for a mechanism of incentives for government employees and for holding those found negligent accountable. A minimum quota of transactions should be specified for every employee to carry out every day, Al-Maghdhawi said, with time limits set for completion of routine services sought by citizens. Government officials claimed service was poor because of staff shortage due to no-shows – employees stay up late during summer and turn up for work late. But then it is also not uncommon to find many government staffer wasting time reading the newspaper, having breakfast with their colleagues or chatting about the stock market. One government employee, identified only as Saleh, said he was frustrated because of unequal treatment at work. There is favoritism, he said. Connections are used in granting vacations to staff, he complained. “We come to work feeling we have been wronged. Others enjoy their vacations while we have to complete the work piling up.” Sheikh Sa'eed Al-Je'aid, Imam of Mu'adh Bin Jabal Grand Mosque at Prince Muhammad Bin Abdul Aziz Airport in Madina, said work is a partnership of trust involving all entrusted with doing the work. At the Control and Investigations Commission, a source reiterated that the Commission monitors employee performance throughout the year in the ministries and other government departments. The Commission monitors attendance and ensures discipline, the source inisted. – Okaz/ with reporting by Fahd Al-Riya'iy, Mansoor Al-Shihri, Sa'eed Al-Bahiss and Muhammad Al-Omairi from Abha, Riyadh, Dammam and Makkah respectively.– Okaz __
