Riyadh newspaper WERE all public service officials performing their duties honestly and sincerely, most doors for complaints would have been shut down. King Abdullah is always highlighting the need to serve the citizens which he considers as vital in the progress and development of the country. While addressing newly appointed ambassadors and instructing them to serve the interests of Saudis abroad, King Abdullah said: “We will know whoever from among you shuts down his office on citizens and who opens it for them.” In spite of such clear directives, the reality is that most ministries, government offices and embassies are not performing their duties properly. Some officials deliberately disrupt procedures while some others shut their doors on citizens. Some of them decline to face citizens with an excuse that they have some unavoidable meeting or duty to perform. Some diplomatic missions abroad also do perform the same way. If anyone approaches the mission to register complaints about the loss of passport or is unwittingly involved in an unpleasant legal situation, he would get frustrated with the lukewarm response. Such indifferent attitude is also evident at the national airline offices abroad. On the domestic front, financial irregularities and inordinate delay in the implementation of mega projects most often because of a wrong interpretation of a clause in the law by the concerned official. Some officials ignore even those citizens who come from remote regions at great expense to get things done. Absence of a strict monitoring mechanism is commonly cited as the reason why such attitudes prevail. There is no proper system to monitor these irregularities even at the higher echelons of power, including that of ministries. The inspection departments at the ministries are not working effectively. The same applies to the Bureau of Investigation and Prosecution, Human Rights Commission, and other agencies and departments. If we examine statistical reports prepared by the various agencies, we can often see that some government officials do not work for more than an hour every day. Many are absent from their seats for a long time or engage in reading newspapers or visiting their colleagues in other offices or driving their children back and forth from school. All this happens at the expense of the hapless citizen! Some administrative procedures that normally need two days to finish sometimes take several months. There is no justification for this. It is essential to upgrade the prevailing procedures and enact laws to hold those who are responsible for such improper attitude accountable for their acts. There is no use of attendance register or punching machine if the employees are negligent in performing their duties. We are passing through a phase where we are modernizing everything. We have capabilities at all levels but our shortfalls in administration work still persist. In such a scenario, we all lose, and its blame lies on those who underestimate the value of time. __
