Week regulatory practices

This is the social problem in most of the developing countries. Politics has so far not been successful to improve the standards in different fields, because the number one culprits are the political masters, who get away with nepotism and malpractice. Appointing additional staff is no solution, because the inspectors do not work honesty; and who will supervise the supervisors?

Rules and regulations look nice on paper, but the trouble starts in the counter and field services. In societies where the density of population is low, considerable control is possible. In densely populated countries, the monitoring networks have to be extensive and deep, with many O&M (operation and management) problems, including capital and recurring budgets.

It is the economic law of supply and demand. The government can no longer do honest and dedicated business, without competition. Where there is competition, there are many loopholes due to human weaknesses. One solution is pre-paid cards, but it has limited application.

There cannot be several layers of supervision (too costly recurring expenditure). More attention has to be paid to reducing human errors. It means reduce the manpower, and depend more on intelligent machines, (semi-automation and automation), with minimum human controls in a system. This is difficult to enforce quickly in under-developed societies. There are three layers involved: the base or foundation: the structure; and the super-structure.

Another principle is to start cleaning from the top, not from the bottom. When the top does not bother about regulations, it is no use crying wolf! There is another basic deficiency in management: have-not societies succumb to temptations at every step. If too much energy is diverted to disciplinary actions day after day, the standard of public services go down and slow up. How to trust the monitors, the supervisors, and the police? Isolated islands of honesty do not work in improving a system. Deterrence has been enforced. How?

The quality of monitoring has to be evaluated. The feedback systems are weak (and not so cheap). Again the question of reward and punishment comes up. The pay scales have been raised, but how much the efficiency will improve? No comment by the government!

On top of it all, there is no political consensus in this turbulent nation. The steps pointed out above are well known. What is new to learn?