Khekiye K. Sema IAS (Rtd)
“Nagaland Govt. calls for creating durable assets” (Morung Express 12th June 2013)- “Quality work should begin with individuals: Rio”(Nagaland Post 12th June 2013). It is all well to publicize politically correct statements with a disarming smile for public consumption. The Chairman of Nagaland State Quality Control Board had outlined various technical and non- technical reasons as to why quality work gets compromised. The handicap of a bureaucrat however, is their duty bound protocol which disables them from going beyond a certain boundary in a public forum. They are unable to speak the truth ‘as is’ even if they are fully aware of what the core ailment is. That is the ground rule. It is but natural therefore, that they point at everything in sight as the attributing factor that undermines the development process, the quality of work and so on, but consciously leave out the cancerous cells all wrapped in dirty linen and carefully stow it away from the public view.
It is perfectly sound and necessary that a guideline document like Nagaland PWD Code should exist. Unfortunately the code on its own cannot “improve the working conditions, terms and conditions with the Govt. contractors and the suppliers” as was being suggested by the CM. The fault lies with the people who are placed responsible to use it, not the code. It is the unwritten code of an entirely different dimension that needs addressing if we really mean to create quality durable assets. The sincerity in this is suspect. Everyone knows it and yet finds it awfully awkward to say it up front. The taboo code words in simple English are: BRIBE or COMMISSION or “UNDER-THE-TABLE ILLEGAL TAXATION” of a Government kind. Such transactions take place behind the iron curtain in darkness or broad daylight with guns of a different make being pointed at you. If you don’t properly grease the machines that control the system it jams and refuses to start up; you land up losing the contract/ supply work order…very simple. The only distinction here is that if a contractor gets shot by the guns of any of the 8 (eight) factions for refusing to pay tax, he would die fairly instantly. Whereas, a contractor would die a very slow death if shot by the variety of guns used by 9th Faction (the State Government faction)…He would run out of work orders, run dry on sustenance resources and go down the drain slowly. Now no one in his/her right senses would want to go through an instant or a slow death and so they grit their teeth and pay up the tax collectors from all the 9 major factions. However unpalatable, at least the other 8 factions give you a rudimentary tax collected receipt once in a while. This 9th Faction sector cannot and will never give you a tax deducted receipt. Immediately after having collected such taxes, we see them play the Pope in the church pulpit and Obama in the public fora with such an admirable straight faced confidence. Hypocrisy is their second nature. This is the real problem the Government needs to consciously be addressing.
However the die is cast. Corrective measures will be hard to come by. It is as easy as asking the 8 factions to unite. It will never happen. Mr. Transparency, Mr. Accountability and Mr. Right, have long since escaped from Nagaland to countries which have no extradition treaty with the Government of Nagaland. Mr. Questionable is in command spreading infectious disease on an epidemic proportion called “close your eyes with your hands in the cookie jar”. The turkey shooting season has begun. Did you by chance get to read the article “Do we have the courage?” of 30th May 2013 (Nagaland Post/ Morung Express)? That had to do with a vain attempt to explain the devastating impact of having to pay one tax to 8 factions. At that time we had only focused on National workers’ taxation in order not to distract attention. The illegal taxation of the 9th Faction (the State Government Faction) was excluded. (The reference to the State Government as the 9th Faction is for the reason of a great many operational similarities with that of the other Factions as you are already finding out as we go down the garden path). Consider the following account as chapter II on taxation, but this time we shall concentrate on the 9th Faction without distraction. As a thought refresher, Chapter I described a taxation deduction percentage @5%x8 factions=40%; Keep this in mind as we move on to Chapter II which is no less damaging even if we take the lowest average assessment. As a conjecture let’s picture: 10% illegal tax for a political boss trying to recuperate the election investment; 5% for party fund to regenerate the party coffer for future election; 5% for the omnipresent bureaucratic boss; 4% for the directorate boss; 5% for the technocratic boss; 3% for the Field boss; Note: the 9th Faction has these many sub-factions which the contractors/ suppliers have to contend with. The percentage description is not sacrosanct and could vary from department to department and person to person according to the level of their unethical desperation. It is just an illustration “to create awareness among the public on quality work” as encouraged by the Hon’ble CM so that the general public can understand the general trend. Add up all the bosses and we would be looking at an approximate minimum of 32% illegal tax deduction spent to fertilize the soil of the 9th Faction. The contractors cannot be left out of this equation. After all they cannot be expected to carry out the work without earning their deserved margin of profit. They however go to any length to find what the Hon’ble CM referred to as “sub-standard, duplicate imitators, inferior quality product” to cut investment cost and make at least 10-15% profit. A contractor would firstly be accused of stupidity by his peers and he would fade out from the contractor’s market eventually if he tries to use costlier genuine materials which in turn would reduce his marginal gains to -0%. It’s no wonder that they scavenge the markets looking for precisely the kind of materials that the Hon’ble CM was warning them against. Now if we add up the percentage of Chapter I and II it would hit 40%+32%+15%= 87% before the actual work even begins. Remember that this is a conservative deduction only. This percentage could perhaps be much higher in actual. So what is the balance percentage that ultimately gets spent for creating durable assets that the Government is talking about? Should we hang contractor for trying to complete a job under such trying circumstance even if the end result is sub-standard? Contractors must be saying, “Quality work…what the hell is that? What is the CM talking about”? Such words would be extremely difficult to locate in the dictionary of the contractors/suppliers as long as they have to go through the sugarcane wringer machine of the 9th Faction.
This infection is not limited to the urban stations alone. The pity of it all is that funds for the grassroots level bodies like the Village Development Board is also not being spared. The presence of the 2/3/4/5 factions operating at the grassroots is damning enough. Let me give you an insight as to how the 9th Faction representatives operate. This is a true story. This field boss, the Block Development Officer, was otherwise pre-engaged with other calculations and so sent his grassroots boss, then known as Overseer not J.E, to verify the works performance of ‘A’ village and submit a completion certificate for preparation of the final bill. This village in question, had a 60’x50’ football ground slated in their village plan for leveling out. The villagers had slaughtered a piglet to host his lunch. On arrival he was warmly received by the elders. When field verification was carried out, the Overseer was hardly able to measure 17’x14’ of earthwork manually executed by the community. The VDB members along with GBs and other elders sat in council with him. They fervently explained their difficulties of having to pay several underground taxes, hospitality expenses on account of VIP visits like the Overseer himself. The Overseer with a very stern look on his face told them that he had no choice but to strictly follow the rules. The rules did not allow him to certify underperformed works as completed. He would run into a very serious disciplinary repercussion. “No! no! no! I cannot do this,” he emphasized, “you will have to complete the work as per your village plan”. The Villagers frankly told him that they were not in a position to complete the work as specified and desperately pleaded with him saying that his (Overseer’s) interest will be taken care of. The Overseer stuck to his guns and he quoted the rules again. Taking care of his interest had still not been quantified. The elders intelligently sensed this and so they decided to mention the amount of ‘care’ they had in mind. The Overseer was still unmoved. By now the Villagers were unable to differentiate the Overseer from the rules book which got quoted one more time by him with a poker face as he stood up as if to leave. In dire helplessness the shorter statured VDB Secretary reached up his arm around the shoulders of the much taller Overseer affectionately albeit with some difficulty, and further raised the “care” stake just a little more higher. The Overseer was not feeling too comfortable with this shorter man clinging on to his shoulders but the raised ‘care’stake sounded right so with a warm affectionate smile in return he agreed to sign the completion certificate. This time Mr. Rules quietly slinked out the window unobserved. Everybody was happy. The village children still play football on a 17’x14’ pitch. This is the kind of rural development comedy being played out as a matter of routine in most of the Villages where quality of work is far from their minds.
Coming closer home to the urban base I heard another amusing true story about a very senior Technocrat who literally used to take bribes prayerfully. On receipt he would ask the giver to please wait, take the amount to his inner prayer room for a while and return saying that the Good Lord had indicated to him that he may accept the gift. During his entire service His God had never once asked him to refuse such a gift. He was therefore serving a ‘taking’ God unwaveringly. I’m afraid this is an extreme case of a misplaced eccentric personality but there you are…the world is made up of all kind of animals. One day his little son came home from school feeling very upset. His school report card had the word “poor” recorded in the performance column. In his childish confusion, the little one innocently wanted to know from his father why his teacher marked him ‘poor’ when they were so rich. This is a rich example of a quality work beginning with individuals. Though we are referring to the default of a single soul, the worrisome aspect is the widespread corruptive attitude being taken for granted without a prick of conscience. I hope the Church Leaders are also reading this.
True stories on illegal taxation by warriors of the 9th Faction abundantly go right up the ladder. Maybe someday we could climb that ladder higher. Such tales may tickle our funny bones but will regretfully not reduce the numerous ingenuous methods of taxation from our brothers and sisters of the 9th Faction. Nothing short of a miracle or a revolution can change the present mindset. Until then, the quality of work and durable assets will remain a stranger to us under these questionable circumstances. Meanwhile if you have any inclination to want to maintain a little bit of your sanity, acquire a genuine earplug and very dark goggles that you can’t see through. You will find relief hearing less of the hypocritical hypes of the 9th Faction and not see them window dressing.
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