has anybody noticed how much time ministers and their respective ministry secretaries spend at meerings with the President?

I find it absurd that the ministers and their Ministry Secretaries are constantly summoned to Temple Trees or the Presidential Secretariat at the behest of the President in addition to their duties in Parliament. It is known that the President loves a gathering and his office which is always seen in photos, is full of people as he likes all the Ministers to be present, so that decisions can be taken or rather edicts handed down. This style of management while having its pluses should not be abused in the interests of productivity, as the Ministers now have an excuse as to why they were unable to perform their duties.

Is it any wonder that the bureaucracy does not achieve much as the precedent set is not a good one to ensure productivity? In this electronic age, there are more effective means of communication that can achieve the same objective and I trust this can be pointed out in the interests of the Nation. The seat of Government is in Kotte, and President operates in Colombo, and so the added commute time and the wait for the meetings are all productive hours that are wasted.

The lack of a disaster Master Plan was evident when the President had to summon so many Ministers and departmental heads to discuss the crisis and find solutions. A Master Plan if there was one would have automatically kicked in if this sort of emergency arose, and the need for these officials to waste their time when their services were in dire need elsewhere is evidence enough that the government is very poorly organized to handle anything, not having a plan for any event.

Time Management and Productivity evaluation are critical functions which need to be looked into, and any action that is detrimental to this should be removed or reduced, even if it means gently explaining to the Boss that his style of management needs some updating in the interests of performance, which he expects from his subordinates.

Unfortunately as every one’s job is at the sole discretion of the President, no one dare confront him on this, and he may actually be totally oblivious to the cost of his actions on others. If government is by dictated by fear, then no positive outcome can arise on all the fronts that need tweaking and improvement. The fact that I have seen no observation by anyone in any place or blog means that in typical fashion, the efficiency of government is just considered to be a clash of semantics and not even addressed. I believe it is time it is addressed and pointed out as there are conscious efforts being made to improve all areas, and this is one I believe needs immediate attention.