Wednesday, July 11, 2018

What productivity can you expect from the Public Sector, if 300,000 workers spend on average 3 hours a day commuting to Colombo?



The Director General of the Department of Census and Statistics just penned an article about some fact relating to the 1.1M Public Sector workers, excluding the Tri Forces Personnel.


Of the 300,000 who commute to their offices in Colombo, he has not analyzed, because he has not questioned them, on the time they spend commuting. WE ALL KNOW, when we go into an office, at least half the time, the official to whom we have to report, is not at his or her desk. Need I say more on their productivity? They are servants of the people, who they are unable to serve, due to various barriers, least of which is the time it takes them to come to work.

No wonder they are resisting thumb print entry, as it would further prove, that their work day is less than 50% of a private sector worker. No wonder then that there is such a rush for Public Sector Jobs, when we have over 1 million vacancies in the Private Sector.

I have made a proposal earlier in my blog, that this lack of productivity means that their work can effectively be done by less than 50% of the people. LESS THAN HALF or 150,000. With improving technology, much of the mundane work they do can easily be done electronically, and by pooling common resources. So this work they are supposedly carrying out can be done by not more than 50,000 capable people selected from this number.

I have therefore designed a Capital City, far from Colombo, where 50,000 workers can work in three towers along with the housing units where they can live with their families if they so wish or in multiple unit accommodation where they will be charged less, where they can get to their desks within 20 minutes of leaving their homes, as they will be taking an electric train right into the building where they work and just have to take the elevator to their floor.

If this plan is adopted, this is how they benefit, as their housing costs living in the Colombo suburbs will be drastically reduced, their commuter times almost eliminated, their efficiency and job satisfaction will rise by eons, and they will have more leisure time on their hands as well as more disposable income in their hands. It will then only be the foolish who will refuse such an offer. 

The stumbling block then is the lack of visionary leadership in this country to make it happen, and to that end we should look at changing the way we elect leaders.


5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Article in July 11 Economy Next saying 65% of state workers have no A levels

So why the hell are they clogging the traffic in Colombo? Let the real workers come to work in the private sector please, and let the state sector work somewhere else. Do they have to come to Colombo?

http://www.economynext.com/Only_35_pct_of_Sri_Lanka_s_public_sector_workers_have_high_school_education-3-11172-1.html

Anonymous said...

Government offices at Battaramulla must be moved out of their immediately to somewhere like Ampara. The traffic chaos of workers and public all converging in Battaramulla does not allow private sector staff to go to their offices in Colombo.

After all the Private Sector is the engine of growth of this Country and are stuck in traffic instead of driving the engine of growth.

Great Idea get them all out of there as soon as possible as they are a problem not a solution

Anonymous said...

That is a million hours in commuting each day, at say a minimum of Rs200/hr which is about what they get paid for an hour worked on average is Rs200Million a day loss, we pay for that effectively through our taxes for people to commute.

This is scandalous - move the capital to a dessert right away, today if possible

Anonymous said...

We must not only fight against the corruption of Politicians we must give equal prominence to fighting for Public Servants who are accountable starting with getting to work on time and having their fingerprint ID in and out times for their pay. Dock their pay if they are 5 minutes or more late to work for a start, then we may teach them how the other half work.

No other way to discipline the indeciplined

Anonymous said...

wasn't this the original rationale for moving the parliament to Sri Jayawardenapura?