{"id":122249,"date":"2022-01-19T17:22:14","date_gmt":"2022-01-20T00:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=122249"},"modified":"2022-01-19T17:22:14","modified_gmt":"2022-01-20T00:22:14","slug":"is-the-public-served","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2022\/01\/19\/is-the-public-served\/","title":{"rendered":"Is the Public Served?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Dr. Tilak S. Fernando<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

The Government constantly complains about public services being\noverstaffed. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa takes every opportunity to restate\nthe public should not face harassment; instead they must be treated with\ncourtesy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the writer was a schoolboy, letters from any Government institution\ncarried the phrase at the end of the communication as \u2018Your obedient\nservant<\/em><\/strong>,\u2019 and signed by an authorised individual. This signing style of\n\u2018Your obedient servant\u2019<\/em> has currently flown through the window, and at\ntimes, Government letters carry no name or legible signature at all! As\neveryone knows, the taxpayer pays the public servants\u2019 salaries, and they are\nappointed to serve the public and not be on cloud nine<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Basic Problem<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fundamental problem with any Government institution is the apathetic\napproach by the average staff. They come in the morning, go to the canteen to\neat breakfast before starting work. Once they sit, they must discuss the\nprevious night\u2019s television programmes! The writer once went to a Government\noffice on an official task at 9 am and witnessed this melodrama. The frustrated\nwriter instantly photographed the chattering of staff with his mobile phone.\nLater an officer who attended to the writer\u2019s matter wanted to know whether the\nwriter was from the press! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another distraction is the television sets installed in offices\nthroughout the country and smartphones freely available in the Sri Lankan\nmarket. Facebook, WhatsApp, and Skype make the staff concentrate more on their\nnatter rather than absorbed in office work during office hours. Today, easy\naccess to the internet and mobile phones enables public servants to engage in\nsocial media or send friends messages via email or texted notes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Should the Government want to improve the standard of working in public\noffices, the most vital act should be disconnecting TV sets from all offices\nand banning mobile phones during office hours. Should there be an emergency,\nstaff should inform the chief clerk and leave the office environment to make\nthe call. Removal of TV sets countrywide will relieve the Government with extra\nexpenditure in buying and installing TV sets in offices throughout the country\nand improve the staff\u2019s overall performance. The Chief Clerks control the\noffice, but they are not sufficiently strict or pay no attention to their\nstaff\u2019s behaviour. Chief Clerks should be made answerable for their team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Computerisation<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Computerisation helps overcome the old systems of maintaining records in\nledgers, which is time-consuming. Registers finally must be stored in a\nseparate room in the office building, occupying extra space. Stored logs become\nsubjected to bookworms and insects that injure pages by gnawing the binding and\npiercing the pages with small holes. Computerised systems can save records into\na microcassette, store them into a cassette holder, and mark them\nappropriately. The writer was familiar with this type of microcassettes in\nLondon; however, he is not aware whether Sri Lanka adopts that system!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If one visits a police station to lodge an entry, one must be prepared\nto spend hours until a police officer records in a Register using multicoloured\npens. If the officer is busy with a previous customer, one needs to bite one\u2019s\nnails and mark time until the officer is free, which is time-consuming.\nTherefore, one must keep a wide margin to visit a police station before\ncommitting to other appointments. That is why many disregard visiting police\nstations to lodge entries even to their disadvantage. In advanced countries,\nhowever, computers take over the task of helping the police by storing the\nlodged complaints in the hard disc of the police computer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the Government intends to computerise everything, it should go full\nswing. The Department of Motor Traffic at Maligawatta functions ingeniously as\nfar as the computer systems are concerned. Anybody may produce the relevant\ndocuments to renew the annual road tax of a motor vehicle, while staying in the\nvehicle and the new disc becomes available in a matter of minutes. It should be\nan effective way to help the public. Meanwhile, privately-owned fast food\noutlets use a drive-through facility system for their customer\u2019s convenience.\nWhy can\u2019t the Government adopt a similar method to serve people rather than\nfrustrate the public?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The driving licence renewal office in Werahera needs a lot of adjustments\nand improvements. Although it appears simple on paper and TV to book an\nappointment to renew one\u2019s driving licence, it does not work as simple as that.\nAccording to the Government\u2019s instructions, one should get a text message to\none\u2019s mobile phone to collect the renewed driving licence. First and foremost,\nit isn\u2019t straightforward to get through to the Werahera office on the phone to\nbook an appointment as the lines are eternally busy. Even when one gets through\nto Werahera and obtains a fixed day, only the applicant can enter, the security\nguards do not allow anyone else other than the claimant to enter the building.\nThere is also a day service: to enjoy this facility one pays an extra Rs.\n2,150. This system however, does not always work like a horse, in reality it is\nquite the opposite. The case mentioned below is a typical example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Online DL renewing  <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Applicant B handed over her application and all relevant documents\nincluding her postal address, to renew her expired driving licence (DL) at the Werahera\nOffice. Unfortunately for her, when her driving licence expired in March 2021,\nshe was in the UK and was unable to visit Sri Lanka due to Covid-19 lockdowns.\nThis is another area where the Government\u2019s attention can be focussed and\nenable online renewing of driving licences. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, in the UK, the renewal of driving licence offices is done\nonline. They maintain the applicant\u2019s photograph scanned in their database.\nWhen one applies to renew one\u2019s driving licence online, the applicants need to advise\nwhether they have changed from the profile picture in the database. In Sri Lanka, the\nofficer handling each case takes a photograph of the applicant. Is it\ntroublesome to attach the medical certificate compulsory?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this case, the applicant requested a one day-service and paid Rs.\n2,150.00 and was issued a receipt.. However, the applicant did not receive the\nrenewed licence till after three months had lapsed, nor did she receive any\ntext message on her phone as advertised. The applicant was told her renewed\nlicence would be mailed. Later enquiries revealed the renewed driving licence\nwas posted on 17 December 2021. The applicant contacted the sorting office at\nPannipitiya to check and was informed in the negative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Numbers out of order<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 31st December 2021, the writer emailed the RMV drawing the personal\nattention of the Commissioner in charge of renewal of driving licences. The\nwriter did not receive even a courteous acknowledgement to his email. The\nwriter then tried to contact the Commissioner\u2019s on 011-254-5891 and 011-\n251-8926 and made numerous calls daily for over two weeks, but they were in\nvain. Finally, through the internet, the writer obtained the telephone numbers\nof the driving licence department at Werahera viz: 011-2- 518- 926; 0706-334-134\nand 0706-354-123. But the telephone response was that \u2018none of the numbers\nwere available\u2019<\/em>. Some Government departments do not care to update their\ntelephone numbers on the internet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It raises the question of how helpful the officials working at the Werahera\noffice are in helping or harassing the public!When President Gotabaya Rajapaksa visited this\noffice to inquire about the department\u2019s efficiency, some time ago, it appeared\nthat all they did was to whitewash the walls. It is still not clear why they\ncharged the applicant Rs 2,150 in the first place for a \u2018Day\u2019s Service\u2019?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The writer made a special request from the postman to keep an eye out\nfor a registered post letter from the RMV, Werahera. On10 January 2022, the\npostman finally informed us that  a registered letter from the Werahera\noffice had arrived. The postmark on the envelope was not very clear. The\npostman went on leave, but he arranged for his substitute to deliver the\nregistered letter containing the renewed licence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cardinal point is why charge the applicant Rs.2150.00 for a day\u2019s\nservice when it was not provided? What drove them to mail the renewed licence?\nIt sounds like an act of high-handedness. The RMV at Werahera, Renewal of DL\nsection, should refund the Rs.2150\/- as the service was not provided within a\nday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe the President is unaware of what goes on in this Government\nDepartment after his visit, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa repeatedly said, \u2018public\nservants must help the public and not harass them.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

tilakfernando@gmail.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Dr. Tilak S. Fernando The Government constantly complains about public services being overstaffed. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa takes every opportunity to restate the public should not face harassment; instead they must be treated with courtesy. When the writer was a schoolboy, letters from any Government institution carried the phrase at the end of the communication […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-122249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-drtilak-s-fernando"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122249\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}