The National Audit Report (NAR) reads like a catalogue of disasters. The events reported in ministries are not mismanagement but total lack of management. The ?laissez-faire? seems to be both at top and at grassroots level. Carelessness over maintenance, misuse and abuse of cars and total absence of control mechanisms are not only symptoms but also demonstrate how advanced this malignant cancer of slackness is. What should we do when ministers collect our tax money and squander it? Why are ministers not accountable to us voters and taxpayers? What is the nature and causation of this cancer? Do ministers? attitudes bring democracy into disrepute? Are top managers incompetent?

The NAR undoubtedly shows total failure and absence of action by top managers in ministries. It is time ministers and administrators, who are drawing huge salaries, came under greater scrutiny. Are they giving value for money? The prime minister, Paul Berenger, is responsible for giving the right portfolio to the right MP. The NAR gives evidence that ministers have been appointed with little care. The MOH is a good example where there seems to be a total absence of vision and proper use of resources. Which chief executive would survive a RS 65,000 waste per day? If it were a private enterprise, the CEO would have been dismissed instantly.

It has taken ages for the government to realise it needs a Short Term Expenditure Framework to bring more accountability in ministries. How has the government budgeted for running the country in the past? Make it up as you go along? No wonder the result is the catalogue of disasters the NAR is uncovering - the effect of years of neglectful management without accountability. The clearing of cobwebs should start at the top. If and when an organisation suffers from the malignancy plaguing ministries, it is obvious that the problem lies with ministers and permanent secretaries.

Anybody who has run a successful business will tell you that top persons must set the example for grassroots. If they do not, they must either resign or be removed because their failure affects the whole country. Paul Bérenger must keep the bigger picture in focus and go for short-term pain by reshuffling his cabinet for long-term gain. Is he brave enough to move non-performing ministers to the backbench and bring forward new blood in the ministries?

This measure may seem over the top but it is essential if the senior managers serving these poor performers are to respect their superiors and conduct their own departments efficiently. If Paul Bérenger misses this opportunity, he will give the green light to incompetence. We all know he is politically astute but it is time to demand fast-rising efficiency. Improving public services will enhance his status and show he can use our money wisely. The population wants value for money. Can he deliver?

The next layer deserving greater scrutiny concerns top officers responsible for operational management where most of the fracas seems to be. Policies and procedures are obviously not properly policed. Greater efficiency, performance reviews and more intensive supervision are needed from senior and middle managers.

Performance appraisal must be regular ? if possible, quarterly. Management by objective and regular one-to-one supervision of senior and middle managers is needed. The care industry in the UK has made it mandatory that workers must have six one-to-one supervision sessions by managers in addition to one or two yearly performance appraisal sessions. Our MOH could borrow this strategy to eradicate some dreadful practices in hospitals. It is simple, inexpensive and quality-oriented but it needs vision to implement. Has the MOH got this vision?

Those at the top must take measures to increase efficiency and good organisation. This means fairness to every worker regardless of religion, colour and gender. If policies and procedures are bypassed to serve favouritism and discriminatory attitudes, then the whole strategy of efficiency is jeopardised. Many will argue that this is the disease plaguing our government institutions. Millions of rupees are wasted because of discriminatory attitudes. Directors with such leanings should be removed for the sake of the country.

Junior officers are influenced by the behaviour of senior officers who set the parameters for performance. It is also their duty to ask for quality and efficiency from the seniors. Juniors who stay silent and docile contribute to maintaining a rogue and ineffective senior management. They bear equal responsibility when things go right and wrong.

The following story highlights the importance of the bottom up approach. Mother turkeys are good mothers - loving, attentive and protective. They spend time nurturing and huddling their young beneath them. All this is triggered by one thing: the ?cheep-cheep? sound of the young chicks. If the young chick makes the ?cheep-cheep? sound, its mother cares for it; otherwise, the mother ignores it or sometimes kills it. This is why it must be taught to make the right noise or suffer in silence.

The same strategy could be used in an induction course for new civil servants. Chucking new recruits in the den with experienced tigers without proper induction is perpetuating inefficiency and bad practice. This could be easily applied to the MOH before letting workers loose within the hospital. From the chief nurse to the ground sweeper, all belong to the same chain of quality. Chief medical officers and the minister are as strong as the weakest link in the quality chain.

Another strategy would be a development programme for all - from sweepers to the best surgeons. The insight it brings is best described as follows. Take three buckets of water: one with ice-cold water, one with hot water and the third with ordinary tap water. Dip one hand in hot water, the other in ice-cold water for a minute. Then pull out both hands and dip them in normal tap water. Although both hands are in the same water, the hand from hot water feels the water is cold and the other feels it is warm. The look of smiling bewilderment on people?s faces tells the story.

The point is that the same thing, here tap water, can seem very different depending on the nature of the previous event. Such is the power of continuous professional development. Workers with years of similar routines and undesirable practice need it to defrost frozen patterns of working. My earnest plea to the ministry responsible for education and training is to embark on a long-term professional development programme if it wants public services to improve. Failure to do so is condemning the new generation to poor quality of services for a very long time.

A country is only as good as its citizens. If people wish to have a good life, as we only live once, bad practice should be condemned and stopped. Things will not improve unless we take individual responsibility to remind neighbours, brothers, sisters and colleagues that bad practice is hurting our nearest and dearest? the future generation. We do not do this often enough. The NAR has exposed bad practices. Will the ministries now act?