Clive Bibby: Six Men to a Shovel

During the eight decades of my lifetime (most of it living in parts of rural New Zealand), there have been times when agencies responsible for public works appear to be grossly overmanned and demonstrably inefficient users of our money no matter how big or small the job they have to do.

It is almost part of Kiwi folk law that jobs in the public service are protected from all the challenges faced by private enterprise on a daily basis.

Having been a public servant for about 12 years in a past life, l was able to observe first hand the huge number of employees who acted as if the State owed them a living and all that was necessary in order to collect the weekly pay envelope was to turn up at least sometime during the employment hours of 8.30 am and 4.35pm on most of the five working days of the week.

Now l hasten to add that this unflattering description of Public Servants in general should not be seen as a fair appraisal of the work ethics that apply to the thousands of dedicated, hugely talented and productive members of our state owned enterprises.

In fact it could be said that the Public Service has and always has had within its ranks, world leaders in the field of responsibility where they operate.

These people often occupy the twice yearly ranks of the Royal Honours list- and many of them deservedly so.

However, the purpose of this article is not to discredit their activities or achievements but merely to point out that to some extent, they are suffering guilt by association.

So, what can be done about the enormous waste that is keeping the country poor and making it difficult for governments to re-establish order in departments where overspend has become out of control.

And it doesn’t seem to matter what area of activity you look at, the response to demands of accountability are met with howls of indignant, righteous claims that it is the other bloke who has been dragging the chain. They are never to blame yet we still see the same leaders leading the marches to parliament demanding a “fair day’s pay” for a “fair day’s work” while ignoring the points being made from the other side of the negotiating table that the current employees have priced themselves off the market - we can’t afford to keep spending more and more money on services that are no longer efficiently run.

The bleeding has to stop.

But will it? I can’t see it happening in my lifetime even if l manage to stay on the perch for another 20 years.

But in the meantime something will have to be done otherwise our cost of production will price the whole country out of the world markets.

Hopefully the turnaround will begin at the coalface where the waste is plain to see.

Although it is not fair to be pointing the finger at the most visible people only doing what they allowed to get away with - (six men or women to a shovel or moving road cones while one actually drives the digger or truck moving the roadside dirt), the inefficiency is obvious and makes you wonder which public servant is responsible for this outrageous Mafia like contract being on display throughout the length and breath of the country.

I my humble opinion, that bloke should be the first to get his cards.

Don’t hold your breath.

Clive Bibby is a commentator, consultant, farmer and community leader, who lives in Tolaga Bay.