October 24, 2004

Bureaucracy starts from our colleges.


My computer service man fears orders from any college. He narrated the "Bureaucracy" that he once suffered at the hands of the college staff.

An order for 50 computers was placed by the computer science dept of a VEL known college. The money would only be paid after getting those squiggly signatures from the lab attendant, Lab in charge, HOD, Director and then the Chairman.

The lab attendant would only sign if all the manuals (papers) for all the 50 monitors, processors etc are given (in spite of the fact that all 50 computers are of same configuration). Even if one of them is missing they'd have to get a color Xerox of the manual papers. This process usually takes about 2 days...

The HOD (even if the seller is Intel/IBM) “feels" that the computers are not up to his expectations. He would also drill in the fact that only after his signing, the papers would move to the next desk. He imposes his authority only for free mouse-pads, free software and other freebies to be installed at his home. It almost takes a week to get the sign from the HOD since he is often found "busy" in meetings and other "important" things.


The computer vendor would get the ultimate shock of his life only after the chairman "thinks" (an oxymoron how can chairmen of colleges think?) that the money involved is too much for 50 computers. The chairman (most of them are from a 'lesser said the better' backgrounds) would get reminded of bargaining with a vegetable vendor, quote prices that will increase the number of BP patients by one.

We can very well extend these Bureaucratic ways to the top level brass that runs our country. It’s now evident as to why it takes 10 years to buy a few fighter planes for our Air force which in fact clamors for new weaponry.

Unless we mend our ways at the lower levels, reaching an “Investor friendly market” will have to continue remaining in quotations.





6 comments:

Sriram said...

Think about the MSDN academic alliance - people have to pay Rs40K for lakhs worth of software. Yet people are too cheap to pay up!

Or think about the legal system. Say you want some software to clean it all up - what would be the process? To have a tender and get the *cheapest* person. So much for quality.

The sad part is that our airforce pilots are paying for this 'cheapskate' attitude

vikraman said...

I think the MIG's could be compared to the TVS 50s, you never know when they'll stop working.
Acceptable on the roads but a different story couple of thousand feet above.

Vivek said...

if the tvs 50 stops in the middle of the road, i can get down and push it... if the mig stops in the middle of whereever it is, then...;)

Vivek said...

Oh i see u have already made my point.

vikraman said...

You've proved the saying "Wise men think alike" WRONG.
Congrats...btw before you pounce, I am a wise man.

Anonymous said...

Peoples attitudes r always d same watever posn. dey r in; only their monetory charges change. A dept. attendant would take Rs.10 to get ur hall-ticket signed on d day of d exam. D chairman , princ n' co. wud take lakhs as capitation fees for a seat. You'd pay a bribe gettin a licence for ur TVS n' d govt may have some kickbacks on MIGs as bribes; only difference being d amount.