Today I weep for my country. After spending an entire night preparing mounds of paperwork and documents for a project our office was bidding for (to provide consultancy services to farmers who wish to engage in agri-business) I was tasked to deliver the documents to the government agency in charge of the project. With barely any sleep I rushed to that department to make the 9am cut off time for submitting the documents. Upon arriving, I was informed by the secretary of the office that we were no longer allowed to submit the documents given that it was already 9:04 according to the Philippine Standard Time. I reasoned out that it was a negligible 4 minutes since the meeting for evaluating the documents was not to start until 10am anyway- she answered me with the usual response ‘Mapapagalitan po kasi kami .’ I bit back my tongue to prevent an angry retort. She received the documents and stamped them with the time- despite insisting that we were no longer eligible to bid. I thought to myself ‘she’s a secretary who’s merely following orders, perhaps the Asec of the department would be more reasonable given that he knows what’s at stake.’ The meeting for opening the documents to validate the eligibility of the bidders started at 11am- an hour late from what they originally stated. I asked to be invited in to observe and in my head I was already constructing the speech I wished to deliver in front of the committee to appeal to their more reasonable side and ask to disregard the meaningless technicality for the sake of the farmers. There were a total of 37 lots (project areas) that needed to be filled; there were only 28 bidders who made the cut, and 4 (including us) who came a little bit late. From the list of the 28 bidders, more were eliminated which would mean there were more than enough slots that needed to be filled. I sat there and waited for an opportunity to diplomatically explain why we should be at least considered to be on the short-list, after all, they were even lacking bidders. I approached the Asec during their lunch break and asked if they could extend me the courtesy of addressing the committee at the very least so that I may argue my case and convince them that we would like nothing more but to share our services to these farmers who are most in need of them. They did not extend me this courtesy. They told me that it’s no use addressing the committee because I’d get the same answer: arriving at 9:04 renders our bid ineligible. I was told that had I forwarded it directly to the Asec’s office, he might have been able to cover up the fact that I was 4 minutes late but since the secretary already stamped the time- he could do nothing about it because he’d be accused of favouring a bidder and they’d have to accept the rest of the late bidders- even if they did, that would make us a total of 32 bidders, still short of the 37 lots available. I brought this to their attention and they replied by saying that ‘yes, definitely there would be empty lots- submit another bid and next time make sure you’re on time.’ I didn’t understand. Not only would that be an inconvenience to us, another round of bidding lots would mean delaying the delivery of the projects altogether and failing to deliver the services the farmers needed- we’ll be submitting the exact same documents anyway- I’d have to print the exact same things again, use up paper and ring bind them all over again? Not only is that an incredibly stupid thing to do but a total waste of resources since they wanted everything printed on paper despite the existence of a thing we call digitized copies. I was exasperated at the imbecility of these individuals to the point that tears started welling up in my eyes which I fought back; perhaps one of the members of the committee noticed this because she told me ‘Papagalitan ka ba ng boss mo kasi hindi tinanggap? Next time kasi agahan mo.’ I forced a smile on my already agonized face since I did not want to taint the image of the institution I was representing and ruin our chances at the next bid. I took my leave and suppressed the impulse of grabbing one of the mics and address them anyway- but I knew I was about to tear up so I showed myself out while I still had the dignity and cried at the comfort room instead. I shared this story not because I wish to express my anger towards the members of this committee who denied our bid and wasted the effort and resources our office put into this- because that’s not the point. I shared this because I want to show you how focusing on processes and how a rigid, bureaucratic system such as the one being used in this agency could get in the way of producing the outcomes that it should supposedly aim at having in the first place. I cried not because I was afraid of being scolded but because I know that these farmers deserve better and could be receiving the services they need a few weeks from now but because 4 of us were late and the agency simply does not veer away from the standard operating procedure even if the circumstances call for it, they won’t be receiving it anytime soon. I’m not saying that punctuality is an unimportant consideration, surely it matters but shouldn’t the best interests of the people you wish to serve outweigh that consideration? Does submitting documents 4 minutes from the deadline really render our reputable institution ineligible to help these farmers? I would perfectly understand if there were an abundance of bidders and a ‘first come first serve’ basis would be applicable- but this project had already failed to complete the slots in the first place (prior to this bid), now they have to conduct a third bid because, yet again, they were lacking bidders who came on the dot (even if they themselves don’t start on time). You say you feel bad for rejecting me because of the time, then why reject me? Do you not have the political will to adjust to the circumstances at hand and urge your fellow committee members to do the same? Will the very foundations of your institution crumble simply because you accepted a bid that came 4 minutes late? The problem with government today is that bureaucracy has rendered them incapable of thinking for themselves; incapable of making decisions on the basis of reason and good judgment rather than on ‘baka mapagalitan ako’ or ‘baka masabihan ako ng masama’ type of mentality. When in fact bureaucracy should have given them the mechanism by which they could systematize their thoughts and actions- but if there are no thoughts, what is there to systematize? If they think that rigidly following rules and marching orders without knowing necessarily the purpose behind them makes them efficient then they are horribly mistaken. Blindly following protocols and inflexibility leaves no room for transformational leadership or for genuine development for that matter. What does our government want to achieve? To what direction do they want to go? What must we citizens do in order for us to hasten development towards that direction? Are just some of the questions they should contemplate on before boxing their brains in the rules, regulations, protocols that are already hindering them from achieving anything significant. You are mistaken if you think this disheartens me from reforming the government- all the more do I feel the fervent desire to do something about it because if I were to keep my mouth shut and if you were to keep your mouth shut, do as we are told or otherwise be punished, then we are no different than those individuals in that committee. I intend to let each and every member of that committee know my sentiments because I will not stand by and allow my country to be run by fools who can’t even think for themselves. I’ve had enough of this culture of tolerance for mediocrity.
Posted on: Thu, 25 Jul 2013 05:30:37 +0000
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