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Monday, November 03, 2003
Editorial: Trick or treat
LAST Thursday, Governor George Arnaiz, accompanied by Vice Governor Jose Baldado and Provincial Board Member Arturo Umbac, made a "lightning" visit to the Office of the Provincial Registry of Deeds.
The visit followed mounting public complaints that Deeds Registrar Atty. Clark Amante was always not around when they needed him for various transactions.
Arnaiz, Baldado, and Umbac were accompanied by a video cameraman to take footages of the surprise visit.
And they caught Amante in the act, that is, he was not around. Only the office's three employees were present. So much for body count.
About an hour later, the governor pounced again on the same office. For the second time, Amante was again caught in the act of still being absent an hour after the start of office hours.
Where could he be? Was he sick? Was he on official leave? No answer there. Now, the writing is on the wall.
Governor Arnaiz wants Amante sacked. And he has good reasons. The deed officer is not doing a good deed. He is demeaning his position, to quote the governor. He is doing a great disservice to the public.
On the other hand, if an ax should fall, it should fall not only on the head of Amante but also on the heads of other public employees.
Amante's fate reflects the attitude of many other employees, be it at the Dumaguete City Hall or in national government offices.
Mayor Agustin Perdices himself confirmed this appalling attitude. He has instructed his department heads to monitor the activities of their employees.
Once in a while, local media outfits receive reports of public employees seen shopping during office hours or going home before official time.
Arnaiz, Perdices, or heads of national government offices cannot always be around to monitor their employees. Understandably, the best they can do is to delegate this function to their department heads.
But, with the Amante case, where the chief is reportedly always out, there won't be much good in monitoring the activities of the ordinary employee.
It is a case of "when the cat is away, the mice play all day".
As they say, there is always a solution to a problem. For starters, the provincial government or the city government could form a team whose job is to make surprise visits to any office to monitor presences and absences among heads or employees.
The governor or the city mayor will have to decide which office the team should visit on any particular day to avoid leakage of schedules.
If this will still fail, then, so much for good governance.
(November 2, 2003 issue)
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