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Is the current regime value creating or destroying?

By a contributor, 17 May 2004

The companies in private sector are trying to sell value or benefits in a form of a product or services. We get value if it satisfies our needs and the money spent becomes worth it. The same thing happens in public sector. The public in a country pays a group of people to manage various entities so that basic value needed by all citizens will be created and delivered. For instance from hospitals the value offered to us is treating our diseases. The Police offer the value of security and protection for all the citizens. The Schools whether it is public or private offers the value of an education so that we will have the expertise to work in jobs to earn a living. A President is like a Chief Executive Officer of a company whom we appoint to over see and to lead this value creation activity. In a similar manner, the Parliament is like a Trustee which over see whether this value creation activity is going in its optimum speed and delivered in a fair and equitable manner. They also have to prevent obstacles that will restrict realizing the full value creating potential of an entity. The Judiciary helps them in this venture in removing obstacles on the way. Increasing the quality of this value and efficiency in delivery it, increases our economic growth, standard of living and general well-being of the society.

Is the current regime value creating or value destroying? What is happening around us gives an answer. We have seen almost all public companies going bankrupt under the leadership of President Gayyoom. The only exception is natural monopolies like Telecom and Electricity since people do not have a choice even if the service is low quality and expensive. The failures are even more prominent in public entities that provide must-have public services. We saw the ultimate failure of our Police during the Maafushi prison scandal. In the past years the whole country is experiencing a lawlessness that we have never seen in our entire history with the expectation of when we are under a foreign occupier. We are witnessing the ultimate failure of our education and employment systems with decreasing quality of academic results and increasing criminal population. The list is never ending.

All this tell us that the current regime is not value creating, it is value destroying. Presidents’ methods used as a leader to run public entities guarantee that it will be destroyed within a couple of months. He ensures that by appointing barely literate people as Head of these entities while experts are sidelined. The only criteria that matters in public offices and companies is loyalty and to be a relative of him, not expertise. Further deterioration of the situation is ensured by lack of transparency, rampant corruption, promotion and recognition for loyalist rather than people who can get things done, chasing short-term fixes, and lack of accountability especially if the person is a relative. For instance, perhaps this is the only country where a person who does not know what is a Balance Sheet even if it hits him on the face, heads a Bank. The experts their will be working as low level managers under the very ‘capable guidance’ of this person.

Ever wonder why number of people with tertiary training is increasing but inefficiencies and mismanagement is rampant. The trained human resources are most of the time neither used, nor recognized and are sidelined. They are often told not to rock the boat and do the things as it is done before. If they come up with any suggestion for improving, that will be discouraged and slaughtered within minutes. It has gotten so bad that knowledge and education has no place in the public sector but loyalty and being a relative of the President is what counts. For the latter, you will get respect, praises and special treatment even if it violates the law. The result is losing of competent people, which the public spent money to train to private sectors and sometimes to other countries. Hence performance of public sector, instead of improving with time is getting worse.

The past events prove even a more important thing. That is the Parliament is incapable of acting as a Trustee to ensure creating and delivering value in an equitable and fair manner that will foster nation wide economic and social growth. Even when the obstacles to it like corruption, mismanagement, lack of accountability, unfairness is evident as broad daylight, did they lift a finger to prevent it? They may say they did but we do not see any significant effect of that. Any solution will be short-lived unless the real causes that prevent them from doing their job competently are addressed. A suffering of a country and its people may continue for generations to come.