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Politicians work with people. They assume executive positions on the coattails of voters' mandate. The colour and contours of their world before and after elections are vastly different. The main factors behind this change are powers and functions pertaining to the executive post. The principal task of the executive position is proper discharge of responsibilities through effective and efficient management.
Management has many facets: general management, human resource management, financial and physical resource management, account s management, development programme management, public relation management and above all, management of voters. As highly placed executives they have to keep themselves abreast not only about important information and happenings in their organisation but also about organisations around. They have to keep a tab on the goings-on in the organisation and address any potentially adverse situation so that it does not go out of control to destabilise organisational equilibrium. A large number of politician-executives are not conversant with traits and techniques of management owing to lack of experience and training.
They start with management deficit. Once they assume the charge of the office they develop an aversion to training. Ego and expedience supersede the need for training. Result: series of bloopers and management tangles. They miserably fail to account for their activities and decisions. The most formidable problem they encounter is with respect to management of resources and accounts. The crevasse in this area is sometimes so glaring that the auditors and the controlling authority treat this as unethical, irregular and corrupt practice. May be that the executive him/herself has not indulged in these irregularities. His/her supervision failure will land him/her in serious trouble.
The auditor and the controlling authority are not impressed by the plea that inexperience and lack of training were solely responsible for such lapses. It may be true that the politician-executive held the position for the first time in his/her life. (S)he has taken many of these decisions in good faith using intuitions only. The auditors and the controlling authority are not ready to look beyond relevant rules and regulations. Any action contrary to established rules, procedure and practice falls within the mischief of culpable deviation.
The strategy for good governance or good management is not auto-imbedded in a person. It can be learnt through discussion with knowledgeable people, perusal of books and papers and attending specific training courses in this area. A politician-executive has to pass through the process of learning the job systematically by applying him/herself rigorously. There is no escape from it. For example, where the politician-executives are the heads of organisations, they have to be fully informed about the structure of the organisation, its linkage with pertinent horizontal and vertical organisations, the functional equations, the work- procedure and protocol within the organisation and finally, the decision-making process in the unit. The above recipe is useful for every elected head of the organisation, be (s)he the Chief Executive of a Union Parishad, Upazila Parishad, Zila Parishad, Municpality, City corporation, Sports council, Ministry or the government.
In the regime followed in this part of the world, Member of Parliament (MP) is elected basically as a lawmaker. This makes him/her eligible to become the Chief Executive of the government, the Prime Minister. Some of the MPs are made ministers; they are chief executives of their ministries. Both as the Prime Minister or ministers the MPs-transformed-into-executives have to take a string of decisions which are intimately linked to administrative or management discipline. They have to know about the overall structure of the government, the structure and function of their ministries. It is incumbent on them to keep themselves abreast about the algorithm for accomplishing the job. They need to be informed about the profile of senior executives responsible for running various units. Decisions in the organisations are taken at different levels. Some cases will travel up to head of the organisation, some will go beyond and some decisions will be taken by appropriate functionaries. The politician-executives have to be aware about the locus of decision making in and for their organisations. Some of the proposals need to be discussed in inter-ministerial or inter-agency meetings. Their innocence about the procedure will go against the proposal in the superior forums.
Heads of ministries and public organisations have to have decent knowledge about protocol, formalities, warrant of precedence in government forums. Deficit in the area may land them to embarrassing situation. Simple common sense or learning by seeing alone will not do in this area. Similarly they have to be conversant about human resource management in the organisations. There are instruments of control for administering executives and employees. There is no room for emotional outburst or taking extra legal measures against any person or group in the organisation. Physical assault is strictly forbidden. Legal instruments are sufficiently effective to enlist desired cooperation of executives and employees for all lawful programmes and activities of the chief executives. Failure to use them aptly will create angst in the organisation.
Some politician-executives assume their office through lot of pomp and fanfare. Ceremonies precede actual starting of work. In most cases they have to select their personal staffs. Sometimes they are appointed from the central pool by the Human Resource Ministry. The personal staff, particularly the private secretary, places the files before the chief executive. Some senior officers of the ministry carry the files themselves to the chief executive for decision. Chief executives with no experience or expertise are often led by their personal staffs to decision making in the file. These staff members refrain from giving useful advice about office procedure or management strategy. But for a few exceptions, executives also do not seek advice on office management. Files keep on pouring. Executives proceed on signing them one after another without carefully examining them. They often depend too much on the personal staffs though by signing the files they fully assume the responsibility for the correctness or otherwise of the decision.
The next issue the politician executives have to work on is their rights, privilege and entitlements. Oftener than not the executives do not know the contour of their power, the man and material they are entitled to use and the limitations of their power and privilege. They rely mostly on their personal staffs for decisions in this area. In this part of the world the staffs are often sycophants and myrmidons who would like to placate the masters without any regard to rules and regulations. The executives are prone to be misled by their advice and are encouraged to appropriate organisational resources beyond their entitlements. The pet plea of the personal staffs and self-seeking officers is that the executives have been elected by thousands of voters; so they have the right to demand many things beyond rules and regulations. They contend that rules are meant for ordinary mortals; the elected executives are not bound by the rules. Their needs and desires will supersede ordinary rules. Elected executives carry the mandate of people in general. The legal position is diametrically opposite to such a stance. All executives, be they elected or not, are bound by the law of the land, the rules and regulations. They are accountable to appropriate authority for their actions and decisions. Citizens of the country and their voters alike have endorsed this dispensation.
The watchdog organisations are plenty in number. It is possible to disregard the organisations while you are in power. Once out of power these organisations will close in on you from all corners. The executives have to defend themselves all alone. The sycophants and self-seekers have in the meantime either absquatulated or are ready to stand against the executives, unashamed.
Supervision and monitoring are two very important functions of the chief executives or heads of the organisations. Executives usually do not physically carry out the job by themselves. They give instructions and other persons complete the job. The chief executives have to ensure through proper supervision and monitoring that their instructions are fully complied with. There are specific instruments and strategy to engender supervision and monitoring. One can master these techniques through education and training. Senior officers of the organisation are supposed to help the chief executives in this respect. The chief executive must have decent level of understanding about supervision and monitoring in order to enlist the support of the senior officers. Otherwise, their subordinate officers will go their own way to proceed with the job and introduce lot of distortions in the process. The work schedule will not be maintained. The chief executives will be upset with no redress. The executives may avoid such predicament if they are equipped with a fair understanding about the instruments of monitoring and supervision.
The driving instruments of the organisation are its budget and development programmes. Chief executives of the organisations have to be conversant with the operation of these two instruments. The area is replete with numbers and statistical tools which unfortunately stoke awe and aversion for many politician-executives. Seldom have they overcome this fear with assistance from some close aides. The situation now demands that the executives face the situation with determination and courage. They have to learn to work with the numbers. They have to grasp the basic elements of budget and development programme: their core framework, the process for their construction, the discipline, the locus of approval procedure and the instrument of implementation and monitoring. These can be learnt through a short training or orientation programme. But for a minimum understanding they cannot accomplish their official task smoothly. They will stumble at almost every step. They will be at the mercy of their supporting staffs. In the absence of appropriate supervision mistakes will crowd in to place the executives in difficult straits later on, particularly when they leave the office. Chief executives should in no way undermine the budget and the development programme.
Chief executives must learn the basic strategy of management. This is applicable for both the politician or non-politician executives. The sycophants will try to impress upon the executives that chair will make an executive fit for the job. Time will solve the initial problems. The aphorism that chair makes a man fit is at the best partially true. It does not apply wholly to address real life situation. For chief executives the correct articulation is, there is no substitute for training. There is no age bar for training. Individuals can participate in training programmes as and when they need it throughout their life.
Dr. Saadat Husain is a former Chairman of Public Service Commission.