The cost of ‘sarkari’

I t is not unusual to hear people saying, “It is sarkari school, sarkari hospital, sarkari job” and so on! What does it mean? Does it mean something free of cost, a windfall asset not to care about much, inefficient, or what? What are the implications of such labelling on our collective attitude and behaviour? What can be done to make this country close to our hearts and create a sense of ownership in everyone’s mind? Frankly, we do not need erecting buildings, constructing bridges and dams, and investing in any development project more than we need to work on socialisation and cultural change.

In the context of government job, sarkari used to signify job security, responsible conduct, and a sense of loyalty to the state simultaneously with being responsive to citizens regardless of their social status. Decency and dignity constituted the core of public service. It is now perceived as a collection of disjointed activities characterised by inefficiency, wastage of resources and corruption. The typical civil servant would go to office with a sluggish mentality — busy in pushing around files here and there without doing anything worthwhile — looking every time for rent-seeking. Procrastination and passing the buck to others define bureaucratic culture that once was an epitome of responsibility, responsiveness, fairness and propriety.

State’s property (sarkari amlak) is free for all. Official vehicles — mostly purchased at high costs (puffed up by kickbacks) with no apparent productive use — end up in the hands of family members and friends of the powerful officers/ministers. One can see these vehicles running on roads as multi-purpose carriages of officers with nothing spent on their repair and maintenance. The same is true about offices and residential buildings. In most cases, budget allocated for whitewash and renovation is spent elsewhere on luxuries! This attitude of ‘non-ownership’ then provides sufficient justification for privatisation of stateowned enterprises (SOEs) and dissolution of otherwise useful public entities.

The issue of cultural transformation once came under discussion in a meeting with Asad Umar. He asked the participants about what the PTI government in K-P should do to make a real difference in the province. Contrary to his expectations, I urged him to do something different to make difference and the different thing to do was to work more on attitudinal change than anything else. He outwardly looked enthusiastic about what I was advocating but inside him was a politician looking for immediate and visible impact of government policies as the road to success in next elections.

It is not, however, the ruling elite alone to blame for our collective failure as a nation. We must all share part of what has gone wrong with both sides of budget (income and expenditure) over the years. As citizens, we are not yet convinced that paying taxes is both a moral and legal obligation. It is inconceivable to expect a state providing security, healthcare, education and other essential services by borrowing from donor agencies (IMF, WB) without having to compromise on its sovereignty. Freedom without productive capacity and sound taxation culture is elusive.

Unless identified and forced, many business tycoons and landlords never happened to voluntarily pay due taxes on income and property. Even worse, they use all possible means to get tax exemptions, subsidies and favourable regulations. The salaried class, which cannot evade and avoid taxes for being hooked in the tax net, bears the brunt of increasing tax burden as are the lowincome people paying so many different types of indirect taxes. This skewed taxation system has created a vicious cycle of poverty on the one hand and grave income inequality on the other.

What then is the cost of misusing resources, abusing authority and not paying taxes? The answer is debt accumulation, dysfunctional institutions and increasing trust deficit, which in turn lead to poor governance and sense of alienation. This vicious cycle cannot be broken unless every one of us — every citizen — makes a firm commitment of playing his/her due role despite all odds and regardless of any immediate returns. A strong and responsible society can build strong states and not the other way round.