Thursday, 26th


July 2018


East Cork


Business The Bureaucratic World We Live in - Personal Perspectives


bours or calling to friends. I would rather spend my time vegetating in front of the telling, spewing at


the by DR ROSARII GRIFFIN


Introduction When I was younger, I just


wanted to travel, to see the world experience


different


ways of life. It was exciting, heading off with passport in hand, going through the motions of being inspected by security. Usually, on the far side, being met by a wall of heat and sunshine. This signified the beginning of a holiday, or more often than not, a working holiday. It was great to get a break from the Irish dark winters and persistent rain. Roll on the summer, and head to more sunnier climes, like the ‘snow birds’ migrating for winter and summer.


passport


Change But now, as I pack with in hand, the


thought of passing through multiple airports fills me with dread, especially the thought of endless security checks. The standard plastic bag that contains every liquid item which has to be sealed or else the contents dumped. A bot- tle of water is now potential- ly a lethal weapon that has to be drunk or jetted prior to inspection, but two minutes later, the same bottle can be bought again fresh on the far side. Crazy stuff. Take off your shoes, belt, jacket, scarf. Display out your laptop, iPad or iPhone, and anything met- al object that may be in your pocket. Take your boarding card with you and passport. No sharp items. Don’t forget your stuff. The joys of secu- rity.


Night Before The night before depar-


ture, I am lonely. I would rather spend my time with my family - my mum, my two lovely daughters, my partner. I would rather spend my time chatting with neigh-


box when some injustice is being discussed, or weep- ing silently at the latest un- earthing of an unsavoury tragic history or anger when investigative teams put the spotlight on some covert cor- ruption. Whatever it is, there is something very reassuring about the usual routine – all that is familiar and safe - the comfort zone one surrounds oneself in. But no, tonight instead I have to think about charging devices, packing my passport, boarding card, money, and wonder whether or not I have packed enough suitable clothing for the next location. A work-based trip awaits, and I, now a reluctant traveller, must prepare to go.


Work What I particularly find annoying about


traveling


for work is having to pay in advance and having to claim back afterwards. Sometimes, the payback can take some time to make its way back into the bank account. This can put a lot of pressure on family finances and budg- eting (which the workplace takes for granted). The last time I went on a work trip, I was forced to take the AirB- nB option. I was not happy with my accommodation. On my return, I complained bitterly to my employer that if I were robbed, raped or murdered, it was on their head – and that I was not paying in advance anymore to go on work trips. I drew the line! If they wanted me to go, they would have to book it. Eventually, they agreed. The only problem was now that I was no longer in control of choosing flights or accommodation. Al- though I would be presented with options, they always rec- ommended the cheapest one, which is not always the best value for money, or the most pragmatic.


Cost Saving To save a fiver, my work-


place would rather fly me out of Dublin than pay extra


@eastcorkjournal / #eastcorkjournal


to fly me out of Cork. This ‘cost-saving’ usually does not make a whole lot of Somehow, the


sense. extra time


and expense for me to get to Dublin (the car park, the connecting bus or train, the extra subsistence or taxi) doesn’t seem to matter. All that matters is that they save a fiver on the actual flight (the


rest, I have to claim


back separately). For them, on paper, they have saved money on the flight, and that is the bottom line! Then, on return, everything reclaimed has to be vouched for, a re- ceipt for every cup of coffee, every snack, every bottle of water. Collecting and ac- counting for each receipt (to collect each one and input them into a database), in order to make the claim can create a mountain of paper work and as well as take a lot


of time. But strangely


enough, this doesn’t seem to count at all. To me, this is bu- reaucracy gone mad.


Director When I previously worked


as a Director of 6 projects, I worked on the basis of per diems. That means, the av- erage daily cost of living was estimated for each worker working in a particular lo- cation. This was paid to the researchers in advance


of


any trip (as well as sensible flights and safe and prag- matic accommodation). This eased the pressure on the re- searchers, as everything was paid for in advance. If any researcher wanted to save money and live cheaply, that was their prerogative. In oth- er words, if they wished to go to a supermarket and buy sandwiches rather than have a ‘sit down’ lunch in some diner, then that was their own prerogative. They had the potential to save some money this way. On the oth- er hand, if they wanted to ‘fine dine’ and ‘splash their cash’, that was also their own prerogative. They would just get the average daily rate like everybody else, and any ad- ditional costs was their own business, coming out of their own pocket. For the project, the daily rate, or ‘per diem’


eastcorkjournal


is the average estimated liv- ing-out cost per day. Nothing extravagant, and it is fair. The ‘per diem’ system of op- erating engenders trust, al- lowing individuals to exercise free will. Everyone loved this system as it was also prag- matic - saving hours of com- piling receipts, saving loads of paper, and saving lost time trying to locate or account for lost receipt! In short, this is called taking a ‘common sense’ approach, which iron- ically, appears to be in short supply this weather!


Mistrust The system of reimburs- ing only vouched expenses does engenders a real sense of mistrust. This pedan- tic system, I believe, also breaches one’s right to pri- vacy. If I decide to have a latte rather than tea, if I am vegan or vegetarian, or if I wish to eat a full steak, then that is surely my personal prerogative? Why should I have


bureaucrats oversee-


ing my choice of living, and then pronounce whether my personal choices constitute a claimable expense? This system is time-consuming, environmentally-unfriendly, mistrustful, and most im- portantly, nor does it make economic sense! This ‘cut- ting off your nose to spite your face’ is an exercise in pedantry that adds no value whatsoever to saving money or time. It just ticks a box somewhere to satisfy some rule or other, and keep a lot of people busy mulling over mundane, mindless tasks. But, this is the world we live in – with excessive account- ability in minor matters, a level of transparency that invades privacy, creating the illusion that one is sav- ing time and money for the public purse, when in fact, if the truth be known, it actu- ally does the exact opposite. Not alone that, but it causes resentment and frustration. For, if you have lost that re- ceipt, then tough, the impli- cation is that the expense did not occur, and therefore, not reimbursed. More often than not, individuals are left ‘out of pocket’ for work assign-


ments. Sometimes it feels as if the lunatics are running the asylum!


Bureaucracy But bureaucracy is gone mad everywhere


it seems.


And now, businesses have taken to creating and follow- ing ‘Lean’ courses. This is an attempt to counteract the bourgeoning bureaucracy of everyday life, and introduce a ‘leaner system’. Personally, I prefer to call this, ‘taking a common sense’ approach, which


appears to be in


short supply at the moment. Sometimes, when in hospital, I feel there is a lot of repe- tition of nurses and doctors filling out forms. Similarly, in schools. I often feel there must be a neater, cleaner, more efficient way of operat- ing? There needs to be more ‘joined up thinking’, more ‘linking the dots’, and a re- duction in duplication. What profession now does not have a mountain of paperwork to deal with to satisfy some rule or regulation? It seems as if paperwork now rules our lives. Every profession, from farming to legal work, from teaching to medicine, from owning your own business to selling services – paperwork rules. It is a modern day ‘pain in the neck’, but what can be done about it?


Systems Unite. One solution is to have


more ‘joined up thinking’. Even within government de- partments, people’s files (so- cial welfare, education, rev- enue; financial or health file) could be linked up through a personal social security num- ber. This would avoid dupli- cation of form-filling and certification. Core, essential information could be readily available to legal officials if necessary. That would surely cut down on fraud, crime, and create a greater sense of accountability without duplication of efforts. One area of duplication that I can think of is the ‘Garda vetting bureau’.


Garda Vetting It seems as if every organ- isation has it’s own Garda


vetting system. This seems like


a ridiculous system


whereby any one individual could be Garda vetted up to five or six times, depending on how many organisations they are involved in. Surely if an individual is Garda Vet- ted once, that should suffice. There should be one single Garda Vetted file attached to an individuals RSI or PPS number. This single file then would be available, ready for print off, to be given to any organisation on that individ- ual person’s demand. The fact that the Garda Vetting exercise has to be repeated by an individual for each or- ganisation is surely a waste of everyone’s time, espe- cially valuable Gardai time, that could surely put to use in better ways? This is just my reading of the situation. Maybe there is some logic behind this ‘duplication’ sys- tem that I’m just not getting.


Big Data I know today, everyone


is concerned about storing data securely, and rightly so. However, banks hold their clients data securely, and pay a lot of money to ensure this is the case. Ditto for health insurance


Therefore, there


companies, etc. are ways


and means of staving off cy- ber security attacks and pre- paring against such criminal cyber warfare. In any case, we will have to move towards better ways of organising systems of communication between government


bod-


ies, national bodies, and even perhaps international bodies (such as Interpol, for instance). Therein lies all of our security en masse.


Ethical questions Of course, there will al-


ways be ethical dilemmas around privacy, and access and sensitive


information.


For instance, is a criminal who has served his or her time not allowed to reinte- grate back into society with- out fear of recriminations? Will the state become ‘big brother’ and oversee all its citizens’ activities? What are the limitations of privacy? Are covert or underground


activities permissible within a civil society? Would such systems drive more illicit ac- tivity underground and thus coming more lucrative for criminal gangs, more sought after? Ethical and moral di- lemmas will always be with us. As long as we take a mod- erated, sensible approach to guarding peoples’ right


to


privacy, and securing their personal data and informa- tion, then it should be safe enough to store safely. That is what one would hope an- yhow.


Conclusion Sometimes, I think the


past was a nicer place to live in. More simple. Less paper work, less bureaucracy, less officialdom. Life has become full of rules and regulations; full of do’s and don’ts, full of cans and cannots. Some peo- ple believe the EU has been the source of a lot of added bureaucracy. Other people blame such things as ‘health and safety’, and the amount of legislation passed through the Dail every year – every politician wanting to make their mark. For me, the pol- itician who would make the most impact would be some- one or some party that would actually streamline life for us all, give us all some breathing space, and link everything within a card or system, to- gether with a single security number. That would make life a whole lot easier, at least for those who prefer to stay on the right side of the law. And for those who don’t, well, they will have to figure out new ingenous ways of operating, and keep officials engaged in that form of ac- tivity, rather than innane form filling, which is soul destroying for anyone worth their salt. That is my view an- yhow, and I’m sticking to it! Profile: Dr Rosarii Griffin is a Governor of UCC, a lecturer and Researcher and Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in Lon- don. All views expressed herein are her own. Ro- sarii can be reached on info@eastcorkjournal.ie or @rosarii_griffin. Copy- right Rosarii Griffin.


Tel: 021 463 8000 • Email: info@eastcorkjournal.ie • Web: www.eastcorkjournal.ie


info@eastcorkjournal.ie


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