The Hindu Business Line : Is the grass greener on the other side?

Not necessarily. A pet peeve of most Indians, especially those abroad or those who have returned from foreign shores, is the bureaucracy and red-tapism in India. Ritually, cases are cited of how far and away the Western nations are and how much our own country is lagging. True. But are Western countries all that they are touted to be? Have they managed to overcome the problems of bureaucracy and red-tapism? Not really. A random look at an English language news Web site, Dutchnews.nl, reveals the pervasiveness of the problem in the Netherlands.

Not just in India, but in Amsterdam too building works take forever to complete. The city’s skyline is dominated by giant cranes and, going by a Dutchnews report, many should have been dismantled a long while ago. But because of a combination of “unforeseen technical difficulties, disputes over contracts and vastly underestimated development costs, the city is looking like a building site.”

The renovation of the world famous Rijks Museum is expected to be completed at the earliest by 2013, by which time the repository of art would have been closed for at least 10 years. Or, take the case of the modern art museum, the Stedelijk. Dutchnews reports officials admitting that the new designer entrance hall is going to be so expensive to heat and light that the museum will need an extra €1.6 million. But they are happy that the project is just €3million over its estimated cost of €40million.

Another miscalculation

Or, consider the north-south metro line, yet another miscalculation. Officials are reported to have admitted that it will open at least four years behind schedule and cost over €2 billion against the original estimate of €1.4 billion.

Clearly, the planners seem to need a course in math or the city council a good calculator.

Public-private partnership is a hot topic in the Netherlands, and no surprise that the Dutch Government is spending billions of euros on consultants and contract staff.

Thus, Dutchnews, tongue firmly in cheek, talks of professors being paid by the dairy industry giving speeches about how vital milk is. Or, of a government advisory committee set up to look at boosting employment being chaired by a CEO who says he will sack thousands more workers unless they agree to a pay freeze.

The Web site agrees that contracting out none-core operations is a fact of life in modern industry. But the government is not a private company. Its core function is to govern and provide public services.

“It would be good to know just what all these consultants and advisors have actually been doing other than creating more opportunities for external advisors to get involved in the public sector. Perhaps some external auditor should look into it,” it wonders.

Conflict of interest

What takes the Dutch cake is the head of the tax office stepping down from one of her other jobs to avoid claims of conflict of interest. Jenny Thunnissen, a career civil servant in charge of the Tax Department, apparently feeling taxed by the rising standard of living, wanted to earn more. So she became a member of a hospital supervisory board. Only, she did not know (or care) that the hospital was embroiled in tax avoidance accusations, and was being investigated.

The Junior Finance Minister, in charge of the Tax Office, was understandably hauled over the coals in Parliament. But the Minister was adamant that there is no conflict of interest, even though supervisory board members are supposed to check the account books of the organisations they work, or rather moonlight, for.

In recent months, the Tax Office has apparently been receiving flak for a number of serious failings. Perhaps, the Tax Office head should concentrate on her job rather than moonlighting. The Minister is also under attack for the government’s plans to bring in an extra tax on air travel from July — €11.25 per person on a flight under 2,500 km and €45 for longer flights, but nothing at all for transit passengers.

The exemption for transit passengers is possibly because the Minister does not want to hurt this lucrative sector which accounts for 40 per cent of all flights at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport and generates lots of jobs. Or, the eco-tax on air travel has been on the cards since last year’s budget. But the minister has only now started muttering about exempting popular destinations such as the Canary Islands and Turkey. Just in time for the holiday season.

This is the Dutch government/officials score on just two days — April 17 and 18 — chronicled by one news site.

There are bound to be more such examples elsewhere and on other days. Really no need to rush to put the Indian bureaucracy to pasture, for it may not be doing too badly considering the size of the country, the number of people, and so on.

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