A stitch in time

The revelation by Health Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva that the introduction of a fingerprinting machine to mark attendance at Government hospitals had reduced overtime payment by 35 per cent is an indication as to how much resources could be saved in State institutions if only there is a will by the authorities to take firm action.

Today overtime payments have become a huge drain on State sector budgets with certain Departmental heads too turning a Nelsonian eye to this colossal waste perhaps under trade union pressure.

Walk into any Government Department today and a typical scene that would greet one is of employees engaged in idle chatter with their work lying unattended to be performed on another day preferably on Saturday or a public holiday.

This laissez faire attitude has caused many Government institutions like the CEB and the Petroleum Corporation to be milked dry of their financial resources with no one apparently bothered to clamp down on this profligacy.

True, there are instances especially in connection with public utilities where overtime work is inevitable in order to met deadlines and other exigencies. But even here there is large scale fraud and sleight of hand methods adopted by workers.

Minister de Silva cited an instance of how 26 workers from the Matara hospital who were found missing at their posts on a Saturday had changed their 'sign out' time from 11.30 to 17.30 hrs and claimed five hours overtime.

No one will know for how long the Health Ministry had been paying overtime for work not performed nor will anyone know the accumulated loot plundered from State institutions in this fashion over the years. No wonder trade unions are up in arms against encroaching modernisation and innovations that shrink work hours and have been campaigning for the status quo to remain so that the milking could continue.

It is time that the Government took a firm stand to eliminate unproductive overtime payments without succumbing to pressure from any quarter.

There is no gainsaying the colossal sums it could save as a result. Besides, it will be a positive step in its avowed task of eliminating waste in public sector institutions.

The Government should act now to arrest this malady so that ballooning overtime bills of State bodies could be cut down to a bare minimum.

Ripples in Tamil Nadu

The death of LTTE political commissar S.P. Thamilselvam in an Air Force bombardment, not surprisingly has had its ripple effect in Tamil Nadu.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Muthuvelu Karunanidhi has come in for flak from his bete noir Jayalalitha Jeyaram over the former's act of eulogising Thamilselvam in verse form.

She has demanded the dismissal of the Tamil Nadu Government for violating the Constitution by supporting a banned organisation. There is bound to be other reverberations over the slaying in the coming days with more politicians with LTTE sympathisers making a huge noise.

It is not surprising to note the squabbling between the two chief protagonists of Tamil Nadu politics over the demise of an LTTE leader given the deep seated LTTE factor in South Indian politics.

It is no secret that the LTTE enjoyed a safe haven to carried out its arms training under all dispensations in Tamil Nadu which also functioned as a hub for arms smuggling to the North. The late Chief Minister M.G. Ramachandran was famously identified as the Godfather of LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran and provided moral as well as material support to the then fledgling rebel movement.

Jayalalitha who is now on the hit list of the LTTE of course cannot take a holier than thou stance having herself extended patronage to the LTTE under her illustrious mentor. The blow suffered by the outfit no doubt is bound to stir the pot in volatile Tamil Nadu politics in the days to come.

There will be many LTTE surrogates coming out blazing such as the likes of Vaiko and Nedumaran who may whip up an agitation to once again shift the focus of the Centre towards Sri Lanka, reminiscent of the Pre-Indo Lanka Accord days.

Therefore it would be prudent if the Government keeps itself alive to the developments across the Palk straits in the aftermath of the killing and put in place a diplomatic initiative to neutralise any such agitation affecting the cordial relationship with the Central Government.

Above all, it should re-emphasise its aim for a political solution with military action as a means of achieving this end.