Why Somaliland Government System Does Not Grow?

The ability to anticipate  government policies that improve work ethics is something to which all of us always aspire. So I was filled with pride when a friend of mine told me that our government has announced officially that Thursdays are “governmental Clear Your Desk Days.”

The event inoculated me with an enthusiasm to clear my personal desk at my home on Wednesday, assuming that “Clear Your Desk Day” will become a disciplinary rule that no government employee could ignore or even overlook.

My personal desk is usually an alarming mess, often too full of newspapers, books, and pamphlets. Intuitively i  sometimes flatter myself that all this is creative. There is something stimulating about having half-read news papers, books, pamphlets and interesting invitations lying about, all reminding me of the richness of everything that might be going on.

On one Thursday I troubled myself to get up earlier than my usual wake-up time and visited one of our ministries, for I thought for once there was some point to this national Clear Your Desk Day.

The ministry that I intended to go is a ten minute drive from my home even when there is a traffic jam. When I reached the ministry, the situation that came into my observation was the opposite of what has been in my expectation. It was ten o’clock in the morning when I reached there. Oddly enough the premises of the ministry were full of people yawning and yelling, all anxious to meet government employees who could serve them.

Most offices of the ministry were closed, as if it was an official holiday. Very few offices were open but there were no employees. The opened offices were mostly untidy and old posters were racked on the walls in no particular order, and without concern for symmetry. Some files were scattered on the floor of each office.

Some people become sad and disheartened when they encounter with events  that hinder and hurt their expectations. The disarray in the ministry instead inspired me with the energy that compelled me to dig out the things that are missing from our government system.

When do we learn who really we are? When everything stands still. What will light our way in moments of disarray? Recognizing what we need most and knowing where we are wrong.

There is no moral principle in any work place that does not take work ethics as a disciplinary rule. There are two main principles that are the basics of work ethics, whether public or private works.

The first principle is punctuality and the second is staff engagement.

Punctuality is a sign of professionalism, an obligation of being present at the work place on time and be able to complete a required task on the designated time without fail.

Staff engagement describes the involvement of employees at all levels in presence, communication and action to meet the aims and objectives of the public or private trust are met. Staff engagement relates to the extent to which employees are fully engaged with their work.

Being on time ensures that workers are doing their best to keep things running smoothly. It is a regulatory issue that the employee must comply with the regular office working hours. The advantage of being punctual is that the more workers are engaged with their work, the more a worker’s output is maximized and desired targets are achieved.

There is no excuse in leaving public offices to mess. Neatness is a function of structural layout, while efficiency is the symbol of good performance.  A government office that is messed up by heaps of finished or unfinished files lying on the top of each other or scattered on the ground is an emblem of inefficiency and disorder.

Equally there is something too controlled about a person who thinks actually something is finished and can be put away. Nothing is really finished. You can put your clothes away, but most other things like documents in life, in mental life are too certain to be safely  consigned to a repository or a drawer.

Procrastination may be the thief of time, but untidiness is the enemy of inspiration, and of spontaneity.

Poor attendance at public or private workplaces  is a social irresponsibility whose time has gone. It is a drain on productivity and morale.  It has the smell of people too well adapted disorder, too little accustomed to be held accountable, too little interested in collaboration, for idiosyncrasy, however inventive, has very little to do with common purpose.

Of course government systems are evolutionary. They grow and become efficient by systemising what people do and how they do it and holding them accountable.

One of the impressing reasons of why government systems substantially grow into the right direction is that those who are responsible to run governments not only recognise what benefits their people, but also realise that creating a change-making movement within government system is where the future for all lies.

The questions that need asking are: Why our governing system does not grow? What really slows the way our government offices render public services? What is it that causes public service ills? Why Somaliland government still fails to deliver good services to its citizens? And why does this problem persist?

This demands open minds and a real desire to investigate and analyse in how people usually do things, and a willingness to acknowledge and learn from failure. What makes a difference is also the role of how the information in improving accountability for service delivery is formulated.

The issue of concern here is a failure to learn from the effect that people can cause and the effect that poor systems cause and how thoughts about impact are formulated.

Among the startling crises that need to be addressed and more importantly need national conversation are how control and surrender have to be kept in check, to treasure the controlling part of our behavior and mitigate the surrendering part.

What makes a system work is the method of self-regulation it has established. Recent researches from different disciplined sources showed that people in charge of our government do not have the tension between choosing regressive stand and progressive move. This means that disruption of the integrity of progressive move is what really brings the death of our government system even more quickly than a failure to evolve.

The progress of our government system requires a self-regulating pattern that is primarily designed to inspire the people with the ambition to look for more than just adapting to survive, but evolving to improve and thrive.

The desire to live in a well- run country basically depends on whether the citizens of the country are really ready to form governments that are actually adept at learning, improving and growing. Literally without a change-making atmosphere within those who govern, our government system would never grow. It is the attitude of those who are elected into positions of public trust that fails the growth of our government system.

Somaliland government system can only grow when people in charge of our government work in a way that doesn’t disregard the integrity of what works well.

In Somaliland country good government that will deliver good services to its citizens could only be born when most people understand their shared problems, recognise common challenges, and pool, not impose, their ideas

Those people who can not or will not tidy up are going to be left behind in a world of intense competition. It is well and good that our people, all of us, should come to reality before things fall apart.

By: Jama Falaag

       Somaliland, Hargeisa