Government Laziness (or Paid To Do Nothing)
The Arab Observer has written a fine, frustrating post on the problems and inefficiencies of doing business with the Jordanian government as a common citizen. Having some experience with such things, I decided to throw in my two piasters, as well.
You know the situation: once you find the correct building (if you can find the correct building)you’re looking for, you walk into the office where there are two guys sitting in a bare room at desks that are graced by a paper weight broken computer covered in dust, scattered papers, old cigarette butts and the dried remains of small, disposable coffee cups.
When you acknowledge either of these two men, they lazily look up from their stupor and glare at you for interrupting their reverie. And once you can finally get them talking, they either don’t know the answer or attempt to pass you off to someone else because they surely can’t be bothered. After all, you can’t get paid to do nothing when there’s work involved.
As the Observer states,
Those people are really depressed. Seriously, it is like there is “an agreed upon code” to mistreat their clients (the Jordanian citizens). They put a grumpy face, a negative attitude without any intention to help explaining things out. When you ask them, they react as if you cursed them! They only stick to bureaucratic rules that give them joy in torturing people at hand! In addition to all of that, they barely let their cigarette off their hands!
And if, wonder upon wonders, you have happened to stumble upon the correct building and the correct room and the correct guys who are obligated to help, you can pretty much guarantee that the “help” will be in the form of reams of paperwork (complete with misspelled information) and all the required stamps and signatures that come with it.
Again from the Observer,
The other day, I was thinking that as a tax payer, I would agree to pay those people their salaries and let them stay at home while bringing new ones to serve instead of them. For God’s sake, they don’t only do nothing, but they also help slowing down the working process.
Well done, Observer. I couldn’t have said it better myself.
The Observer December 24th, 2007 11:11 am
THANK YOU Dave for writing again about this. It is really frustrating how these guys do their jobs! They need a wake up call, a shake, a comprehensive training sessions to build the servitude skills in them.
And first thing, they should ban smoking! It is killing us even more than their rudeness.
Awartany December 24th, 2007 11:23 am
OK. Then what? Everything need to be changed. The whole system is a crap. This is nothing compared to other issues.
MommaBean December 25th, 2007 10:41 pm
Ding, ding, ding! Here’s a winner. No question that you and the Observer have been in the same offices that I have :).
Deb December 27th, 2007 6:36 pm
I am an American and just married a Jordanian man. I could not believe how confusing the government system is in Amman…and it is exactly as described in your blog and in the Observer. We went to building after building with the same looking guys sitting there with blank faces, pawning you off to someone just like him just to get rid of you. And the stamps and approvals on everything…is so frustrating to obtain, find out where to obtain it, etc. It took 4 days of running around Amman, by taxi, to finally get all the papers filled out, approved, filed, stamped, etc. to the point where we could get married. Being born and raised in a US city where you walk in to an office and give info and walk out with a marriage license, this was quite shocking to me. The other comment I wanted to note was that nothing is computerized in these government offices!! They do everything on paper still…I feel like I am back in the dark ages there when it comes to that. Fast food restaurants in Amman are more computer automated than the government offices. Eventually, some IT companies will make a fortune coverting everything over to computers systems there…they have yet to have the big computer ‘boom’ in Amman!