Can someone please tell us what in the world is going on? A hundred fifty two thousand birr for a laptop! Ninety something grand for a cellphone! And, all that money coming out of gov’t coffers! That’s what we’ve been hearing this past week. It seems some bigwigs were settling for nothing short of such laptops and cellphones. A laptop for a sum which got you a reasonable car a few years back! Just curious, is the cellphone gold-plated! All this happening in a country for which every dollar is precious! Don’t blame people for being highly skeptical of our bureaucracy! That’s what happens when there seems to be no accountability and there is no need to think twice before acting. The executive secretary dials the finance head.
Our boss needs to talk to you.
I’ll be there in half…”
Now! (Whatever you do, don’t force the wrath of the executive secretaries. It doesn’t matter whether we gave them the credit or not, many of those ladies act as they practically run the bureaucracy! Maybe they do.)
“Look, it is time I got a new laptop.”
“Sir, there’s no problem. Would like one like the one you had…”
What! A thirty thousand birr laptop! You must be out of your mind.
You wouldn’t want to be in the shoes of that poor guy! A few minutes more his joints would be making sound; He’s shaking like some Lady Dracula just informed him “To night you’ll take me out for a date.” (I mean there must have been a ‘Lady Dracula!)
“Sorry sir; any brand you want, it’ll be on your desk first thing in the morning.”
“I want the best one.”
And the guy from finance knows what ‘the best’ means.
Sit there is a state-of-the-art laptop that would fit your wishes.”
“How much does it cost?”
“About a hundred fifty thousand birr.”
“Hmm; not too expensive, is it? I think we can manage that.”
Yes sir, you can manage that. But the coffers of this poor country don’t manage even a quarter of that sum! Anyways, what do you plan to do with the state-of-the-art laptop? Be some Netflix subcontractor or something!
You know what the gem of this story of a hundred fifty grand laptop and a ninety grand cellphone is, the guys get to keep the toys even if they are kicked out of those water mattress sort of chairs! Now, what could be more tempting than that?
Look many times you’re at a complete loss of words because you can’t think of any explanation for such things. How do the minds of those people work? And, we never tire of complaining how cash-strapped this nation is.
A couple of weeks into the bigwigs’ big purchases the finance guy goes knocking on his boss’s door. The boss is, of course, playing around with his newest toy. Maybe he has posted the image of the laptop as his newest profile picture! He actually growls at the poor guy from finance.
“What is it now?” A week earlier he was his darling guy, and look at how he treats him now!
“Sir, we have problems printing the financial statements.”
“What problems?”
“We are out of tonners cartridges. We need your approval for new ones.”
“How much do they cost?”
“Around one thousand three hundred or so each…”
“What! You are asking me to approve that much money for tonner, or whatever you call them! Look around for cheaper products.” case closed. The guy practically runs out as if a runaway lion was on his tails. Now, if the guy was in that Bolshevik or something mood, he would have said…
“With all due respect sir, I think the toner cartridges are more important than your hundred fifty grand laptop!”
Any guy who is ‘tough’ enough to say that will find out the hard way that being tough might work for Mel Gibson in Lethal Weapon. It doesn’t work with his boss. Later that day the letter hits his desk. He has been put on forced leave.
Telling people facts and scaring them are two different things. Depends on a choice of words and the tone in which they are delivered. Fear is destructive enemy. It is difficult to get the attention of people who are in fear.
Look, the way this world works every one of us can’t be rewarded with the red carpet treatment. Some of should be walking on gravel roads for the Red Carpet guys to enjoy their Cloud Nine luck. One thing this country can’t surely do is offer the VIP box to all who ask for it. Hey; forget the limos, the V eights, the ten thousand birr a shot whisky. (The town really talks!) Ours is a very poor country! And emptying out gov’t coffers for hundred fifty thousand birr laptops is very inconsiderate and irresponsible! I could have added the term ‘cardinal sin’ to that small list; but there are others who could do that better; true to the Holy Book or true to their bank book!
The Ethiopian Herald May 22/2020
Ephrem Endale
Contributer
