When an infrastructure is old. poor, and inefficient, increasing the number of personnel does not necessarily increase the efficiency of the sys-

The system has to be overhauled first, and then the internal interlinking and coordinating services have to be strengthened, followed by the tuning of the system for optimum performance (in public interest, no other interest).

The next phase is to fill in the gaps in personnel to operate the critical points of the working system. The staff must be trained and disciplined. When dishonesty is present, and the sense of duty is absent, then any system will stall. Why operate with a high systems loss?

The above formula may be applied to the performance standard of the city corporations or municipalities. In Dhaka, the DCC has utterly failed and practically broken down, for several reasons.

Forward planning was inadequate to anticipate the growth rate of works and responsibilities every five years forward. The municipal system was not enhanced with budget and technical resources every running year of every project (services offered and available were much less than the rising de-

mands). The responsibility for lack of judgement and foresight delve on the officers, and failure to get the work done by the teams is also ultimately pinned on the officers (the staff do not think and plan and take corrective actions — the officers do).

Increasing the nufriber of workers in this unworkable system will not improve the efficiency. The difference between quality and quantity has to noted at several stages: planning. operating, maintaining, monitoring, prosecuting. The team must work as a whole, and the weak links have to be cor-

The recent decision to split each Ward Into three and having three Commissioners instead of one looks all right on paper. But the simultaneous exercise of improving the system has not been announced. How extra number of human resources can improve the situation dramatically, and not marginally?

In fact, the reorganisation of the municipalities should have the first exercise, followed by personnel changes or additions.

What the additional commissioners will do? They will prepare pending or priority

lists and clamour for attention and action, when the system" cannot service the demands of the new commissioners.

The monitoring and prosecution wing of the system has been paralysed due to corruption and absence of disciplinary action. It is all beating about the bush, before the weak links have been normalised.

There is another potential pitfail, the influence of politics during the elections of the new ward commissioners. The Mayor cannot work with outmoded ways of running a mega city. Now the system is being over-populated6 (according to the notorious 'law' which says that bureaucracy always increases. never decreases).

Political decisions should be fool-proof, to retain whatever credibility is left in this country of super-politicians during any regime. The current regime should not feel shy of admitting that it is also suffering from the effect of the polluting political environment. One is judged by the company one keeps.

First modify the system: second, the updated infrastructure should be in place; third, the personnel should match the system. Why go in small, ad hoc political increments? The slip is showing! Remove garbage in all the sectors of the society!