Of government officials and the endless trips, meetings

It is often said that when a committee’s goal is to get a horse, they often end up with a camel. This is because committees are generally tied-up in unnecessary and often endless meetings that more often than not yield less than the intended goals and not to mention, at a cost. In other words, even though a camel is likely to get a rider from point A to point B safely, chances are that a camel will get the rider to their destination in twice the time it would have taken a horse. It is not a secret that most of us attend way too many pointless meetings than we care to admit. Think of the many times you have tried to call someone and the call goes unanswered, or emailed someone and had to wait for a number of days to receive a reply (and I am not talking about a casual call). Chances are that when they eventually get back to you, (if they ever do), they will inform you that the reason why they couldn’t answer the telephone or reply to your email in good time was because they were tied-up in a meeting somewhere for hours on end. Of course, meetings are in some cases unavoidable. They are a means through which we exchange ideas, set goals, check on progress, and evaluate alternative solutions. However, if reports are accurate, we spend way too many hours meeting-up. In fact, according to the magazine, Management Today, most of us waste up to a year of our lives in useless meetings. Which begs the question: when do we actually get the work done? Nevertheless, the time most of us spend in meetings is nothing compared to the hours government officials spend in meetings. Again, according to Management Today, civil servants spend a whopping 22 hours per week in meetings, with one third of that time estimated to be surplus to requirements. 22 hours accounts for more than half of a working week, can you imagine that? So, recently, at the 2016 annual National Leadership Retreat, President Paul Kagame alluded to this fact and even went a step further to include the increasing and unnecessary trips Rwandan government officials take part in, particularly in reference to duties concerning the East African Community. “If Rwanda needs to confirm attendance of ministers for EAC meetings to happen, then the meetings will not happen. I am counting and cutting my losses on this one. This is not going to happen again,” warned President Kagame. The president whose patience was wearing thin also added that “the EAC minister can do it. I can afford to have her in Arusha as some kind of ambassador. If any of you (referring to senior officials) wants anything to do in Arusha, tell her and let her do it. We can back her up with one or two people to help her make dossiers for the community.” Now, I am not naïve to pay no attention to the necessary steps needed to plan, evaluate and implement projects. I recognize that meetings are a necessary evil. However, there appears to be far too many meetings especially when you consider that public sector meetings are funded by the taxpayer who rightly expects value for every Rwandan franc he or she contributes. Therefore, if we must operate with the necessary evil, we must choose to do things differently. For instance, rather than frequently asking the taxpayer to pay for first class tickets and hotel bills for trips to Arusha or elsewhere on official duty, government officials must embrace technological tools such as video-conferencing, Skype, etc. to carry out their duties. And this is not to ignore limiting meetings to the lowest possible rate. On the other hand, if it is absolutely necessary for officials to attend meetings physically both home and abroad, things must be done differently. For example, officials can avoid repetitive meetings by planning better. Good preparation means that before arranging the first meeting, officials need to ensure that everyone understands the purpose of the meeting, with the agenda developed and distributed ahead of time. It also goes without saying that officials need to stick to time agreed – anymore, and they are precious state resources that we cannot afford to waste. I sincerely cannot emphasize enough the importance of time management. In the end, as riders on this difficult development journey, it is up to us to choose between a camel and a horse. If we choose to do things differently, we will get the horse or even better. If we continue business as usual, we are sure to get a camel for every time we plan for a horse, and it will continue to take us twice the time to reach our destination. Over to you, officials! junior.mutabazi@yahoo.co.uk

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Of government officials and the endless trips, meetings