Nagaland: Absenteeism has hurt governance, economy — Kikon

Our Correspondent

Kohima, Sep. 30 (EMN): The advisor to Information Technology and Communication, Science and Technology and New and Renewable Energy, Mmhonlumo Kikon on Monday asserted that ‘absenteeism’ affects public service delivery—with economic repercussions,

“Absenteeism is not only an issue of good governance, a political issue but it also has economic issue,” he said while delivering a lecture on ‘Absenteeism in government offices and good governance’ at Sazolie College in Phezhu Jotsoma.

He said that government has to address absenteeism and dereliction of duty by government employees, which is the prevailing system in the state.

“Governance and loopholes, these are things everybody talks about. The problem with the shallowness of our expectation is that we expect without articulating our expectation in the manner which it should be,” Kikon said.

The advisor opined that this practice is being ‘ransomed’ by the mandate of electorates and other elements with various threats. He said that this has caused hindrance to good governance and has resulted in negligence.

He lamented the notion of people perceiving government jobs as a way to earn a living with security, without working. This, he said, has caused problems to good governance.

Kikon further expressed disappointment that with the introduction of biometric attendance, ‘it was found that somebody else gives the attendance for the government employees in the morning and evening.’ He stated that a mechanism will be developed to discourage this trend.

“My generation of leadership will discuss uncomfortable issues because unless we do that, there is no change coming from the state,” Kikon said.

The advisor also expressed his disappointment at the failure of communitisation that was envisioned for governance, which is not only limited to bureaucrats and elected representatives but the involvement of community as well. He said that it was not properly exercised to address the issues even at the grassroots; and asserted that the success of governance depends on the participation of everyone.