Wednesday, May 11, 2011

The reason for stewards in Bhutan to panic

Mr. Choesum, a caretaker of the state Guest House is scratching his head, not because it itches him. He is inevitably doing it because of an unbearable tension behind his mind that makes him feel restless always. Sometimes he has less care for the arrival of his state guest because he has not made the things in the guest house intact and he is not able to do this.

Why cant he when he is expected to do it? There are 1001 reason for being unable to fix the problem. When the guest house was designed, the designer's head was knocked with an idea to install a high beam effective electric bulb. He/she gives a long list of items to the contractor who bids to fix the lighting system.

"Hello! Is this Mr. Samuel of Asian Technology Store of Singapore?" calls the contractor. "Yes, I am and how can I help you", replies Mr. Samuel.  "I am Mr. Dorji from Bhutan Technology. Can you send me 150 sets of salt crystal electric bulbs as early as possible?". "Sure and you can expect it by early next week but please pay half tomorrow as usual" asks Mr. Samuel. The contractor receives the items by next week and he fixes it. All set and done and he hands over the building to the authority well furnished.

The next day, Mr. Choesum finds a couple of the bulbs fused. He asks the management to replace it as he expects state guest soon. But the management finds that there isn't single bulb like that in the market. The management asks the dealers to arrange to supply it but they quote the amount equivalent to triple the cost. This is because it is not available in the Indian market and it has to be imported from elsewhere so the high cost. Even if it is available, the budget to buy it is expensive to be affordable.

Where is the loophole?  Is it with the engineers, designers or contractors? When the idea knocked his/her head, did the designer consider the availability in the market? Why didn't the contractor inform the designer about the future recurrent impossibilities? Why didn't the management revisit the proposal before implementations.

This are all the questions that makes Mr. Choesum to scratch his head and chins everytime.  


      

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