The Tale of a Watchman

Once upon a time our government had a vast scrap yard in the middle of a jungle in Pahang.

The Cabinet Ministers discussed it at the weekly cabinet meeting and said, "Someone may steal from it at night." So they created a night watchman position and hired a person for the job.

Then Cabinet said, "How does the watchman do his job without instruction?" So they created a planning department in the Prime Minister's Department and hired two people, one person to write the instructions, and one person to do time studies.

Then Cabinet said, "How will we know the night watchman is doing the tasks correctly?" So they created a Quality Control department in the Prime Minister's Department and hired three people. One to do the studies, one do the reporting and one do the auditing.

Then Cabinet said, "How are these people going to get paid?" So They created four positions: a time keeper, a payroll officer, a clerk and a manager to ensure the department have sufficient staffs to manage them and hired four people.

Then Cabinet said, "Who will be accountable for all of these people? So they created an administrative department and hired six people, an Administrative Officer, Assistant Administrative Officer, a clerk, an office boy, a Legal Secretary and an assistant.

Then Congress said, "We have had this command in operation for one Year and we are $100,918,000 over budget, we must cutback." So they laid off the night watchman.

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AND NOW IT'S 2010 -- 29 YEARS LATER --

AND THE BUDGET FOR THIS "NECESSARY" DEPARTMENTS IN THE PRIME MINISTER'S DEPARTMENT IS AT $12.6 BILLION.

IT HAS 16,000 FEDERAL EMPLOYEES AND CONTRACT EMPLOYEES

Malaysiakini: $12.6 billion for Idris Jala's Ministry

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