Outdated offices

The Bureau of Energy Efficiency has pointed out that one-time investments in energy efficiency in various government offices can be recovered within two years.

For instance, a Rs 10 crore investment in the All India Institute of Medical Sciences will cut annual energy costs by Rs 7 crore. It is not clear whether the government can heave itself up to consider such possibilities and do what is required. But it bears saying that what the energy efficiency people have pointed out is only the tip of the iceberg. The problem with government offices is more than just their inefficient use of energy; it is the inefficient and inequitable use of space and other resources, and what such sub-optimal arrangements say about inefficient work processes.

Walk into any government office and you’re confronted with the equivalent of the Hindu chaturvarna, since at one end of the scale you have huge rooms of up to 1,000 square feet for the secretary heading a department, equipped with plasma screens and many split air-conditioning units and acres of carpeting.

Meanwhile, immediately outside, a crowded “section” office functions under mountains of paper, while dilapidated desert coolers blow paper about and add to the humidity and general discomfort, even as suffering office workers use broken chairs and dusty table tops.

It is hard to find a reasonable-sized private office today not air-conditioned, but the government is stuck in a time warp and continues to believe that only senior officers should be comfortable while working—and then it makes the size of the officer’s room a signal of power and importance.

Prakash Tandon, chairman of Hindustan Lever and then State Trading Corporation and Punjab National Bank, used to argue that no one needs an office room that is bigger than 200 square feet.

So, isn’t it time the government caught up with the times and introduced more modest rooms for senior officers, to be combined with cubicles and open office plans for others, air-conditioning for everyone, and common meeting rooms to deal with visitors irrespective of rank?

All this can be done in less space than is occupied today, especially if computerisation of data bases, paperwork and mailing goes hand in hand. The result would be reduced use of space, the vacation of surplus space, and therefore a reduction in energy and maintenance bills.

Walk into the income tax office, the trade marks office, a land records office, or that of the registrar of companies, and what becomes obvious is the desperate need for digitisation, modern work processes, accountability through time lines and rational staffing levels, with public inter-face systems that are friendly and cooperative.

Indeed, changes of this kind are now visible in select state governments and municipalities. The Bhoomi experiment in Karnataka allows farmers to get copies of land records from an entire network of computers across the state.

Income tax filings, at least in a certain category such as TDS returns, are increasingly electronic, thereby obviating the need to keep voluminous files. These examples need to be multiplied, and made part of a sweeping reform of government processes, staffing patterns, and office design. Only then will the system become congenial for government employees, less anti-citizen in its mindset, and more efficient in its use of space and energy.