This is a real incident once told by an Indian engineer working in a large public sector steel plant unit in central India.
The steel plant at that time had about 60,000 employees directly working apart from those indirectly employed as casual laborers and contract workers. A huge industrial township was also owned and operated by the company for providing good residential facilities for its employees. Nearly 40000 dwelling units have been provided in this industrial township which had its own roads, electricity, water supply, sewerage and sanitation facilities all done with the best practices as available in India at the time of its set up.
The maintenance management of the township was entrusted with the Town Engineering Department while the estate management was entrusted with the Town Administration Department. Both these wings used to report to the Chief Town Manager equivalent to a General Manager reporting to the Managing Director. In the earlier years, this industrial township was one of the best well planned and well maintained cities in India. The employees used to be proud of their township, though the company did not provide any luxury housing facilities in general. The engineers who were entrusted with the task of the maintenance and other activities of the township on those days could be considered as reasonably honest with none of them resorting to corrupt practices as was the case with the engineering departments of many Indian state governments, municipalities and the like. Nevertheless, there were rumors about some officers of the town administration department adopting corrupt practices in house allotments, etc. But these were minor misdeeds of lower ranking individuals and could not be considered as a general rule.
Most of the engineers working in these departments were either civil engineers or electrical engineers as these were the two kinds of engineering specializations that were considered as essential for managing a large planned city. Many of the civil engineers also had specialized advanced training or education in public health engineering. The top management of the steel plant in those days gave special attention to the educational background and experience of engineers to be posted in the town management organization.
In those days, the residents of this steel city never experienced any power supply breakdowns for months ore even years. The water that came to their household taps used to be regularly monitored for quality standards by experienced laboratory personnel. Water borne diseases were unheard of. There was no mosquito menace. In all ways, this industrial town used to be something enviable for the rest of India.
But things were not to remain in this way for long. For reasons known to the steel plant management, the town management function was soon diluted with the head of the town management reporting to the head of the personnel department of the steel plant instead of the MD. As the head of the personnel department used to be a non-engineer, an attempt was made to force subordinate the professional engineers of the township with many of the latter soon getting unceremoniously transferred out and pliable engineers from other functions in the steel plant getting in to the town management function
Soon the this prestigious organization of the steel plant degraded itself as a center for corrupt engineering practices. Civil engineering works provides ample chances for corruption because it is very difficult to prove or disprove the authenticity of a work after some time. For example, a work of replacement of a large underground sewer pipe costing several lakhs of rupees cannot be easily verified for its technical necessity or its actual execution. In a similar way earth work quantities cannot be easily verified after the work is done. In other words, the professional integrity of the engineer concerned was of prime importance in such cases for prevention of corruption. A clever and cunning engineer can make foolproof documents that no one can find fault with.
Soon our steel plant township became a hot spot for such engineers for trying their fortunes. The number of contractors doing civil maintenance contracts and the budgetary spending of the steel plant for town maintenance works began to increase. At the same time satisfaction levels of the residents of the township began to fall.
When integrity is lost, every thing is lost! Soon a hierarchy of system developed that favored engineers who were willing to trade their professional competency, integrity and ethics for personal gains at the cost the interests of the company and the public at large.
The interests of the individuals who managed the system of town management now shifted to those works that brought personal benefits to them in a clandestine manner without the residents ever fully realizing the details. Even the senior officers of the company who resided in the township ever realized what was happening.
Soon the chief of township and the chief engineer of the engineering wing got replaced by engineers from the steel plant. The new incumbents were mechanical engineers with hardly any understanding about the type of civil works in this large industrial city.
There was a new residential colony which was relatively new meant exclusively for middle level and senior officers of the steel plant. These buildings were hardly ten years old at that time and were relatively in a much better standing as compared to the rest of the old quarters in the township.
Some residents of these new quarters one fine morning found a group of contract workers breaking the external plaster of these buildings ( a total of some 200 units). As the existing plaster of these new buildings were relatively good and strong, the workers were taking extra efforts to break the plaster and their forceful chiseling and hammering was giving much discomfort to the residents. Moreover, the brick masonry of the buildings were getting weakened. Some officers wanted to know the reason for this work as they tried to question the contract workers. But the workers showed a type of rowdyism and did not mind telling harshly that they were doing these by orders of the higher ups. The majority of the residents preferred to keep quiet as the work being done is told as authorized by the higher management of the company. There entire area was now filled with broken plaster and cement dust.
Soon the re-plastering work began. Our engineer who told this story was one of the residents who was annoyed by this unjustified work being undertaken contractually by the town administration. He found that the re plastering is done by too obviously inferior cement plaster with the cement content much lower than required. He tried to contact his fellow engineers who were in the town engineering department, but in vain. So he contacted the office of the MD who in turn activated the vigilance department for a preliminary inquiry. The vigilance personnel visited the site and collected plaster samples and the like as was their routine.
Some time during all these happening, some residents witnessed some visible threatening gestures by the contractor's men who openly declared their intention to physically assault our engineer for his daring act of making a complaint.
In the night at around 9 PM the young contractor together with a few of his men came to the house of our engineer. Their intention for the visit was obviously not good.
Our engineer, fortunate as he was, got saved that night from the intended physical assault by the contractor and his goons just because the contractor recognized him as one of his mentors while he was a teenager aspiring to get qualified in civil engineering. There was some respect still left in the mind of the contractor towards this engineer who was his mentor more than a decade ago!
The contractor suddenly felt remorse for what he had in his mind. That caused him to confess before our engineer. The following is the gist of things that he told our engineer.
He had done his diploma in civil engineering and then took additional qualifications by passing membership examinations of the Institution of Engineers (India) which provided him the legal status as a degree holder in engineering. As opportunities for worthwhile jobs for engineers like him were scarce, he decided to become a self employed entrepreneur contractor. There existed ample opportunities for works in the steel city where he lived and he managed to register himself as a small time civil contractor.
But the contract work was not anything easy as he had thought. It was not the technicality of the work that was difficult but the non-technical aspects that went beyond his logic and understanding.
For example, there appeared invitations for tenders from the steel plant, from the municipality, the state government departments, etc. It was not difficult to understand the scope of the work and even to organize the resources and execute the work as specified by the prospective employers. But there existed an unfair competitive environment. From the employer's side, the estimated costs as notified appeared too low to provide some reasonable margins to the contractors. Yet, some contractors were prepared to offer their contract prices much below the employer's estimates. On the top of that, a few engineers from the employer's side who were the authorities concerned who certified the contractor's works and approved their bills for payments never did their work fairly unless the contractor spent money from his pocket to make them happy. There were several clauses in the contract specifications that were not reasonable and any unhappy engineer from the employer's side could easily invoke those clauses to ruin the contractor for ever! So the contractor had no choice but to be either submissive or use unfair means to be assertive!
By compulsion, our young civil engineer contractor had decided to become assertive by using all kinds of unfair means. When the whole country is unfair, what is the use of being a good man? That was his logic as the majority others in the country! That strategy worked and he soon became a preferred contractor for many engineers in the town engineering department of the steel plant. Now the latter were more eager to find suitable jobs for their preferred contractor!
The breaking and making of the plastering work as mentioned above was a result of that. Since there was no reasonable margins of profit for the contractors who wish to do the work in letter and spirit as specified with additional expenses to be made for making the employer's employees happy, there was no option left for the contractor other than making his work as inferior as possible.
And that was what was happening! The inferior work so done ensured another bonus! It ensured generation of similar works and perpetuating the corrupt system at the cost of the company and its stakeholders in general.
The contractor perhaps incurred losses in this incident. As the issue got highlighted, the top officers of the town administration department who failed to check such irregularities and exert due superintendence over their subordinate officers got transferred out. Above all, there was an immediate halt to such unjustified works getting perpetuated for the advantage of some vested interest people for some time.
No doubt our engineer took the step of notifying a work that he had felt as unjustified and inferior to the notice of the higher authorities probably because he was directly affected to some extent as the said work caused some damage to his residence.
But surprisingly and painfully, the rest 200 odd officers of the company who resided in the same residential area did not feel enough pains to initiate such an act. They were perhaps more wise and practical! They perhaps knew the consequences! They were either beneficiaries of such a system or they had been rendered to develop cowardice to the core!
This incident is nothing so great to be highlighted. But it reflects a pattern. And that pattern is what makes India suffer in general.
How do we negate such damaging patterns of work processes from India?
Would it be possible for engineers to visualize the advantages that would accrue to themselves and their society at large when they start doing their acts diligently with practical professionalism and without impractical idealism? Would they ever understand what is practical ethics and honesty in engineering work?
It is stupid to blame the non-technical bureaucrats and the political leadership. They are not the ones to decide the finer details of engineering and technology. Only incompetent and dishonest technocrats try to please their non-technical bosses by agreeing to the latter's unjustified directives and wishes that are contradictory to the concepts of engineering and scientific professionalism.
And that is perhaps a bigger threat to the society than that could happen from non-engineer decision makers. When pliable engineers and technocrats are abundant, it would be only natural for any non-engineering leadership to assign them with the responsibility of all kinds of key economic activities involving engineering and technology. What is the extent of damage when incompetent engineering decisions are taken?
What would be the effect of that to the nation?
Would India ever be in a position to overtake other nations in engineering and technology where the situation is much different?
The engineering fraternity of India should think about these!
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When integrity is lost, every thing is lost! Soon a hierarchy of system developed that favored engineers who were willing to trade their professional competency, integrity and ethics for personal gains at the cost the interests of the company and the public at large.
The interests of the individuals who managed the system of town management now shifted to those works that brought personal benefits to them in a clandestine manner without the residents ever fully realizing the details. Even the senior officers of the company who resided in the township ever realized what was happening.
Soon the chief of township and the chief engineer of the engineering wing got replaced by engineers from the steel plant. The new incumbents were mechanical engineers with hardly any understanding about the type of civil works in this large industrial city.
There was a new residential colony which was relatively new meant exclusively for middle level and senior officers of the steel plant. These buildings were hardly ten years old at that time and were relatively in a much better standing as compared to the rest of the old quarters in the township.
Some residents of these new quarters one fine morning found a group of contract workers breaking the external plaster of these buildings ( a total of some 200 units). As the existing plaster of these new buildings were relatively good and strong, the workers were taking extra efforts to break the plaster and their forceful chiseling and hammering was giving much discomfort to the residents. Moreover, the brick masonry of the buildings were getting weakened. Some officers wanted to know the reason for this work as they tried to question the contract workers. But the workers showed a type of rowdyism and did not mind telling harshly that they were doing these by orders of the higher ups. The majority of the residents preferred to keep quiet as the work being done is told as authorized by the higher management of the company. There entire area was now filled with broken plaster and cement dust.
Soon the re-plastering work began. Our engineer who told this story was one of the residents who was annoyed by this unjustified work being undertaken contractually by the town administration. He found that the re plastering is done by too obviously inferior cement plaster with the cement content much lower than required. He tried to contact his fellow engineers who were in the town engineering department, but in vain. So he contacted the office of the MD who in turn activated the vigilance department for a preliminary inquiry. The vigilance personnel visited the site and collected plaster samples and the like as was their routine.
Some time during all these happening, some residents witnessed some visible threatening gestures by the contractor's men who openly declared their intention to physically assault our engineer for his daring act of making a complaint.
In the night at around 9 PM the young contractor together with a few of his men came to the house of our engineer. Their intention for the visit was obviously not good.
Our engineer, fortunate as he was, got saved that night from the intended physical assault by the contractor and his goons just because the contractor recognized him as one of his mentors while he was a teenager aspiring to get qualified in civil engineering. There was some respect still left in the mind of the contractor towards this engineer who was his mentor more than a decade ago!
The contractor suddenly felt remorse for what he had in his mind. That caused him to confess before our engineer. The following is the gist of things that he told our engineer.
He had done his diploma in civil engineering and then took additional qualifications by passing membership examinations of the Institution of Engineers (India) which provided him the legal status as a degree holder in engineering. As opportunities for worthwhile jobs for engineers like him were scarce, he decided to become a self employed entrepreneur contractor. There existed ample opportunities for works in the steel city where he lived and he managed to register himself as a small time civil contractor.
But the contract work was not anything easy as he had thought. It was not the technicality of the work that was difficult but the non-technical aspects that went beyond his logic and understanding.
For example, there appeared invitations for tenders from the steel plant, from the municipality, the state government departments, etc. It was not difficult to understand the scope of the work and even to organize the resources and execute the work as specified by the prospective employers. But there existed an unfair competitive environment. From the employer's side, the estimated costs as notified appeared too low to provide some reasonable margins to the contractors. Yet, some contractors were prepared to offer their contract prices much below the employer's estimates. On the top of that, a few engineers from the employer's side who were the authorities concerned who certified the contractor's works and approved their bills for payments never did their work fairly unless the contractor spent money from his pocket to make them happy. There were several clauses in the contract specifications that were not reasonable and any unhappy engineer from the employer's side could easily invoke those clauses to ruin the contractor for ever! So the contractor had no choice but to be either submissive or use unfair means to be assertive!
By compulsion, our young civil engineer contractor had decided to become assertive by using all kinds of unfair means. When the whole country is unfair, what is the use of being a good man? That was his logic as the majority others in the country! That strategy worked and he soon became a preferred contractor for many engineers in the town engineering department of the steel plant. Now the latter were more eager to find suitable jobs for their preferred contractor!
The breaking and making of the plastering work as mentioned above was a result of that. Since there was no reasonable margins of profit for the contractors who wish to do the work in letter and spirit as specified with additional expenses to be made for making the employer's employees happy, there was no option left for the contractor other than making his work as inferior as possible.
And that was what was happening! The inferior work so done ensured another bonus! It ensured generation of similar works and perpetuating the corrupt system at the cost of the company and its stakeholders in general.
The contractor perhaps incurred losses in this incident. As the issue got highlighted, the top officers of the town administration department who failed to check such irregularities and exert due superintendence over their subordinate officers got transferred out. Above all, there was an immediate halt to such unjustified works getting perpetuated for the advantage of some vested interest people for some time.
No doubt our engineer took the step of notifying a work that he had felt as unjustified and inferior to the notice of the higher authorities probably because he was directly affected to some extent as the said work caused some damage to his residence.
But surprisingly and painfully, the rest 200 odd officers of the company who resided in the same residential area did not feel enough pains to initiate such an act. They were perhaps more wise and practical! They perhaps knew the consequences! They were either beneficiaries of such a system or they had been rendered to develop cowardice to the core!
This incident is nothing so great to be highlighted. But it reflects a pattern. And that pattern is what makes India suffer in general.
How do we negate such damaging patterns of work processes from India?
Would it be possible for engineers to visualize the advantages that would accrue to themselves and their society at large when they start doing their acts diligently with practical professionalism and without impractical idealism? Would they ever understand what is practical ethics and honesty in engineering work?
It is stupid to blame the non-technical bureaucrats and the political leadership. They are not the ones to decide the finer details of engineering and technology. Only incompetent and dishonest technocrats try to please their non-technical bosses by agreeing to the latter's unjustified directives and wishes that are contradictory to the concepts of engineering and scientific professionalism.
And that is perhaps a bigger threat to the society than that could happen from non-engineer decision makers. When pliable engineers and technocrats are abundant, it would be only natural for any non-engineering leadership to assign them with the responsibility of all kinds of key economic activities involving engineering and technology. What is the extent of damage when incompetent engineering decisions are taken?
What would be the effect of that to the nation?
Would India ever be in a position to overtake other nations in engineering and technology where the situation is much different?
The engineering fraternity of India should think about these!
Previous Blog Next Blog
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