Bureaucratic Absurdities

Bureaucratic Absurdities / Fernando Damaso

Posted on February 23, 2014



Government bureaucrats like to complicate things and, in turn, the lives

of citizens. From their privileged positions of power, they do and undo

at whim.



With the matter of cooperatives, the form of work preferred by the State

for the self-employed, they have formed a terrible entanglement: they

began with the so-called agricultural cooperatives of different types,

and when they decided to leave the rural framework, they found no better

name for the new ones than non-agricultural cooperatives. They even now

have their abbreviation: CNoA. Why not call them simply cooperatives?



Another spawn is the first denominated Wholesale Market of Agricultural

Supply Products the Wheat Field, located somewhat distant from the

center of the city, with the inconveniences that that entails. In

reality it is no more than a simple Hub Market since its structure lacks

the adequate spatial arrangement for buying and selling, besides which

supply and demand do not work there: you pay the same per pound if you

buy 20 or if you buy 200.



Before the Chinese merchants sold cheaper than the Spanish and Cuban

grocers, because they formed a group and bought in bulk at lower prices,

which permitted them to give discounts to their clients. The advantage

of a wholesale market is precisely that of offering a variety of

products at lower prices than in the retail market, depending on the

volume of the purchase.



This is what permits the retail merchants, after deducting their

expenses, from not having to raise their prices for the consumer in

order to earn profits. A question: Why not equip the old central

Mercado Unico on Cristina Street, today in a state of abandon, as the

Wholesale Market?



Another: Why in the state businesses, given beneficially to individuals,

is all the attention of the supervisors from the Integral Management

Oversight (DIS) centered in each territory? When they were state-run, in

spite of their poor functionality, they were never controlled with

regards to comfort, the presence of workers, hygiene, quality of

services and their offers, as well as other aspects.



Now, like inquisitors, they fall on the individuals, handing out fines

right and left, with fees of 1200, 700 and 200 pesos, and, if they think

there is a recurrence, withdrawing the license. No one suggests that

they not control and ensure compliance with established regulations,

although these are exaggerated and sometimes even absurd, but it has to

be the same for everyone, both individual as well as state businesses.

Or is it that the state businesses enjoy carte blanche?



If you want the updating, although slow and limited, to introduce some

small improvement in the difficult lives of the citizens, you have to,

at least, eliminate the bureaucratic absurdities.



Translated by mlk.



22 February 2014



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