THE EDITOR, Sir:RECENTLY THE following joke was sent to me which I would like to share with you and your readers.
Once upon a time a government acquired a vast junkyard in the middle of a desert. One bright member of Parliament stated, "Someone might steal from the junkyard at night." So they created a night watchman position and hired a person for the job. Then another bright spark of the Parliament asked, "How can the watchman do his job without instruction?" So they created a Planning Department and hired two consultants; one person to write the job description and one person to do time studies.
The Opposition in Parliament then asked, "How will we know the night watchman is performing the tasks correctly?" So they created a Quality Control Department and hired two people; one to do the studies and one to write the reports. The Hon. Minister of Finance was asked, "How are these people going to get paid?" So the Parliament created the following positions, a Time Keeper, and a Payroll Officer; then hired two more people.
ACCOUNTABLE
The Opposition then asked, "Who will be accountable for all of these people?" So Parliament created an Administrative Section and hired three people; an Administrative Officer, an Assistant Administrative Officer and a Legal Secretary.
At the end of the fiscal year, The Hon. Minister of Finance announced, "We have had this organisation in operation for only one year and have already created 10 jobs. We are however now $18,000 over budget and we must cut back our overall costs." So guess what they did? That's right, They laid off the night watchman. The funny part is that in Jamaica today this is not a joke.
I am etc.,
ADRIAN KERR
adrian_kerr@hotmail.com
Savanna-la-mar
Westmoreland
Via Go-Jamaica
