by Missé Nanando, Chad, July 1997
THEME = POLITICS
It all started when the President of the Republic decided to run a check on the punctuality and regularity of his close colleagues who work in the presidential offices. So on Thursday, 7 August 1997, the President arrived at the "Pink Palace" (the President's office) at 7.15 A.M. only to be met by locked offices - except for the Cabinet Secretary's and the Director of Presidential Protocol's offices. By 7 o'clock, everyone should have arrived for work! Only one state councillor out of a dozen was at his post. The President was furious! He ordered all doors to be shut and locked. A few minutes later, a number of civil servants began to drift along and found to their surprise they couldn't get to their offices. According to eye-witnesses, some of them hid behind the palace walls just to see what would happen!
It's not the first time that President Déby has descended on the presidential offices, just to see for himself what's happening when he's not around. Id-riss Déby says that government staff are well paid, and in return, they are supposed to provide a service for the country, through their hard work.
President Déby might well ask: "Where are we heading"?
Two surprise visits from the Head of State have revealed that all is not well in what is supposed to be, after all, the centre of Chad's government. It's clear that absenteeism by civil servants is now a serious matter. One might well ask if the same thing is going on in other government ministries? Is this latest incident symptomatic of the real state of affairs existing in the country? Are Chadians really serious about wanting to improve their country's present sorry plight?
To try and solve this problem, President Déby organised several meetings with presidential palace personnel. Those who were at fault, readily admitted their mea culpa. The President told them: "You can steal from the State in two ways: By stealing from public funds; by absenting yourself for no good reason during working hours". The Head of State then gave strict orders to all Department Heads, that they must run daily checks on the regularity and punctuality of their personnel. It will then be possible to pin-point those workers who are swinging the lead, and replace them with better motivated personnel, from among the millions of suitably qualified, who are still awaiting their opportunity to be employed in the public services.
As we have already said, it's not the first time President Déby has descended on his staff. On Thursday 14 May 1997, he went to "see for himself" how many were actually at their desks in the presidency. At 8.15 A.M. the President found himself with only one minister out of eight, one head of department out of eight, and a handful of civil servants, when there should have been a hundred of them. Visibly annoyed, the President said: "When someone in authority makes a remark to these so-called "workers" who do nothing, they're the first to complain to their Trade Unions, who always give them a sympathetic hearing". An obvious dig at the Public Services' Union which has been publishing one press communique after another, condemning the cutting down of public offices by the State. It should be noted that these cut-backs were made at the insistence of the Bretton Woods Institutions (Editor's note: i.e. The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.)
According to some political observers, the presidential action in digging out the goings-on in government offices, has revealed just the tip of the ice berg. The further you penetrate the civil service's upper echelons, there's obviously a lot more happening, or rather, not happening. Idriss Déby could have rested on his laurels having won the presidential elections, and his party, the parliamentary elections. But it's said that the President undertook these surprise visits to government offices, in order to assuage the various funding agencies, who are decidedly unhappy about Chad's poor economic performance.
Informed Chadians know that these presidential visits were really meant for outside consumption. The proof came a few days after his latest "descent" on the presidential offices, when the President reshuffled his government, not to get rid of slack members, but to do away with those he simply didn't like!
Many people are convinced that President Déby wanted to take the opportunity of getting rid of his relative, Timan Erdimi, special state councillor at the presidency. Ever since his uncle, Idriss Déby, had come to power, this young man was considered to be the "king-maker" - very much the power behind the throne, appointing and dismissing a whole succession of governments. Someone you couldn't get rid of.
On 11 August 1997, Idriss Déby made a clean sweep in his cabinet so as to escape the mounting pressure building up around him. The only person capable of getting rid of the all-powerful Timan was a certain Adoum Togoï, special councillor to the President of the Republic.
Even if Timan Erdimi had for a long time been able to protect his uncle, it was high time he left the Pink Palace. The President had to be as tactful as possible so as not to provoke trouble among those in high places. These could quite easily organise a coup against him, and destroy Chad's already shaky democracy.
However, all these surprise visits by the President have nevertheless created a certain uneasiness in the presidential palace. State councillors are people who spend most of their time in the Pink Palace. Some people are mildly astonished, to say the least, that a President can himself close all points of entry into government offices, against his closest colleagues, simply because they are a few minutes late. After all, the President does have every one's office telephone number and he can quite easily phone to check on them. To say that state councillors should be at work at 7 o'clock is really going a bit far!
The reasons for this absenteeism must lie elsewhere.
END