Vanishing bureaucrats

Yes, the dates of my proposed travel to Chimoio are indeed creeping further and further into the future. Now I wait in suspense for project approval from the Banco de Moçambique. "Any sufficiently advanced bureaucracy is indistinguishable from molasses" (Anonymous).

Last week, as I drummed my nails down to their beds and generally drove Nilza insane with my tetchiness (she took three days off to recover), I ran across the inspiring news that President Guebuza had made a speech calling on public servants to actually serve the public. '[Some] people even kept a count of the number of people whose requests they turn down, "and they're very pleased about it", said the President' (Agência Informação de Moçambique).

Such people are at least at their desks and sure of their duties. When Guebuza and his new team assumed government in early 2005, some of the ministers took to dropping in unannounced on their department offices. News agencies reported that they found armies of empty desks, or people who couldn't explain what their jobs were. We gobbled up the reports, gleeful and hopeful, but nothing seemed to come of it all.

Until now, perhaps, if we're lucky. In today's national daily, Notícias (essentially a government information sheet), we read that a census of government departments is under way, at a cost of US$1.7 million, which has discovered 34,000 people in "irregular situations" - that is, they draw a salary, but they aren't there.