Bureaucrats and Politicians Vs Engineers!!

“hey man can u come up with an articles which mainly beats around "how challenging to an engineer" initially struggle with the studies, once in service it’s even more challenging to face all sort of bureaucrats and politicians, where nobody appreciates the efforts engineers put in instead we bear brunt of everyone...”

Firstly let me thank Mr. Phunthso Wangdi, Chota Don for having suggested the topic on my facebook page.  Because may be he is afraid of bureaucrats and politicians, maybe he finds engineering too difficult  and challenging while in study plus in field that’ll nullify his effort when bureaucrats and politicians get involve.

Engineering in Bhutan is associated with all hype and popularity. Only the top students from various high schools get admitted in the only engineering degree offering college in the country. Only few students are sent ex-country for various engineering courses to meet the market demand. Still the demand is so high and the benefits and satisfaction that the rank offers is excellent. 

P Wangdue, Don who suggested the topic

 Students opt for engineering basically for two reasons. One reason is the parent’s insistence in greater choice of career.  No parent wants to see his/her son/daughter just living for hand-to-mouth existence. Number two reason is own interest. If someone has joined the engineering colleges because he/she loves engineering, he/she will be well informed about the future and the enormous effort he/she will empower to substantially contribute to the growth of the country. 

Pursuing engineering isn’t easy as sometimes you may expect. There are loads of burden of analysis, research, project etc... you have to bear and sometimes you get buried under. Scoring highest possible in high school and expecting the same in the engineering college won’t suffice your survival in engineering studies. But definitely we should be good in maths but not necessarily genius. We should have logic for solving problems scientifically.  

Since Bhutan is in the developing stage, maximum of the students choose for the traditional engineering – civil engineering. Everywhere we can see construction blooming in the country. The fresh green forest is revolutionizing to concrete jungle. A civil engineer is responsible for using their civil engineering background to plan and oversee various construction efforts in many different areas of this field. They will apply civil engineering principles to ensure that structures are constructed in the safest, sturdiest manner.

Daily basis Civil engineers engage in many general responsibilities. They analyze various factors concerning a construction job. They analyze the proposed construction site location as well as the entire construction job which is to be done and completed at the site. They will analyze the process for completing the construction job every step of the way.

The civil engineer must also plan the construction project that will be taking place in conjunction with the results they found due to their analysis of the proposed project. During the process and at the end, the civil engineer must inspect the product to ensure that all rules, regulations and guidelines have been explicitly followed. 

When country develops, there are always conflict between bureaucrats, technocrats and politicians. The need of bureaucracy results primarily from modernization. Due to the progress of bureaucratization it encourages to democracy. And now we are democratically elected monarchy. It is well known fact that the government accomplishes its precision, speed, and consistency through well-trained staffs of bureaucracies.

In practice of civil engineering, government bureaucracies’ main function is to ensure fairness, procedure lapses and shield the negative externalities of development. However, in process to maintain fairness and equity through bureaucratic process, administrators end up processing a high amount of discretionary authority. Citizens too has the right to investigate alternatives and to participate in the decision making, how to go about the agenda which ultimately affect their environment, which is the democratic standard.

There are instances where the effort of the engineer is never appreciated and had to ‘bear burnt of everyone’. It may be because we don’t have the form of government in which experts in technology controls in decision making – technocracy. Engineers are tagged corrupt. People say engineers are corrupt because they get more money and are well-off comparing to other professions. Their incentives are good. Their work other then office works paid them well. They use more energy, time and skills to get work done. What is there when someone use more effort for the benefits of others? 

In the eye of Bureaucrat whatever visual inspection possible will not be technically feasible. Their visual possibility of judging may prove wrong technically and scientifically. The technical possibilities and stability for the safety and welfare of people is must for the engineering works and in fact politicians and bureaucracies shouldn’t blame for the work done by technocrats. Administrators should not at least wish to get engineering work done according to their lame excuse of authority they possess. 

Yes, everyone has the right and responsibility if the structures or anything that is the result of engineering fail before stipulated time and cause nuisance instead of mitigate. Whatever burnt and consequences there will be, engineers should be responsible and questioned for. And we all should have the fact intact that, through mutual cooperation we can move ahead for the betterment of our promising tomorrows. 

So, we should never forget that Civil engineers work hard. Hours can be long, government funding cuts can destroy a project, deadlines are firm, and weather can throw projects off schedule. If the timetable degenerates, an engineer has to overcome scheduling obstacles with ingenuity. Most of the engineers who are employed under government sector must be ready for bureaucratic delays, political stalls, and lots and lots of paperwork. Satisfaction is strong; most wouldn’t trade their occupation for any other.