Its 11:05, I’ve been in work for just over three hours. This is my day so far:
Visit to the Director of Finance (DF) to get him to sign an invoice for Microsoft. He already signed this yesterday and I sent it off but MS said I needed to address it them. So I come in early to find the DF. I get there and he asks for yesterdays copy, so I return to my office and bring it for him. He signs and destroys the first copy.
Now I need his secretary Milly to put the official stamp on the invoice so I can scan it and send it to MS to get the money to finish the survey that we are in the middle of…
Meanwhile, I need to see the Vice Rector Admin and Finance on some urgent matters relating to getting payment for my surveyors by next Monday. But he is ill so I return back to the DF for advice. He tells me I need to see Celestin the chief accountant about accounting for the Imprest (petty cash) they gave me last week so I make the request for the surveyors salary and more petty cash at the same time.
Celestin tells me I need to have a copy of the original payment slip to fill in the Imprest retirement form and that this should be with Milly. While I’m up in the accounts department I decide to check on my request for my flight home (a benefit of my contract) with the Procurement officer. I sent the request for my terminal benefits to the Director of Administration last week and she says she’s sent it on to all concerned. But Raymond, the procurement officer is not around, so I ask JB the purchasing officer for advice. Unfortunately he is more interested in getting me to go out for a drink with him and although he does help me speak to Raymond, I have to endure a bunch of shit from him about taking him for a drink. Some people just don’t recognise a big glaring NO when they see it.
So anyway Raymond hasn’t seen my flight request as yet and he suggests I follow it up with DA. When I go to see her, she isn’t in. So I go back down to Milly’s office, and luckily she is in this time. I get my letter stamped but she tells me that the payment slip is still with the cashier, Jean Baptist up in accounts! I trudge back up to accounts again to find out that Jean Baptist is at a workshop till tomorrow.
Final act of my ‘Asterix in house of insanity’ drama: Celestin tells me that there should be a copy of my payment slip, with the required cheque number, down in Milly’s office. We find it there and Celestin shows me how to fill out the Imprest retirement form, we return to his office and just when I think we are almost done, he tells me that the paperwork for my photocopying expenses is not correct. The recipts say “Bordereux d’expedition” and not “Facture”. So I run down to Secam, the photocopy joint, where they give me an identical piece of paper to the one I had, except it says “Facture” on the top. As an extra bonus I find both Raymond and the DAs secretary. My flight request is up for approval in the Director of Finance office, BUT I can already book my flight with on of the approved travel agencies.
As I settle down to a well deserved cup of tea, I try not to think about how none of the running around I’ve done this morning is actually part of my job. It’s the same all over the Rwandan public institutions, every single person has to do their own administration and so much time is wasted doing “non-work”. I thankful for tranquilizers…or I’d have been pretty angry by now.
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