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SA - Should we have got rid of Chief Engineers (Read 890 times)
Redmond Neck
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SA - Should we have got rid of Chief Engineers
Feb 10th, 2017 at 2:35pm
 
I think he has a good point, one only has to look at Telstra, Electricity Supply, Railways to see they are all run by non technical managers whose main aim is making a profit!

Their engineering staff are also cut to a minimum and looked on as a largely non productive dispensable overhead.


Ken Moxham: South Australia is paying a heavy price for getting rid of chief engineers
Ken Moxham, The Advertiser
February 10, 2017 1:18pm

WHY is it that things don’t seem to be working as well as they should in South Australia right now? To me the answer is very simple. It is because we have lost the chief engineers in the technical departments and in the utilities.

Look back over the past 100 years and there was always a chief engineer running the railways, trams, electricity supply, water supply and harbours in the public sector. In the private sector they ran mines and most factories.

These organisations that deal with technical things should only have technically qualified people running them, because only a chief engineer can balance the conflicting demands that are the essence of good decision making.

With the loss of this engineering guidance it is not surprising that there are now bridges in distress, electricity supplies failing to deliver, railways still using 19th century routes into Adelaide and public transport that fails in so many ways.

It is a sad fact that the generic administrators that manage these services do not even realise that they actually are the problem.

They don’t know what they don’t know and they are blissfully unaware of their own shortcomings.

The problems that come from appointing generic administrators are also evident in education and in health.

Generic administrators will tell you running a prison or running a nuclear power station is all the same.


They sit in their splendid isolation separated from reality and call in their engineer or their lawyer or their doctor, depending on what issue they want to deal with, and give orders which more often than not, conflict with or compromise a plan and, unfortunately, most of the time they never know anything about the blunder they have just committed.

It is not uncommon for generic administrators to get their jobs by promising efficiency and cost reductions.

I could become the CEO of any organisation you like to mention and immediately effect a 10 per cent reduction in running costs and immediately boost the financial bottom line.

All I have to do is stop forward planning, cut out inspections and stop all or most ongoing maintenance.

With a bit of luck, three years down the track nothing will have gone wrong and I would be hailed a hero.

But I do need to move on at this stage, as sooner or later my plans will cause me embarrassments.

These generic administrators do just this, just look at their lengthy CVs.

One can never trace the blame back, in a one on one fashion, from something like the recent problems with electrical supply to a mistake made by one of these non-technical CEO’s because they do not make technical decisions they say.

But in reality they do make decisions which are responsible for what unfortunately happens. Chief engineers do not do such things. They argue strongly to do the right things.

I can recall discussions as far back as 15 years ago with colleagues when what is now unfolding with the electrical system here in South Australia was predicted.

Please bring back the CEOs with backgrounds in what they administer.

Ken Moxham is a retired civil engineer in Adelaide

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/opinion/ken-moxham-south-australia-is-paying-...
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Unforgiven
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Re: SA - Should we have got rid of Chief Engineers
Reply #1 - Feb 10th, 2017 at 2:39pm
 
Too many cowboys and not enough Indians?
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