In a democracy with a federal structure , public waste is generally a bye product . This can be in the form of time over runs or cost over runs of projects executed by the government departments to create a new utility or expand an existing utility . Out dated medical supplies in a hospital or old equipment awaiting disposal or surplus funds not expended at the end of an accounting year all fall in this category . There is no effort made to monetise this waste in Rupee terms and assess the financial loss incurred by the tax payers .
The second category is the time wasted in waiting for services – mostly the opportunity losses . Examples are traffic jams , queues in the civil services offices for passport , ration cards , ration retailing , hospital services , traffic stoppages or diversions due to VIP movements , power outages or stock out situations in a public distribution system . Does any one in authority monitor the produtivity losses due to such disruptions in routine work or movement ?
Multiplying the monetary costs of waste and wasted time in public domain will be desirable to stream line utility services and this will facilitate long term savings and re-allocation of saved money for other development works .
A vibrant democracy should avoid waste of any kind and focus on cost savings in a continuous manner .