Cause of poor maintenance

Everything needs maintenance. Maintenance is important. More importantly, proper and correct maintenance must be done. This means maintenance must be done by professionally qualified people.

We all know this with our cars. We send our cars to well equipped and professionally manned workshops for servicing. These workshops may charge a little bit more but they look after the cars well. We don't mind paying the slightly higher fee.

Things may start to go wrong when maintenance is done by non-qualified personnel. Because of the lack of training, they don't see the root cause of problems. They may give surface or superficial treatments only. Soon, the real problem surfaces.

Another problem with non-professionals handling maintenance money is that very frequently, maintenance money is diverted to beautification work. A beautifully carpeted floor may be nice to look at and comfortable to walk on. But, when the roof leaks, the carpet is ruined. Similarly, a beautifully landscaped roadside will not appease the motorists when the road itself is riddled with potholes.

Also, when the allocation of funds is controlled by non-technical people, the importance of maintenance is often overlooked. More fund is often ploughed into new projects and insufficient amount allocated for maintenance. Without the required funds, proper maintenance cannot be carried out.