REFERRAL SYSTEM

Body A goes to staff terminal X for some service or other. Terminal X says, "I can't pay you because Financial Planning . . . "So Body A calls on another staff member who says, "Permission is required from G." So Body A goes to G and is told, "We haven't got a list to hand so. . . ." So Body A goes ... where's the production? But there's sure a lot of dispatch traffic! The system, in vogue in most bureaucracies, even has a name. It's called "the referral system." No one gives service. No situation is terminatedly handled. (HCO PL 28 May 71 II)