Jonas

Jonas

Jonas sat at a table at the extreme corner of the canteen all alone while his colleagues could be seen sitting together at tables that were closer to the counter and door of the canteen. A canteen that was located on the second floor of the five floor building that hosted the governmental department of forestry and wildlife. Jonas despite been just 30 years old was already high ranked official in the forestry department. This implied that most of the other employees that were present at the canteen were his subordinates though one could never know due to the fact that he was always isolated and wasn’t the kind of person that would want to stamp any authority on his subordinates at his work place. He was very competent though a keen observer was going to observe that Jonas always acted as if he wasn’t in his place. This was largely due to the fact that when Jonas had come into the service word went around about who his father was and how he had secured the job for his son even though his wasn’t qualified. This was enough to shy people away from Jonas.

Unlike most other high ranked officials having secretary that would come down to get their lunch from the canteen, Jonas had no secretary and he always came down to get his lunch and he would always sit on the same table that was isolated at the extreme corner of the canteen. The secretary were usually beautiful girls that were new recruits or interns of the department, only God truly knows exactly what happened in those offices. Jonas seemed to be so simple but he seemed to have no friends yet he greeted everyone that he met in the corridors of the building.

Jonas had graduated with honors 6 years ago as an engineer in forestry. After his graduation, he had done a one year internship in the locals of the forestry department and upon completion of his internship, he was immediately recruited as a permanent and full time employee in the prestigious department. Over the past five years he had managed to climb up the ladder to get to the executive body of the department. Unlike Jonas this is an achievement that many people celebrate, because it took many years even decades to get to the top. His nominations were largely due to his father which was a top official in the country, with his position, he could easily pull the strings. So Jonas was bent on making everyone know that though he was young, he deserved all the nominations. Here the pay checks were quite heavy plus all the bribes that forestry exploitation companies could pay to officials of the department in return for favors and favorable contracts so for the few years that Jonas has been an employee here it won’t be understatement to say that he had saved up quite a lot of money. 

From the look of things no one could deny the fact that Jonas wasn’t part of the bribery and corruption network that had been set up in the department even though he was part of the commission that was in charge of giving out tenders, examining applications, conducting interviews and attribution of forestry contracts or exploitation licenses. This was because he didn’t have a big car like other official and he didn’t own a house either. This again was another indicative of the fact that Jonas wasn’t in his place because the dream of many young people would be to make much money as soon as possible so for many of them out there it could be like a dream come true to be part of a bribery and corruption network such as the one that was found in the department of forestry. If Jonas had really integrated himself here we would definitely be part of everything including the bribery and corruption network. Sometimes top official could be demoted or sanctioned due to corruption practices but Jonas was not going to be demoted of sanctioned for what so ever reason not even for the corruption if he decided to be part of the network for his father was there yet he chose not to be part of any of that taking back home just his salary.

Sometime ago, a huge scandal broke out in the department when official were on the verge of attributing an exploitation license to a foreign company because the company had given them much bribe but Jonas been part of the commission had stood against it. Of all the companies that had manifested interest, only two were deemed qualified due to the programs and offers that they presented in their files. One of the two companies was a local company. This local company detailed how they were going to assist the inhabitants of the various localities where they will operate if granted the license, the named out the various social amenities that they will bring to the communities. Forestry exploitation usually brings about erosion and other environmental problems and they provided a detailed project on how they were going to deal with the environmental issues that may rise with time thereby bringing about a sustainable development. Another added advantage of working with a local company was that all the capital and income will still end up in the country thereby contributing to nation growth. Their project charmed Jonas. 

The foreign company had a good project as well but it wasn’t as convincing as that of the local company. The foreign company was going to come and get your environment degraded and leave, they would carry away all their profit and capital and they might even maltreat their workers as it has been the case with other foreign companies operating in the country, Jonas argued in favor of the local company. Everyone in the committee seemed to be convinced with Jonas’ argument together with that of the local company, Jonas himself could see that everyone concurred with the argument. To Jonas’ surprise when he was asked to sign the final document that awarded the contract, he was stocked to find out that the contracts was been awarded to the foreign company instead so he refused to sign the document. Been a member of the committee his signature was required as well as that of the other members. All the other members had signed so this left them furious. The foreign company had paid a huge sum of money into the account of the person that headed the committee and he was supposed to distribute the money to the committee members. Jonas had not received any part of the money though deep inside of him he knew that something fishy was going on inside the deal but he didn’t want to know whatever it is that was going on, all he wanted was to make sure that the company presenting the most convincing project should get the contract.

Once the person in charge of distributing the bribe heard about Jonas rebellious act, he went straight to his office to meet him. He wasn’t ranked higher than Jonas so he couldn’t summon him to his office. When he got to Jonas’ offices, it is then that he told Jonas about the bribe and asked for Jonas’ bank account number so as to transfer him his own share. Further tried to convince Jonas by telling him that the deal was very important for the foreign company and that the foreign company had promised to give them similar sums of money twice every year. Jonas wasn’t surprised or moved at all and he opened his mouth only to say that he wasn’t interested in that bribery and corruption, secondly that he will sign any document only if it stipulated that the contract was been awarded to the local company then he finished by saying that the man could take the case to anywhere he wished. Jonas didn’t say anything more, he didn’t even have to ask his colleague in the committee to leave. Word rapidly spread across the building as other colleagues saw the committee man fuming out of Jonas’ office banging the door while murmuring curses that he alone could understand. Three days later a completely new document was prepared which Jonas was more than happy to sign.

From this moment people started to have a different view about Jonas. At first most of the older employee had always thought that Jonas had gotten the job because of who his father was. As time went on Jonas slowly proved to everyone that he deserved the job. With the contract incident, jonas had made a remarkable heart felt impression on every one at the department and this step was a crucial one in his working environment but it was definitely out of question that he be part of all the bribery and corruption.