Russian mayor bans bureaucratic whining

0 Comments | AFP, September, 2007

MOSCOW (AFP) — If you're a bureaucrat having a bad day in the Russian city of Megion, don't let the mayor hear about it.

Mayor Alexander Kuzmin of the western Siberian city has banned local bureaucrats from whining in his presence, his press service said Saturday.

The mayor issued a list of 27 phrases that can't pass the lips of city officials -- at least when Kuzmin is in the room.

Among the forbidden phrases: "I don't know." "What am I supposed to do?" "But you said yourself..." "That's impossible." "Nobody told me." "But my assistant told me..." and "It's lunchtime."

The mayor warned in a statement that "the use of these expressions by city administration officials while speaking to the head of the city will speed their departure."

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