I, too, am a civil servant; bureaucracy can be a pain in the neck (or whatever part of your anatomy bumps into its adamantine constraints), but at least it's usually possible to find the person with authority to move those restraints. When exceptional cases come up, you just determine what needs to be done, find out who can do it, and make it happen. I have been blessed several times with new situations where I got to make up the rules as I went along. While I have seen some "empire builders" as exemplified by the "button pusher" scenario, most of us try to keep the rules legal, ethical and simple.

LB