1/12 Patchy Patchwork

I've talked before about all the renovations being done to the area, as preparation for the king's putative visit. (Which now won't happen before April, rumors agree.) The cement work shows some telltale signs of its haste, though; in one section of the Berberville-SouqTown road, they didn't give it long enough to dry - which is a loooong time when the air is near freezing and snow is common but sunlight is rare - and so now there are deep tiretrack through the pavement. Oops!

In SouqTown proper, the sidewalks and piazza are full of this lovely tiled brick...so when they patched it, they poured cement in and then dragged a stick or a finger through the cement to make a vaguely cross-hatched pattern. All I could do was shake my head and sigh. Do they think the king will be fooled by a slapdash lick-and-a-promise fix like this? Or does it simply give them a scapegoat, in the form of the m3lim (handyman/repair guy) who did the work?

And who are "they," anyway? Who is reponsible for public works in this region? The government has multiple layers of bureaucracy, in both the executive and legislative branches...so where does the buck actually stop? Or does it ever? Is that why nothing is done until the king plans a trip, because everyone has been passing the buck for years?