People & Their Problems

New Delhi, 10 January 2009

Administrative Reforms

TIME TO ACT & ENFORCE CHANGE

By Dhurjati Mukherjee

At a time when the country is plagued by serial blasts and the people losing faith in the polity, perhaps a better administrative functioning could help assuage both anger and a sense of helplessness amongst the common man. As economic liberalization in the 90’s helped gearing up the economy to some extent, paying serious attention to administrative reforms may just give the desired dividends.   

While admitting that some scattered improvement in the administrative functioning in cities may have taken place, the overall working of the State apparatus leaves much to be desired. Sadly, the people’s perception of government babus is they don’t carry out duties sincerely, keep matters pending and are under no pressure from their bosses to change. As a result, the common man is left to run from pillar to post. Despite severe criticism the bureaucratic system simply doesn’t work the way it should.    

Clearly, the implementation of the principle of ‘perform or perish’, as recommended by the Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC) would undoubtedly go a long way in injecting efficiency in the system and making it responsive to the needs of the people. In its 377-page report titled ‘Refurbishing of Personnel Administration’, the ARC sought  reviews be undertaken after 14 and 20 years of service and sacking after 20 years, if the government servant is found unfit. It favoured that new recruitment should be for 20 years and continuation of service beyond that period would depend on intensive reviews.

Besides, recommending a performance-based system for bureaucrats, the ARC came out with a number of radical proposals for revamping the Civil Service examination system, including changing the age criteria, subject requirements at the graduation level for aspirants of IAS, IFS, IPS and Group-A and B Central services.

These recommendations are truly crucial at this point of time, specially the need to undertake reviews of functioning of all government servants, whether officer or staff, after 14, 20 and 25 years of service. While reviews have been suggested for officers, the working of staff needs to be scrutinized and linked to performance. After the implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission, pay and emoluments of staff from the rank of ‘Assistant’ onwards have increased considerably and such people have to discharge their functions in tune with the changing times and its requirements thereof.

The problems affecting the working in government offices can be categorized as: late and irregular attendance of both officers and staff; no specific targets regarding the work to be accomplished in a given period of time; gross inefficiency and corruption in departments dealing with public work; no adherence to the formula of ‘right man for the right job’ and  incompetent (and also corrupt) officials put in important/lucrative positions because of  connections with higher-ups, including senior bureaucrats and politicians.

Add to the above the category of scientific officers carrying out administrative functions for years together thus neglecting the work they are appointed for; officials, whether of scientific or intelligence departments, neglecting field work and preferring to sit in head offices in front of the computer; and little initiative in most government departments to equip officers and staff with training and orientation courses.

While most of the problems are well-known, senior officers are reluctant to take any action. This is so because there is neither such precedence by his predecessors nor officials at the top, who are retiring after a few months would like to risk confrontation with the staff unions or associations. Not only does the staff and junior officers go scot-free but they are assured a salary at the end of the month. There is absolutely no link with performance.

In fact, a small section of those who work – say 30 or 35 per cent – are sometimes rebuked because of slow performance and/or for mistakes committed, while those who prefer not to work or are habitual absentees enjoy “a care-free” government job. Regrettably, till date performance has never been linked to annual increments or promotion, at least till senior Class A level, a time when officials are young and should give their best output.

A few years ago, the government reduced casual leave from 12 to 8 days a year, but it did not have any impact as staff in a government office enjoys at least 20 days of such leave, if not more. According to an estimate, crores of rupees are thus being lost because the staff worked for a maximum of 4-5 hours or much less against the stipulated eight hours.

The intelligence failure in the country, as is evident from the serial blasts in many metropolitan cities of the country, could be attributed to the lack of initiative of junior officers to do field duty and collect correct information. There is need to inject a degree of efficiency, alertness and performance into an apparatus that simply has not delivered on these scores for decades.

A retired intelligence officer alleged that the situation is deteriorating day-by-day because of a lack of devotion to duty and the reluctance to go out in the field. Moreover, he maintained that most officers, particularly women, prefer to sit in their offices and prepare or compile reports from newspaper dispatches or news agencies rather than add any intrinsic intelligence value.       

In most scientific departments, it has been seen that a majority of young officers are reluctant to go to the field to collect data and instead look for postings at the headquarters. If, however, they are requested to undergo training and go out to the field, it is only for a short period.

Moreover, it has been found that many scientific officers in offices such as the Geological Survey of India are largely engaged in administration instead of scientific work. The urge to collect data and prepare research papers based on scientific work is mostly absent amongst a major section. There is also a perception that women officers show reluctance to attend training or go out to the field largely as such no action can be taken against them. As a result, the scientific output of the country is quite low compared to the educated population of the country.

What can be done? For one, in offices, which have public dealings, complaint registers should be made available outside counters so that grievances could be easily recorded. If prompt action is taken, a message would go down, which in turn would help in increasing efficiency in operations and curbing corruption.    

At the end, strict adherence to discipline, rewarding performance and proper training of officials are very much imperative. Discipline must be inculcated through motivational training and if that doesn’t work, strong action as per rules needs to be taken. Training must be imparted to those who seek it and other than specialized agencies involved department officials may also be engaged. It has rightly been pointed out that every government officer must not only undergo mandatory training at the induction stage but also periodically in the span of his or her career.

The most important aspect is rewarding performance, which unfortunately is absent in government departments. The recent recommendation of the Sixth Pay Commission that 20 per cent of officials could be given additional increments, based on certain efficiency criteria, is unlikely to work. The fear is that the bosses would refrain from favouring the “more efficient staff” under fear of resistance by unions and some colleagues. The additional incentive or increments need to be assessed by an outside agency or by concerned ministry officials so that others may follow suit.

Importantly, the government has been harping on ‘good governance’ since the start of the millennium. However, now is the time to enforce it with an iron hand.  If necessary, committees or a new agency, both at the Central and State levels, could be set up to ensure proper functioning of the system and implementation of the ARC recommendations. Unless strict action is taken against those who prefer to play hooky and avoid duties, the country’s development and growth prospects will continue to be sluggish. –INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)