Events & Issues

New Delhi, 2 December 2013

Empowering Bureaucracy

HAS CENTRE, STATES YEILDED?  

By Dhurjati Mukherjee

A month has passed since the Supreme Court passed an order to insulate the bureaucracy from the pressures of their political bosses. There is no feedback as to whether any headway has been made in this direction by both the Centre and the States. They had been directed to put in place a system to ensure that all orders from superior officers shall ordinarily be in writing. It said so because it observed that “the deterioration of the standards of probity and accountability with the civil servants is due to the political influence of persons purporting to represent those who are in authority.”

Interestingly, the need for good governance has been echoed by various Governments but for little action has been taken over the years. Though the performance of the Central Government (minus the aspect of corruption) is better compared to most States and some positive steps have been taken to gear up efficiency, the case is not so with the State governments. As is well known, the bureaucracy has come in for severe criticism for following a partial policy and trying to appease the party in power.

The politician-bureaucracy nexus has hampered development and has been one of the causes for the increase in corruption. One may recall that way back the 2nd Administrative Reforms Commission Report (2006) had suggested that appointments should be made for an initial period of 20 years after which, based on satisfactory performance, the tenure of Government officials would be increased. Sadly, the then Government did not accept the recommendation as politicians feared that such a bold step would not go down well as most of them carried out work according to their whims and fancies.

Will the present Governments relent and abide by the Supreme Court order of October 31 wherein it stated hat civil servants should follow only written instructions from superiors so as to help them against “wrongful and arbitrary pressure from administrative superiors, political executive, business and other vested interests”. One may mention here that the Hota Committee (2004) and much earlier the Santhanam committee (1962) had clearly stated the necessity of recording instructions by public servants.

The apex court also issued two other directives which include that one, all civil servants be given a minimum fixed tenure at a particular place of posting before they are transferred, and two, a Civil Services Board be formed at both the Centre and in each State to advise the Government on matters such as postings, transfers and disciplinary action.

The bench of Justice K. S. Radhakrishnan and Pinaki Chandra Ghosh in their 47-page judgement gave the Centre and the States three months to implement the directives, clarifying these would be in force only till Parliament enacted a law to deal with the issues raised. The directions came on a public interest litigation moved by a group of 83 retired civil servants, seeking reforms to ensure the integrity and independence of civil servants. This group included former Cabinet Secretary T.S.R. Subramanian, ex-CECs T.S.K Murthy and N Gopalaswamy and National Advisory Committee member, N.C. Saxena. 

The order has undoubtedly given a boost to honest and upright officers, who feel that they would now be able to take correct decisions without fear of reprisals. However, the fact that those who toe the line of the senior bureaucrats and the politicians would be favoured is a grey area. This apart, perhaps the court could have also have considered suggesting that those taking verbal orders on major decisions could face penalty.

In most States, it has become the practice to carry out the orders of politicians even when these are against the rules and intended to favour an individual or group. An opinion in the country is that most civil servants do not have the nerve to disobey their seniors, fearing transfer and delayed promotion. A very few who stand up and are unwilling to go beyond rules are penalized in various ways and have to suffer the consequences.

The practice of getting things done by those who are close to the seat of power has been another malaise in the functioning of the administrative machinery. People residing in cities or district capitals get their work done easily due to various reasons while those residing in villages and backward areas have to suffer in getting their legitimate demands/grievance redressed.

There is now talk of reforms in every sphere but nothing can be of much help if there is no good governance and adherence to rules and regulations of the land. The urge for adherence to rules is quite low as the rich and powerful seem to revel in the belief that they are above these regulations while the uneducated and the poor are mostly ignorant about these.

To enable the Government machinery to move fast and make the process of governance inclusive and responsive, there is need for impartiality and strict adherence to rules. Whether in matters of following guidelines in land acquisition, mining or getting environmental clearance – the areas where there is immense political pressure – the prevailing rules are quite adequate and need to be followed. Moreover, no intervention should be permitted in protecting those involved in murder, violence, rape etc. whatever political connections they may flaunt.

If in all segments of the Government machinery, there is independence of the civil servants, the vested interests would not be allowed to intervene and jeopardize the efficient functioning of the system. This is imperative at this juncture for development to be fast and responsive to the needs and demands of the poor and the economically weaker sections of society.

Apart from all this, there has to be strict monitoring of the performance of civil servants at all levels and impart necessary training to improve their functioning. There is no prevailing system of the Government of rewarding those found to be efficient though the 6th Pay Commission had suggested giving one extra increment to this category of employees. It is necessary that extraordinary performance needs to be rewarded at all levels so that there would be a motivation to improve performance. The civil servants should too be able to carry out their duties with fear or favour and look forward to incentives in carrying out their responsibilities faithfully. --- INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)