India News and Features Alliance (INFA) - Keep Pace with Growth:REFORM ADMINISTRATION FOR RESULTS, by Dr. Vinod Mehta,19 April 2007

Economic reforms were initiated 15 years ago, but successive governments are still struggling to start reforming the administration, which has become anarchism by world standards. The governments are not keeping pace with the high economic growth rate. Worse, in many cases they appear to be coming in the way of economic reforms. The bureaucracy is unable to shed its old mindset. There is no initiative to introduce police reforms; the jail manual is as old as 1861; an officer is promoted over his 20 seniors one fine day with no justification and so on. All this is leading to confusion, heart burning and low morale within the bureaucracy. Those who want to do something feel frustrated.

This imbalance in the reform process is creating problems and the Government is unable to implement its schemes.

Reforms in administration essentially mean transparency and putting an end to inefficiency and red tapism in governance. The second administrative reforms commission headed by Veerappa Moilly is looking into all of it. However, implementation of its recommendations at the earliest is was is required.

The APEC economies (consisting of Australia and Asian countries) are implementing wide-ranging regulatory and administrative reforms, resulting in improved market access, increased efficiency and reduced impediments to competition and innovation. According to studies, the reforms have generated large reductions in compliance and administrative costs, and in some cases have underpinned far-reaching domestic reforms that have significantly improved efficiency across a range of sectors. So, if administrative reforms can benefit the APEC economies’ economically, why not us?

The Prime Minister is quite aware of the imbalance between economic and administrative reforms. Delivery mechanisms are weak. Transfer of bureaucrats, often and without any reasons, has affected their morale, forcing him to personally supervise administrative reforms. One only hopes that he would be able to set things right.

It is common knowledge that decisions are taken but seldom implemented. Difficult decisions are glossed over by referring these to fresh committees. There are too many layers of hierarchy, affecting the smooth functioning of administration; files keep hopping from one desk to another, back and forth, without any meaningful addition to the decision-making process.

Office rules and procedures are outdated and clearly hampering the functioning of various government offices. Discipline amongst employees is very bad. Citizens are simply fed up with the administration. The Right to Information and creation of websites will not help unless mindsets and official procedures are also changed.

Therefore, it is time to introduce administrative reforms without further delay. Already a number of committees have made recommendations, which need to be implemented with all seriousness. For instance, the report of the Fifth Pay Commission’s far reaching recommendations regarding administrative reforms.

But instead of accepting the report in toto, the Government only accepted populist recommendations! So we have an absurd situation, where recommendations on pay-scales is accepted, but suggestions on a freeze on fresh appointments, downsizing of the bureaucracy, simplification of office procedures etc. are ignored. This makes baloney of the whole report and some bureaucrats are of the firm opinion that the report should have been accepted in full.

In simple words, if recommendations regarding administrative reforms were not acceptable to the employees, those regarding pay-scales should not have been accepted. The latter led to heavy expenditure on the non-Plan side and the financial condition of some States which implemented the pay-scales is in bad shape.

Also, the bureaucratic structure in the country is not officer-oriented and is rather heavy at the bottom. Once their jobs are permanent, the employees rarely show any interest in their work. There is growing public opinion that work should be outsourced at the lower level on a contractual basis as there is no need to have a permanent cadre at that level. Some even believe that the higher posts too should be given out on contractual basis!

Another disturbing factor is that over the years the bureaucratic structure has been highly politicized. Interference from political leaders in bureaucrats’ postings has not only vitiated the work atmosphere, but has also led to a growing indifference towards work amongst them. Fixed tenure of postings for bureaucrats may be the answer to this anomaly, feel experts.

Then there is the question of training and retraining of government employees from top to bottom. It is common knowledge that people from different social backgrounds, enter the services at various levels and one cannot expect similar kind of behaviour from all. Senior officers with middle-class background appear to have some sophistication, but live in their own cocoons, while those coming from the lower strata of society are relatively crude while dealing with the public. Therefore, proper training of employees becomes all the more important to achieve results.

In fact, there is an emerging view that politicians too need training in administrative matters to enable them to understand the problems of administration. A case in point is that of France -- all the politicians are expected to clear a course on administrative matters before they are entrusted to handle the Ministries.

Besides, opinion is growing that instead of the "general administrator" there should be the "specialist administrator", who knows what he/she is expected to do in their area. Today, bureaucrats are made to move, say, from the Department of Animal Husbandry to that of Education, followed by Commerce and health etc. In the process, the incumbent has no specialist knowledge in the area he is assigned.

As for the Government, it is equally important that in the interest of better administration, it should not put its finger in all the pies. It should ask itself whether it is really its concern. If not, then the Government should not get involved. But if it is its concern, then the next question to be asked is whether it should be done by the government or by some other organization, say an NGO or an autonomous body. This way the government can save itself from undertaking irrelevant and unnecessary work.

In sum, it is time to initiate reforms in administration, which go in line with the economic reforms. And, while the Administrative Reforms Commission is looking into this question and the Sixth Pay Commission into pay and productivity, the bottom line is how soon can we implement the reforms.—INFA