(Online Course) Pub Ad for IAS Mains: Chapter: 9 Personnel Administration - ARC Report Summary Notes "Part-1" (Paper -1)

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION Online Course

Paper - 1
Chapter: 9 (Personnel Administration)

ARC Report Summary Notes "Part-1"

The roots of Civil Services go back a long way in Human History. It was the key to survival of the Egyptian Civilisation that existed 3000 BC. The ancient Chinese & Japanese empires had their own corps of Civil servants.

The Nuclei of intensive modern states in the middle ages developed concomitantly with the bureaucratic structures. In states like France, Persia the system worked well only because the civil society was sufficiently developed to moderate the process of bureaucratisation. When the concept travelled further east to Russia, the state became excessively bureaucratic in the absence of a developed civil society to restrain it. In spite of valiant efforts by Peter the Great, & Mikhail Gorbachdev in recent times, the civil society in Russia has not been able to develop itself on the Western European model & act as a check on the bureaucratic stage.

Kautilya’s Arthashastra stipulates 7 basic elements of the Administrative apparatus. According to it, the higher bureaucracy consisted of the mantris & amatyas. While the mantris were the highest advisors to the king, the amatyas were civil servants. There were 3 kinds of amatyas; the highest, the intermediate & the lowest based on their qualifications.

A new stage in the evolution of administrative order came at the time of delhi sultanate. The system of simultaneously appropriating the social surplus & distributing it among the ruling elites – so successfully introduced by the Delhi Sultanate – was adopted by contemporary states outsides the sultanate such as Orissa & Vijaynagara.

The Mughal Bureaucracy was based on the Mansabdari system. Every mansabdar was invested with a mansab which determined his position in the Mughal Bureaucracy. It was essentially a post of civil servants available for civil or military deployment. The system, as it finally evolved, became a combination of the higher civil services, the peerage & the army, all rolled into an Omnibus civil service organization.

As instruments of public service, civil servants have to be ready for change. There has been no sincere attempt to restructure the civil service although more than 600 committees & commissions have looked into different aspects of Public Administration. The civil servants, in India, have become ends in themselves. As a result, change & reform essential for efficient public service, which is citizen – oriented, is resisted & to that extent, the concept of sovereignty of the people is jeopardised.

Ideally, the civil services should be one such;

That is valued by ministers, & is a superb source of expert, objective policy advice.
That delivers would class, customer focused services, day in & day out, frequently in partnership.
That attracts the best talents from every area of the society in which the civil servants are acceptable, result-oriented & transparent in their dealings.
Every part of which commands the confidence & respect of the public it serves.

Dear Candidate, This Material is from Public Administration Study Kit for Civil Services Main Examinations. For Details Click Here

Key Principles of Civil Services Reform

Setting right the asymmetry of power: Has two sides systemic rigidities, needles complexities & over centralization. One the other hand Abuse of authority due to illiteracy & a lingering feudal culture.
Insulating civil servants from undue political interference relationship needs to be transformed on the basis of mutual understanding, respect & recognition of each other’s district role & responsibilities.
Professionalisation with stability of tenure & competition: Domain expertise/competence.
Citizen centric administration: Perception of civil servent today is that of a vast impersonal organization without commitment to human needs & values.
Accountability: two-way. One on hand, there are alibis for non performance & on the other, competence & integrity are not adequately recognized or rewarded.
Outcome orientation
Promoting public service values & ethics.

History of CS Reforms

Since 1855 recruitment to the ICS came to be based totally on merit. Initially, the ICS sought its recruitment from oxford & Cambridge. It was the an elite service. Subsequently, it opened its doors to Indians & from 1922 onwards the ICS examination began to be held in India.

At the time of independence, while designing a successor civil service, the Indian political leaders chose to retain the following elements of a unified administrative system

Open entry system based on academic achievements
Elaborate training arrangements
Permanency of tenure.
Important posts at union, state & district level reserved for civil service.
A regular graduated scale of pay with pension & other benefits.
A system of promotions & transfers based predominantly on seniority.

The CS in India can be grouped into three broad categories:

Serve both union & state governments: All India Services (AIS)
Serve only union governments: Central services
State civil services.

The post in the union & the state govts. are hierarchially arranged into 4 groups – Group A to Group D.
As a result of the deliberations of various committees & commissions on different aspects of Personnel Administration & the recommendations made, there have been incremental reforms – such as creation of a separate Department of Administration reforms in Union & State government, IIPA, CVC, Lokayuktas, etc. drawing up citizens charter etc. Many of the recommendation Involving basic changes have not been acted upon & therefore the framework & methods of functioning remain laugely of a 19th century Bureaucracy.

Lessons learnt from international experiences:

Clarity of purpose & Task: Separation of Policy & Operational responsibilities. The logic for such separation has been 2 fold.
• It would allow those responsible for operational activities to focus on their prime objectives.
• It would ensure that contestable policy options are generated & government doesn’t get captulled by provided interest and which influence the its policy proposals.
However, in the process of such separation, the basic principles of ministerial responsibility should not be compromised.
Agencification: Agencies have been established to carry out the operational responsibilities of the govt. within a policy & resources framework set by the govt. Total management & financial responsibility has been delegated to the heads of these agencies so that they are able to design structures & processes that match the needs of their organisation & delivery results as agreed upon. It has led to clarity & focus on specified tasks, a culture of service deliver, greater accountability etc.
Delegation & Devolution of Authority: It has been effected within a framework that involves clear specifications of desired results & effective monitoring of performance.
Accountability: It has been enhanced by:
- Linking the outputs/outcomes framework.
- Separation of policy & operational responsibilities
- Delegation & devolution of authority.
Within government explicit contracts govern the relationship between ministers & departmental heads.
The Civil Services: Continuity & change: The former features include the meritocratic nature of the civil service as well as its apolitical character within a structure of responsible government & ministerial control of administration the framework of a career service essentially remains in spite of the reforms, but the life time employment has been unplaced by contracts & exit, based on non performance. The uniformity of employment, pay & conditions of service has been dispensed with.
Incentives: There is no single approach to remuneration & rewards. Details of how assessment of individual performance is linked to improvements in pay & other incentives. Two approaches are:
• Performance linked advancement
• Performance linked Bonus
Domain knowledge, skills & competency: In the changed circumstance the civil service required strong technical skills, esp. in contract management, financial & risk management, ITC in view of community demands & expectations of improved access to governmental services through use friendly e-government & e-business.
Result-oriented Civil Service: Priorities are output Based & Smart- specific, measurable, achievable, results – focused and time-bond.
Civil Service Values: The reforms have established a set of principles to guide civil service behavior in the form of values & a legally enforceable code of conduct. The values are not just inspirational statements but have been embedded into the systems & procedures of the dept. & agencies.
Flatter Structures: With increasing complexities of governance & rising aspirations of people, the traditional webrian structures have been found to be too rigid to respond quickly. The emphasis has been on ‘flatter structures’ which have fewer number of levels & in which people work in teams.
Involving Citizens: A range of techniques including deliberation councils, focus groups, consultative committees, client surveys & standards-cum-citizen charters to involves citizens & stakeholders have been used.

Good policy making is now seen as listening to community views, understanding the fears & sensibilities of those affected, providing feedback & explaining govt. policy.

Need for Reforms

A World Bank study of six measures of perceived “quality of governance affecting per capita GDP” of more than 150 countries concluded that “results show a strong the causal relationship from improved governance to better developmental outcomes”.

According to WB analysis, the following are the strengths of the Indian Civil Services

Extraordinary pool of skills & talents.
Extensive field experience.
Extensive Networking
Appreciation & overview of the functioning of the govt. at the cutting edge.
Its understanding of delivery systems for development.
Awareness of the formal & informal socio economic networks in the field.
Its ‘can Deliver’ attitude
Role played in national integration
Its ready adaptability to new & unfamiliar situation & tasks.
Its social orientation
Intense competition among the offices.

It is widely recognized that the civil services have contributed to stability in terms of maintenance of peace, the conduct of fair elections, managing disasters & the preservations of the unity of the nation.

Nonetheless there are concerns about the performance of the civil service in the context of realising a results-oriented government.

It is more concerned with the internal processes than with results.
The structures are based on hierarchies & there are a huge no. of focal points to be negotiated for a decision to eventually emerge. Also, a large number of ministries have overloaded the decision making system.
The accountability is vague & of a generalized nature. Since there is no system of a ex ante specification of Accountability, the relationship between the ministers & the civil servants in essentially issue sensitive & Civil Servents deal with the ministers as the issues present themselves. Accountability can be anything from all-pervasive to minimalistic. This leads to either collusive relationship on of divorced, both of which can adversely affect the admin.
Rapid & fundamental changes are taking place in the country in terms of rapid economic growth, urbanisation, environmental degradation, technological change & increased local awareness & identity. The response time to adopt to these changes in much shorter than it used to be. As instruments of public service, CS have to be ready to manage such changes.
The administration at the district level has to undergo fundamental changes to enable rural & urban local govts. These are ‘local’ only in form but are ‘central’ & ‘state’ in context.
Far-reaching changes in the global economy, increased global interdependence & a sea change in the way govts. function have made it all the more necessary to build a competent, well functioning civil service. The telecommunication & IT revolution have created a need to shift to e-governance.
Taking into content new developments in the field of Public Administration such as NPM, data driven performance assessment against an ante specification of performance, needs to be the main basis for the performance assessment of civil servants.

Recruitment

The new scheme consisting of 1st 2 stages in exam based on the recommendations of Kothari Committee and was introduced in 1979. The Satish Chandra Committee in its report in 1989 recommended the continuance of this structure while introducing a compulsory essay paper in the main exam.

Over the years it has been seen that only about 50% of the applicants appear for the preliminary exam. This leads to a huge wastage of unresources.
The talent pool is extra-ordinary. The ratio of candidates per vacancy is continuously increasing. It was 754 for the 2004-05 batch.

Stage of Entry into the Civil Service

It is argued that grooming for a future civil service career should start at a young age when the mind is open & receptive to values of public service whereas entrants into civil service at a late age bring with them a ‘baggage’ of entrenched mindsets. Based on these considerations, two proposals have been made/namely.

Post-school recruitment system
Post-school grooming system

Arguments for (i)

It would be possible to “catch” potential civil servants at a young age & groom them in the ethics of public service at a time when they are still in their formative years.
As the no of streams of education at the school level is limited as compared to the no. of streams at college level, this will make for easy comparability.
It makes possible for the system to tap into a much bigger resource pool of talent than the percent system of recruitment. Traditionally, the brightest opt for a professional education in the IITs & IIMs.
It would end the present undesirable system of coaching institutes which have mushroomed all over the country to prepare candidates for the CSE.
Some eminent educationists have argued that the conventional principle of a degree as the basic qualification to determine eligibility was evolved at a time when standards of school education were not as high as they are now. It was felt that students lacked the maturity at that young age to absorb professional skills & analytical abilities. This has change 25 years olds are now MBBS, Engineers etc.
It will enable a larger number of candidates particularly from weaker sections to avail themselves of opportunity to compete for CSE as university education is the privilege of less than 15% of the eligible age groups.

Arguments against

Difference in quality of education in the urban & rural areas. This can lead to an undesirable bias in recruitment. This bias is already apparent in the IIT and CAT exam.
University education is the key to the development of a well balanced personality in as much as it promotes better understandings, insights into socio-economic problems & appreciation of real life situations through interaction with peer groups.
Diversity & flexibility in education have been found to produce for more innovative & entrepreneurial & courageous admin & managers.
Public service ethos are an outcome of a process of socialization that all individuals go through. While a career oriented cause has a value, the values of a public servant are shaped by external factors of societal influence.
The system uniquely serve the needs of the armed forces but Civil Servants have to deal with all segments of society & have to respond to the urges of citizens. Civilian Public servants have to function in a democratic millen & are Accountable to elected political executive on a day to day basis

An added advantage of this system would be that a large pool of professionally educated administrators would be created which could be tapped by state & local Govts. & other public & private organisations. This is of particular relevance in the context of the expending functions of local government after the passing of 73rd & 74th amendment.

Age of Entry & number of attempts

While the average age of a fresh recruit was about 24 years in the 1960s & early 70s, it is now 27 years. In terms of number the difference in the average age at entry is only 3 years. But its impact on the system of values & beliefs that a civil servant will bring into the service is undeniably significant. (Different is same between SC/ST & General)

These late entrants will have a shorter span, which means that they may not have opportunities to contribute to policy making at higher levels. (1961-72); 21/41% (SC/ST) eligible for higher posts last 6 years : 15/21%
Candidates continue to appear repeatedly in the CSE over at long period. Apart from being a waste of vital human resources, this places an undesirable premium on examinee & memorization rather than an intelligence & analytical abilities. Another outcome of this has been the puliferation of coaching institutes.

                        % Rural             % Urban
2000                26                       74
2005                33                       67

Thus, the rural urban divide is closing.

The commission is of the view that the permissible age for appearing in the CSE should be 21-25 years with the corresponding relaxation for OBC and SC/ST candidate attempts to be: 3, 5, 6.