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Administrative Reforms

REFORMS IN GOVERNANCE: SIX DECADES OF ADMINISTRATIVE REFORMS

It is interesting to note that committee after committee stressed specific issues which have not been resolved by the government so far. These include the question of providing domain expertise; providing lateral entry into the civil services; downsizing the bureaucracy and reducing the levels of consideration, to name a few. The pertinent question is why successive governments have been appointing committee after committee to examine the same burning issue and putting the suggestions in ‘cold storage’. The “incremental” approach which has dominated the theory and practice of Public Administration basically implies a step by step process, fails to capture the Indian situation. We will have to innovate a new “static model” of administration wherein nothing changes. The foregoing analysis highlights that recurring issues have dominated the reforms agenda. One major recurring theme centres around the need to provide “domain” expertise. It was the first Administrative Reforms Commission which emphasized that the road to the top should be open to every competent public official. That for manning higher positions in the Secretariat, talent had to be drawn from every cadre and class of personnel. Accordingly, the Commission envisaged entry into the middle and senior management levels in the secretariat from our services. It felt that where regularly constituted services already existed to attend to specific functions, the middle and senior level posts in the corresponding areas in the secretariat had to be normally manned by members of the concerned functional services. However, in non-functional areas, middle level personnel were to be drawn through a mid-career competitive examination from all sources, on the basis of equal opportunities for all. These personnel were to be required to acquire knowledge of, and experience in, one of the following broad areas of specialization such as economic administration; industrial administration; agricultural and rural development administration; social and educational administration; personnel administration; financial administration; and defence administration and internal security and planning. The Surendra Nath Committee (2003) came up with similar domain areas for civil servants to specialize.

The following 11 domains may be adopted for assignment to officers for selection to Central Staffing Scheme posts: Agriculture and rural development; Social sectors (Education, Health, Tribal Welfare, etc.); Culture and Information; Natural Resource Management including Environment (green side); Energy and Environment (brown side); Communication systems and Connectivity Infrastructure; Public Finance and Financial management Industry and Trade; Domestic Affairs and Defense; Housing and Urban Affairs; Personnel and General Administration, Governance Reform and Regulatory systems Officers may be assigned to a maximum of three domains out of the eleven given above. Similarly, the Second Administration Reforms Commission has suggested that for placement at Middle Management level, the Central Civil Service Authority should invite applications from all officers who have completed the minimum qualifying years of service, for assignment of domains. Four decades after the first ARC’s recommendation in this direction, it continues to remain a recurring theme.

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The Sixth Pay Commission made some interesting recommendations which involves certain posts in the Senior Administration Grade (SAG) and Higher Administrative Grade (HAG) which require technical or specialized expertise to be opened up for being filled by suitable officers both within the government as well as by outsiders on contract. These posts are not to be encadred in any of the services. It proposed a shift from area based to post based selection in the higher echelons of government to get the best domain expertise. Another interesting suggestion coming from the Sixth Pay Commission relates to providing market driven compensation package to young scientists and for post requiring special expertise and professional skills.

Contractual appointments and market driven pay package would involve taking a giant leap from a base which is far from ready for this. Over the last several decades, a large number of technical and professional persons are joining the civil services at the entry level. However, there is no plan in place to build on their technical base once they join the civil service. After converting them into generalists how can they compete for positions carved out for lateral entry, with professionals joining at the senior levels as suggested by the various committees?

A similar dilemma has been dodging various committees so far as the levels of consideration is concerned. A major recommendation of the first ARC was on reducing the number of hierarchical levels traditionally involved in decision-making in the government. It suggested that there should be only two levels of consideration below the minister. Each level should be required and empowered to dispose of a substantial amount of work on its own and be given the necessary staff assistance. The Second Administrative Reforms Commission (2008) has recommended that the number of levels though which a file passes for a decision should not exceed three. In cases where the minister’s approval is required, the file should be initiated by the Deputy Secretary/Director concerned and should be moved through the Joint Secretary (or Additional Secretary/Special Secretary) and the Secretary (or Special Secretary) to the Minister. Cases requiring approval of the Secretary should go through just two levels (e.g. either US and Director, US and JS or Director and JS). Cases requiring approval of the JS/Director/DS should come through just one level.

The Issue of providing fixed tenures has again been a burning issue and several committees have highlighted the importance of providing fixed tenures to civil servants. The Hota Committee pointed out that if civil servants are given tenures and targets and the political executive respects neutrality, integrity and hierarchy of service, the civil service can be expected to play its proper role in a parliamentary democracy. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in his meeting with Chief Ministers had brought up the issue of fixed tenures. Most Chief Ministers were not in favour of this move including Chief Ministers of Congress run states like Andhra Pradesh. At the core of the fixed tenure issue lies the friction between the political executive and the bureaucracy. Sharing of power has been very painful experience. At the time of Independence the bureaucracy was well entrenched. In many states, the Collector was the ex-officio Chairman of all Standing Committees of Zilla Parishad. This domination of the bureaucracy was at all levels which later saw ugly turf wars to gain supremacy. One of the outcome was politician using transfers as a weapon to gain supremacy.

The question of designing a liberal revolving door policy is built on the assumption that civil servants, when provided with an exposure of working with NGO’s, academia as well as the Private Sector, will come back enriched with experience gained there. This issue was also discussed at the Seminar organized by the Second ARC in collaboration with IIPA in March 2007. Opinion was divided specially on the question of conflict of interest. At the same time, some thought needs to be given to the question as to how well the civil servants availing this opportunity will adjust to the work culture of private sector organizations as well as readjust back in the governmental set up. After working in the private sector they might find the work environment in governmental organizations extremely frustrating. The first ARC had highlighted the work culture then prevalent in governmental offices, marked by what it called “Late Coming and Early Leaving as well as idling at office desks”. The pertinent question is whether we can observe any significant change in the work culture four decades after the first ARC made those comments.

The issue of downsizing of the government staff became a major concern especially after the fiscal crisis of the ‘90’s. Overstaffing specially at the lower levels has been a recurring theme in several reports. Their basic argument is that there is massive overstaffing at the level of supporting and auxiliary staff and the need to move towards an office-oriented organizational structure. The economic administrative reforms commission headed by L.K. Jha suggested fewer posts at lower levels and more posts at higher levels would result in greater economy and efficiency. Again, work at the clerical levels should be less rigidly divided into distant compartments such as dairying, dispatch, typing, and record keeping etc. so that the total quantum of work can be attempted to by fewer people. The need to cut back was also emphasized by the 5th Central Pay Commission. Amongst its recommendations were, developing Group ‘D’ personnel as multi-skill functionaries, computerization of office work and small, business-like desks in place of unwieldy sections. The Fifth Pay Commission has been blamed for the financial burden it imposed on the Central and State governments. It has to be noted that government has made major departures from the recommendations of the Commission.

These include the government’s reluctance to come up with a clear cut policy on the downsizing issue. The government very selectively implemented the recommendations of the Commission in that it turned a blind eye to politically sensitive issues such as reverting back to the six day working week etc. It was quick to accept the Commission’s recommendation for raising the retirement age from 58 to 60 years. Logically it was premature on its part to raise the retirement age without first restructuring and downsizing government. The global efforts at downsizing focus on a lean and efficient work force, specially trained to handle the complex tasks of government. Implied in the argument is the justification for high public investment in building a “smart bureaucracy” and then drawing maximum returns from it. However, it was left to the Expenditure Reforms Commission headed by K.P. Geethakrishnan to conduct a detailed exercise to rationalize staff strengths in various ministries and departments. The Expenditure Reforms Commission together with recommending drastic reduction of government staff strengths, recommended that each ministry/department should prepare annually direct recruitment plans covering the requirements of all cadres, whether manage by that ministry/department itself or manage by the Department of Personnel and Training. A new scheme - ‘Optimization of Direct Recruitment to Civilian Posts’ which was introduced in 2001 was terminated on March 31, 2009. It covered all Central Government Ministries/Departments/Organizations including the Railways, Department of Posts, Telecom, Autonomous Bodies wholly or partly financed by the Government, Statutory/Bodies, Civilians in Defence and non-Combatised Posts in Para Military Forces. Whereas the government figures indicate that substantial saving has resulted from implementing this scheme, it should be remembered that most of the abolished posts were vacant and will not be immediately reflected in reduction of the wage bill. The restructuring and reduction in ministries/departments is closely connected with the question of downsizing. Here again several committees have emphasized the need for drastic reduction in the number of ministries and departments. This is applicable both at the central government as well as in the states.

Mechanisms for enforcing accountability continue to remain one of the most elusive issues in Public Administration. As the recent study of Asian Countries reveals, Indian bureaucracy has been rated as the most corrupt. However, the silver lining on the horizon is the Right to Information Act and the avenues it offers for citizens to hold civil servant accountable. At the same time the RTI could make the civil service more rigid and rule bound in the Weberian sense in that they may opt to exercise minimum discretion. The RTI, in combination with IT enabled services, may lead to improved governance. However, IT is no magic wand unless there is a concomitant change in the attitudes of the civil servants.

Source- SUJATA SINGH, Indian Institute of Public Administration New Delhi

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