(Online Course) Pub Ad for IAS Mains: Chapter: 9 Personnel Administration - ARC Report Summary Notes "Part-2" (Paper -1)

Paper - 1
Chapter: 9 (Personnel Administration)

ARC Report Summary Notes (Part-2)

Structure of CSE

Reasons for adopting. the present structure

  1. Due to large no. of candidates it requires a process consisting of sequential stages.

  2. The quality of candidates would get “richer” as the stream proceeds from one stage to the next. It would also become more homogenous.

  3. The pre. Exam helps in attracting as many desering candidates as possible from different parts of the country to compete in the exam without clogging the system.

SARC Proposes a system like the IES, where (Pre + Mains) held together & mains answer sheets of only these candidates are evaluated who have crossed a minimum threshold in the pre exam.

  • Reduce the time

  • Candidates need not fill up forms twice.

  • From 2000-05, on an average 42% of the candidates preferred to take the examination with both optional subjects different from those which they had studied in college/universities.

Other modes of induction

The recruitment to the IAS shall be by the following methods:

  1. 66 2/3% by CSE

  2. 28 1/3% from the state civil service

  3. 5% by selection from among members of other service.

  • The general practice is that officers of the state civil service get inducted into the IAS in about 8 to 25 years.
    They have few years of service left & are appointed to posts not commensurate with superiority as SCS officers.

  • State Governments should fill up their quota for promotion to the IAS on the basis of exam conducted by UPSC.

UPSC

The 1st public service commission was set up on 1st Oct, 1926. The scope of this commission was further widened under the GOI Act, 1935 & it was named FPSC.

It has been encumbered in dealing with ‘routine’ & ‘minor’ disciplinary cases. For eg.-during the year 2006-07 the UPSC had received 1188 disciplinary cases under Act. 320(3) including 320 cases brought forward from the previous years & the commission tendered advice in 622 case.

  • Promotion of officers through Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC) may be delegated to the concerned Depts. UPSC should superwise the functioning of these DPC s through periodic reviews and audits)

  • In case of disciplinary proceedings, consultation with UPSC should be mandatory only in cases involving likely dismissal/removal of a government servant.

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

Capacity building

It is universally acknowledged that training is a critical component of human resource development. It complements a person’s education by updating his/her knowledge, inculcating skills & values and helping to change entrenched mindsets. It also promotes team spirit & in general increases the value of an individual for his/her org & consequently, society.

British Era: On ford/Cambridge (Indian law, history, language) + on job training (In charge of DC)

After independence, emphasis was laid on socio-economic development rather than on regulatory functions.

After the economic liberalization of 1990s, training institutions have tried to reorient the training programmes. Attention is now given to good governance, transparency & objectivity in administration, democratic decentralization through PRIs, creating a congenial environment for infrastructural & industrial development & a citizen centric approach.

The National Training Policy was formulated in 1996. It states that the objectives of training should be:

  1. Keeping up-to-date & evolving professional knowledge and skills needed for better performance of individuals & organizations.

  2. Promoting better understanding of professional requirements as well as sensitization of professional, socio-economic & political environment in which work in done.

  3. Bringing about right altitudinal orientation.

The training policy stipulates that training programmes should focus on:

  1. Responsiveness: to the challenging democratic needs & expectations of the citizens & organizational & technological developments.

  2. Commitment: to democratic values & concept of partnership & participative decision making.

  3. Awareness of technological, economic & social developments.

  4. Accountability to ensure high performance in every professional field & cost-effective methods of delivery.

The NTP envisaged that each Department should set apart 1.5% of its salary budget to be used solely for the purpose of training. However, a suitable monitoring mechanism to supervise the implementation of this policy has not been setup. It should be set up immediately.

Weaknesses in the present training System

  • There is very less value attached to the foundation course offers selected for other services seek leave to write CSE again & therefore, undergo the foundation course at the fag end of their 2-years training.
    Technical services do not have to undergo this for many services it is not mandatory.

  • The training program does not adequately take into accout the need for development of domain expertise & knowledge of various sectors of govt. nor is it responsive to the officer’s individual intersects & academic qualification. It is not in lime with the nature of the job performed in the present day context.

  • Only 203 weeks out of a 33-36 years (11%) on longer career of a civil servant is likely to be spent on his/her training. Also, caught up in the compulsions of should term needs, immediate supervisors do not leave their best officers for training.

  • There is no formal evaluation of performance of trainees even in the newly introduced mid career training programmes. Content continues to remain generic (No domain expertise). Promotion is still on the basis of ACRs.

  • Training efforts are largely focused on the senior civil services & very little goes into training the middle & lower levels of goverment functionaries.

  • Focus is largely on enhancing professional skills & knowledge of civil servants. Altitudinal & behavioural changes are neglected. Adequate emphasis is not given to ‘administrative law’.

  • There is no structured mid-career training for many group A services. There is also no structured mid-career training for any of the group b, c & D services. Wherever it exists, it is not mandatory & performance in the training is not evaluated.

  • There is a need to check the appropriateness of the training institutions. Academic institutions are not always able to design training programmes with the right mix of theoretical & practical inputs that are relevant for the Civil Servent.

  • Monitoring is not an intrinsic part of the ‘Training’

Recommendations

  • A series of “training needs analyses” will have to be carried out & training programmes designed accordingly.

  • The district training, for IAS officers should include an on-the-job training in one field of his/her choice for a period of one month so that the element of domain specialization linked to the officer’s interest & qualification is initiated at a nascent stage of his/her career.

Mid-Career Training

As an officer goes up in hierarchy the nature of his/her job changes. In respect of IAS, during the 1st 8-10 years of his/her service an officer is primarily concerned with the implementation & co-ordination of programs at the field level.

During the next 8-10 years, the nature of his/her job to project/programme formulation & in mgmt. of programmes on a longer state-wide basis.
At still higher levels, the officer is preliminary concerned with policy formulation, first within a sector, & then across sectors.
Competences required from CS can be classified into 2 categories

  1. Domain knowledge: e.g., Rural development/petroleum

  2. Specific skills required by an officer for carrying out his/her functions & responsibilities based on his/her position in the official hierarchy. Eg: lower level: implementation, mid level: managerial.

It would be appropriate if a mid career training is conducted a little before a promotion becomes due. It would serve these purpose:

  • Help in updating the knowledge base of an officer.

  • Develop competencies for the new job profile.

  • Test the presence of attributes required for the promoted post & thereby help assess the suitability for promotion.

  • It is important for all officers occupying managerial & senior positions to have an exposure to global development. Thus, international visits should primarily be exposure visits & not be confined to academic classroom sessions in an institute.

  • It should be a balanced mix of both short-term & long-term courses.

  • Continuous learning opportunities should be provided through online courses which can be taken at an officer’s convenience.

  • All training programmes esp. the mid-career ones should include a module on stress management.

  • There is a need to adopt a professional head hunting approach to select heads of Fraining institutions suitable incentives need to be provided so that the best possible person is identified & made available to these institution. These should not be treaded as punishment postings

  • To solve the problem of finding, a judicious mix of commercial programmes & programmes that meet the needs of CS is called for.

  • A conscious effort not only to identify & document best practices but also build policy & create new structures & institutions to encourage mass replication needs to be made.

Placement at Middle Management Level

Art. 77(3) of the constitution stipulates that the president shall make rules for the more continent transaction of the business of GOI. Accordingly, the following rules have been notified.

  1. The GOI (Allocation of Business Rule), &

  2. The GOI (Transaction of Business Rule)

The GOI (Transaction of Business) Rule seek to define the authority, responsibility & obligations of each dept. in the matter of disposal of business allotted to it.

                                Structure of the GOI

Department                                                        Secretary
    Wings                                                 Spl. Secretary/Addition/Jt. Secretary
    Division                                               Director/Jt. Director/ Dy. Secretary
    Branches                                             Under Secretary
    Sections                                               Section Officer

The principal problems with the present system of selections for particular positions under the CSS is that:

  • No. systematic modeling of the competency requirements for particular positions & the background of the candidate officers.

  • No formal system of eliciting the interest & references of officers for particular positions, consistent with their background & broaden career interests.

These lead to unseemly scrambles for particular prestigious positions in which unstructured influences are pervasive. The result is a glaring mismatch between the required competiveness & the background of officers situated for the positions. In the long-term these result in poor policy making & implementation, as well as insufficient capacity for policy-making & public mgmt.
In pesting an officer the emphasis should be an getting the most suitable person for the post based on his/her post experience, future potential & overall record.

Domain Competence


 

Domain competency relates to sufficient background in a certain content of policy making. It differs from general schemes of policy programme formulation in that such general skills would related primarily to knowledge of formal techniques of policy analysis/programme formulation & experience of policy\programme formulation generally, while ‘Domain Competence’ would involve in addition, significant.

Subject matter knowledge, gained from work experiences, academic study, training & research.

Domain Competence refers to functions & not ministeries ministeries require officer with different domain competence & challenge at senior management levels is to select generalists who have “specialized” & specialists who have “generalized”. For eg, union ministeries such as health on railway do not constitute single functional domains.

[Core functions + vigilance/finance & accounts/Personnel management]
This is why it may not be feasible to assign posts in a ministry to one domain on vice versa.

Various Domains

  • General Administration

  • Urban Development

  • Security

  • Rural Development

  • Financial management

  • Infrastructure

  • HRD social empowerment

  • Economic Administration

  • Tan Administration

  • Agriculture Development

  • Health management

  • National Resources Administration

Domains once assigned to an officer should normally hold good for the entire career. It should be allocated through a consultative process & between civil services authority & the officer(s).

Tenure

An analysis of the details of IAS tenures from 1978 to 2006 throws up the following facts:

  • 48-60% IAS officers spend less than a year in their postings.

  • On an avg. only 70% have spent more than 3 years in a posting.

The data does not include states where the situation is even worse.

It is one of the most vexatious governance problems still facing India. It leads to the following:

As a result,

  • Adversely affects governance because civil servants are not allowed to stay in a position long enough to acquire adequate knowledge & experience of their job, an understanding of the milieu & culture in which they have to function & the problems they need to redress.

  • Civil Servant are unable to build the required mutual confidence & understanding, necessary for administrative leadership.

  • CS cannot institute or sustain reforms.

  • It is both demoralizing & demotivating as they are not able to see the fruits of their efforts.

  • Lack of accountability & corruption.

  • Affects the ability of the system to deliver services effectively to the people.
    The 5th pay commission recommended the setting up of civil services board to regulate these affairs. The Hota committee found out, “(the Boards set up by executive order in different states have failed to inspire confidence as more often than not, they have nearly formalised the wishes of the (MS in matter of transfer of officials).

  • An officer in the higher civil services should be given a fined tenure of at least 3 year his post & given annual performance targets, effectiveness of administrative machinery will register a quantum jump.

  • “Good adminstration is not possible without-continuity & intelligent admin is not possible without local knowledge”.
    There have been instances where state govts/governed authorities have posted these officers driving initial revised of their service to the secretariat/HQ instead of the field. It is necessary for an officer to have adequate experience in the field & familiarize himself thoroughly with “ground realities” to enable him to discharge his/her higher responsibilities later.

Placement at the Top mangement Level

The Senior Executive Service (SES) is a subset of the entire pool of Civil Servant to whom they are expected to provide leadership by their vision, superior performance, integrity & innovation. It is an enclave within the civil services that receives broader opportunities, has special conditions of employment, is made accountable for rigorous standards of performance & behavior, is paid a higher remuneration & has less job security.

GOI also inducts outside talent from time to time into the higher tiers of government usually in advisory position but occasionally even in key administrative assignments. e.g., Chief Economic Adviser, GOI.

The commission his deliberated on the advantages & disadvantages of the career based & position based Senior Executive Service model for India.

Career based (Against)

  • The assurance of a secure career path is the system’s biggest lacuna.

  • It is further compounded by a heavy reliance on seniority, an inadequate annual depositing system & frequent transfers.

  • It has discouraged initiative by reducing competition in the highly echelons of government.

  • It has been difficult not only for highly qualified persons from outside government but also for high performers from other services to get selected for top civil service position.

  • The Quasi-monopolistic hold of the career civil service on senior mgmt position breeds complacency, inhibits innovative thinking & prevents the inflow of new ideas from outside govt.
    For

  • The AIS provide a unique link between the cutting edge at the field level & top policy making positions as has also been mentioned by 1st ARC & sarkaria commission. This bridge has been of strategic significance given the regional diversity of India.

  • The exposure & sensitivity to the country’s complex socio-political milieu & to the needs of the common man, available to the AIS through widespread field experience, may not be available to the private sector, since the put sector does not have the same width & depth of exposure.

  • Lateral entry only at top policy making positions may have little impact on field level implementation, given the multiple links in the chain of command from the union to a rural village.

  • Lateral entry (if done on at large scale) may have an adverse impact of such requirement on the constitutional mandate for affirmative action as a result of the creation of a new recruitment channel at senior level.

  • There is an issue of conflict of interest when it comes to entrants from the private sector.

  • Potential loss of talent (internal) as well as the likelihood of atrophy of the existing career based service.

Problems with the Current systems

  • The number of officers empanelled is invariably much larger than the number of the posts available. This leads to pressure to create high level posts which have little on no work, just to accommodate empanelled officers. Officers also start jostling for posts in CSS which are perceived to be prestigious.

  • It depends solely on the annual performance appraisal of the officers. There is often a tendency for the ‘populating officer’ to adopt a ‘soft approach’ in assessing an officer with the deficiencies often going unreported.

  • The system overlooks the future potential of an officer.

  • An officer not empanelled as Jt. Secretary normally spends the rest of his/her career in the state govt. By implication, the process suggests that officer who are not considered suitable for working in senior positions in Govt. of India are considered good enough to work in the state govt.

  • The commission recommends introduction of a combination of a career and position based systems in which the career based system could be opened up to encourage competition for appointments to senior civil service positions in GOI.

Competition can be infused through

  • Opening up the senior management cadre to all existing services.

  • Lateral entry by opening the senior mgmt cadre to aspirants from the private sector who can bring new skills into govt.

  • There is a need to institutionalize the process of induction of outside talent in private the civil Services authority headed by an eminent person with experience of public affair should be responsible.

Deputation of Civil Service to orgs outside Government

In many countries there is a well established practice of Civil Service being permitted to work in the put sectors as well as in academic & other non government institutions while containing a lieu in government.

The rationale is that open movement of personnel between the government & non-government sectors in mutually beneficial because it promotes exchanges of the best human resources, best practices, new ideas & innovations in both sectors.

However, ovennes with annexes of employment in the cooperate sector being available to a small number of civil servants holding assignments in certain ‘sought after’ sectors, a vast majority of civil servants, especially these working in the social sectors & sector like rural development, will perhaps not be affected by such a policy. This could result in an increasing relevance by govt. servants to work in these crucial social sectors.

The current guidelines of the GOI allow movement specified put bodies that are not registered as companies. This does not recognize the fact that there are societies & trust as well as co-operatives that undertake activities which are commercial in nature. Also there are companies which are not profit oriented. It is recommended that primary concern should be the objectives & activities of such organisations & not nearly its org. structure. The policy should be received after 3 years.

Performance Management System (PMS)

The conventional PMS in government are oriented towards usage – how resources, staff & facilities are deployed in a scheme, programme or project & whether such a deployment is in accordance with rules & regulation. The main performance measure this is the amount of money spent & the success of schemes, programmes & projects is generally evaluated in terms of the inputs consumed.

  • Such an approach fails to indicate what are the results achieved by the activities of government in general & deployment of public finds in particular.

  • The focus on input for accountability & control has led to a situation in which Civil Service are rarely held accountable for outcomes.

  • Conventional tools like budgetary exercise, annual aspects of various ministries/Departments, performance budgets & recently introduced outcome budgets. Practices of various ministries/Departments vary.

Individual performance appraisal systems

  • Conventional closed system of Annual Confidential Reports: Adverse remarks are communicated for the officer reported upon.

  • Performance appraisal with openness: Involvement of officers at different levels like setting of targets, review midway & assessment of outcomes.

Limitations of the closed system for appraisal of CS other than AIS

  1. It lacks quantification of targets & evaluation against achievement of targets.

  2. The system is affected by unclear performance standards Possible bias on the part of superior, political influence etc.

  3. Does not solve the problem of poor performance.

  4. Many a time the job fit is ignored while posting an officer & also there are frequent transfers. Performance appraisal become meaningless.

  5. Due to large span of supervision of most government officers, the report lack due case & seriousness.

  6. It shows only an adverse rating, hence a civil servant remains unaware about how he/she is rated in his/her work.

  7. It pays little attention to distinguish good & average workers while guiding them. Hence, there is no motivation for real performers.

  8. For want of evidence, the reporting officer is in a defensive position & thus unable to justify his/her adverse remarks.

The performance appraisal system for AIS officers has been modified & the salient features include setting goals in consultation with the appraised officers, a numerical grading system, introduction of a per picture of the appraises, sharing the entire Performance Appraisal Report with the appraise officer.

The new system has certain limitations:

  1. Does not recognize the difference in performance parameters applicable for Civil Servants working in completely different departments.

  2. Does not do away with the element of subjectivity.

  3. It still emphasizes the performance appraisal report as the key element.

  4. It does not adequately assess the potential of an officer to hold higher responsibilities.

  5. It emphasizes career development but does not link it sufficiently with performance improvements.

  6. There are far too many levels for ratings & the accepting authority is often far removed from the officer reported upon.

  7. There is no training for orienting the users in the system of new format.

  8. No concept of the review.

Present

Desired

• Individual ranking

Process

• Appraisal

Joint Review

• Periodicity-annual

More periodic

• Outputs

outcomes

• Performance & pay not related        

ratings-consultative

• Ratings-top

down supportive

• Directive

flexible

• Monolithic

 


‘360 degree feedback’ & multi source feedback “should be introduced. It includes; self, superior, peers, subordinates, internal customers, external customers, other etc.

In the context of India where strong hierarchical structures exist & for historical & social reasons it may not be possible to introduce this system unless concesness of integrity & transparency are addressed.

However, government should consider sensitizing all officers of it. System should more from performance appraisal to performance management.

Process of PMs (Performance Management)

  • Planning work & setting expectations

  • Monitoring performance

  • Developing the capacity to perform.

  • Rating performance

  • Rewarding good performance.

Proquisites for implementing an effective PMS:

  • Strong commitment from top management

  • High level of participation of all concerned.

  • Identification of performance parameters & definition of key performance indicators (KPIs).

  • Consistency of application

  • Rewards & recognition to be built into the system.

  • Adequate training to achieve superior performance.

Motivating Civil Servants

A motivated & willing civil service is the best instrument to achieve the outcomes desired by state & society. Motivation comes through incentives.
The common perception is that the incentive structure in government is too weak & inadequate for better performance. Even the tool of promotion is not always used for motivation as the principle of seniority is generally followed rather than competence & performance often civil servants adopt a minimalist approach in their functioning & confine their work to disposing of files making no special effort at resolving problems.

According to 6th pay commission, the benefits a Civil Servent gets fall into two broad categories:

  • Transactional benefits: Both monetary & non monetary to which an employee is provincially entitled to more in private sector.

  • Relational Benefits not necessarily monetary in nature e.g., Job security, respect in society, variety in Top Profile, Balance between monk & life etc. more in government job.

  • Natural increases in salary are very much guaranteed to government employees. This leads to a situation where employees do not exert themselves for a higher level of on – the job performance & achievements thus depriving the government of political productivity gains & service delivery enhancement, both in terms of quantum & quality. There is no external motivation for risk-taking & delivering a higher level of performance because though the risk taking is punished if things go wrong, it is not financially rewarded if things improve because of employees’ initiative & risk-taking.

  • The 6th pay commission suggested performance related incentive scheme (PRIS). It is based on the principle of differential reward for differential performance.
    The 2nd ARC recommends the following:

  • Recognition: Awards on Civil Services day etc.

  • Job enrichment

  • Linking coreer prospects with performance

  • Removing causes of dissatisfaction: Poor working conditions, unfair personnel policies, interference in objective functioning etc.

  • Disincentives for non performers.

  • A sound performance management system.

Accountability

Institutions & Mechanisms that promote accountability:

Outside the state (vertical)
(i) To people through elections
(ii) RTI                                                 • High effectiveness

(i) Citizen’s Over right Committee
(ii) Civil Society waterdog bodies          • Low effectiveness
(iii) Media

(i) Service delivery surveys                    • Low to medium
(ii) Citizen’s charters

                       Within the state (Horizontal)

External                                                         Parliament
(Outside executive)                                         • Judiciary
                                                                      • Lokayukta
                                                                      • CAG
                                                                      • CVC
Internal
(Within Executive)                                          • Superior officers
                                                                      • Remands/punishment
                                                                     • PMS (Performance Management System)
                                                                      • CBI/Police/Vigilance
                                                                        Internal audit
                                                                        Grievance Redressal Mechanism

  • A system of two intensive reviews – one on completion of 14 years of service & another on completion of 20 years of service should be established for all government servants.
    o 14 years – Training, strength/weaknesses
    o 20 years – fitness for continuation in service need to be evaluated.

  • While Sardar Patel argued for protection of Civil Service, but the compulsions of equal treatment of all public servants & judicial pronouncements have made such a protection applicable to employees of parastatal orgs & even body corporate like co-operatives & this has created a climate of excessive security without fear of penalty for incompetence or wrongdoing.

  • The estimate time taken in bringing to culmination cases involving minor & major penalties can be respectively estimated at 10 months 15 days & 16 months.

  • In UK same laws apply to both private & public sector.

  • The minimum statutory disciplinary & dismissal procedures reqd. to satisfy the criteria of natural justice should be spelt out leaving the details of procedure to be followed to the respective departments.

  • Penalty of removal & dismissal – 3 posts above

Other penalties – 2 posts above

Consultation with UPSC should be mandatory only in cases relating to dismissal of government servants.

Relation between political and executive & civil Service

In the initial years after independence, relations between Ministers & Civil servants were characterized by mutual respect & understanding of each other’s respective roles, with neither encroaching upon the other’s domain. However, in the subsequent years, matters started changing for the worse. While some CS did not render objective & impartial advice to their ministers, often some ministers began to resent advice that did not fit in with short-term political interests.

There was also a tendency for some ministers at the union & state level to focus more on routine admininistrative matters such as transfers in preference to policy making. At the same time, some civil servants learnt the act of ‘maneuvering’ for favours in return fore liability in their decision making. This trend was further accentuated by rising materialism & acquisitiveness in society as well as decline in values across the board. These trends led to the “politicisation of civil service.” The areas of potential conflict in the relationship between the political executive & the permanent civil service can be identified as follows:

Concept of Neutrality

Civil servants should not confuse ‘political neutrality’ with ‘programme neutrality’. At the stage of policy formulation, the role of civil servant is to render free & frank advice which should not be coloured by any political consideration. Once a policy or programme has been approved by the elected government it is the duty of the Civil Service to faithfully & enthusiastically see to its implementation.

Advisory Role of Civil Service in policy making

Civil Service has only advisory role. He can put his dissent on record. It is for the institutional mechanisms such as parliament, the CAG, Judiciary & ultimately the electorate to hold the political executive to account for bad policy.

Statutory Role of Civil Servants

Civil Servants are required to discharge statutory functions under various legislative enactments which may sometimes be Quasi-judicial in nature. e.g., under Cr. PC, SHO under to Re & police acts etc.
There is an increasing trend on pact of senior functionaries both in Civil Service as well as elected representative including ministers to interfere in such statutory functions.

Discharge of Delegated functions

It has been observed that there is an increasing tendency in government departments to centralize authority & also after having first then delegated authority downwards, to still interfere in decision making of the subordinate functionaries.

Postings & Transfers of Civil Servants

Arbitrary transfers & postings have strengthened the temptation in service to collusive practices with politicians to avoid the in convenience of transfers & to gain advantages by ingratiating themselves to political masters.

What should be done?

  • There should be a code of ethics for ministers as well as code of conduct for public servants.

  • While examining the definition of corruption under the prevention of corruption Act, 1988, the “abuse of authority unduly favouring or harming someone” & “obstruction of justice” should be classified as an offence under the Act.

  • Minimisation, if not elimination, of discretion in the recruitment process.

Civil Services Code

Ethics are a set of principles of right conduct. It helps to decide whether ones’ actions are right or wrong. Organisations as well as individuals have ethical standards. These standards help ensure that individuals belonging to an organization have a consistent approach in carrying out their responsibilities & making decisions.

In a democracy, an efficient civil service must have a set of values that distinguishes it from other professions. Integrity, dedication to public service, impartiality, political neutrality, anonymity etc. are said to be hallmarks of an efficient Civil Service.

In India, the current set of ethical norms are the conduct rules, contained in the central services (conducte) rules, 1964 & analogues rules applicable to members of All India Service or employees of various state governments.

The code of behavior as enunciated in the conduct rules, while containing some general norms like ‘maintaining integrity & absolute devotion to duty’ & net indulging in ‘conduct unbecoming of a Civil Servant’ is generally directed towards cataloguing specific activities deemed undesirable for government servants. These conduct rules do not constitute a code of ethics.

The code of conduct has also become archaic .

  • It says (“No class 1 officer shall, except with the previous sanction of government, permit his son, daughter on other dependant, to accept employment in any ]company or firm] with which he has official dealing on in any other having official dealing with the government.”)

  • it is all encompassing. Some breaches may not be conflict of interest & an exemption from the government cannot absolve a Civil Service of changes of Nepotism etc.

  • Government servants have to report movable transactions to a prescribed authority

  • Class 1 & 2 > Rs. 20,000

  • Class III & IV > Rs. 15,000

Considering the rate of inflation. Government also cannot maintain such huge records.

  • Similar rules exist for acquiring or disposing any immovable property.

  • A comprehensive civil services code can be computerised at 3 levels.

  • At the apex level, there should be a cleos & concise statement of the values & ethical standards a Civil Servant should imbibe. These should reflect public expectations form a Civil Servant with reference to political impartiality etc.

  • At the second level, the bread principles which should govern the behavior of a Civil Servant may be outlined. This would constitute the code of ethics.

  • At the third level, there should be a specified code of conduct stipulating in a precise & unambiguous manner, a list of acceptable & unacceptable behavior & actions

The commission is of the view that in addition to commitment to the constitution these values should include:

  • Adherence to the highest standards of probity (integrity & conduct)

  • Impartiality & non-partisanship

  • Objectivity

  • Commitment to citizen’s covens & public good.

  • Empathy for the valuable & weaken sections of society.

  • These should be given a statutory backing by including them in the purposed Civil Services Bill.

Civil Services Law

Three important reasons have been cited for adopting a new legislation instead of amending old ones:

  1. They provided the necessary explanation for the proposed reforms.

  2. When the reforms are given legislative cover, there would be bipartisan political support & they would be passed only if all the major political parties were committed to the changes.

  3. These legislations send an important message that reforms are here to stay & would command respect from the Civil Servants.

Recommendation

Need for legislative backing 

(i) Set of values for Civil Servant

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(ii) Redefining relation between Government & Civil Servant

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(iii) Reforms in recruitment procedure

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(executive order)

(iv) Performs in procedure of placement as well as security of tenure

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(v) New terms of conditions of appointment

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(vi) Improving accountability mechanism & simplifying disciplinary proceedings

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Only basics details be spelt out in rules

(vii) Creating new organisations structures in Government.

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