(Sample Material) Gist of IIPA Journal: Measures Required to Enhance Efficiency in Administration R.D. Sharma

(Sample Material) Gist of Important Articles from IIPA Journal

Topic: Efficiency in Administration: Measures Required to Enhance Efficiency in Administration R.D. Sharma

Introduction

Efficiency is a goal as well as a value of any administrative organisation. Organisations whose goals-achieving capacity nears hundred or littleness, can be conveniently termed as efficient. Efficiency is both a characteristic as well as a value or even an ideal to be achieved by an organisation. Those public services and organisations may be bureaucratic one, are bound to be efficient which according to Max Weber are recruited on the basis of ideal-type-model.

Efficiency is a criterion of administrative evaluation. It is essentially criterion of making rational choices. Leonard D. White had used criterion of efficiency in defining public administration.

Any attempt to probe efficiency-an important area of public services, is fraught with innumerable difficulties because the genere of political representative of modern Indian and even the main-mandarins are less enthusiastic towards improving efficiency of the civil services and devise, seriously implement methods of increase it.

Efficiency has been central objective of governmental reform. The reform movement in public administration had emphasised that efficiency had something to do with the effective allocation and control of government expenditures.

Efficiency and Individual Motives: Barnard defines efficiency as “satisfaction of individual motives”. He says it is personal in character. Yet, efficiency scores of all the individual administrators taken together would inform us about efficiency level of the whole group of bureaucrats or civil servants. The efficiency of an organisation is measured in the amount of resources used to produce a unit of out-put. To Herbert A. Simon “efficiency is attainment of maximum values with limited means."

Efficiency in Administration: Efficiency in an administrative system is a value, a goal or a criterion to assess the system. An efficient civil service is quintessence of any government. It lends credence: viability and plausibility to the government of the day.

It is believed that efficiency in governmental administration is hard to define. Efficiency or inefficiency, is often said when agreement or disagreement with particular values is really meant.

Technical Efficiency: It measures the physical wise of resource inputs in relation to physical output. The physical use of resources helps in the preparation of utilisation of resources and level of growth and development.
Economic Efficiency: It measures the cost of using inputs in relation to value of outputs. It is the central concern of public administration. In public sector organisations at local level it is difficult to define and measure efficiency.

Extent of Efficiency in Indian Civil Services: Lord Morley in 1909 had advocated “efficiency” in administration in these words “better government of India depends on efficiency and that efficiency is infact the end of our rule in India”.

Mr. A.D. Gorewala in his report submitted in 1951 to the Indian Planning Commission had admitted that efficiency is undoubtedly impaired.

The Indian Planning Commission, from the very beginning, was concerned about efficient administration when it asked its Deputy Chairman Mr. V.T, Krishnamachari to study the problems of higher civil service of India (AP 1962), In 1967, too, the ARC in its Report on Centre-State Relations has mentioned that efficiency suffers due to frequent interference by the political executive in the implementation of developmental work for their personal and political ends.

Prof, C.P. Bhambhri, too, had mentioned that working efficiently Was a “trait” of IAS, in the slates that they may be deputed to the Centre. The National Development Council had constituted, before the start of Second Five Year, Plan (1956) a Committee on Plan Projects, “to promote the development of suitable machinery for continuous efficiency audit in individual projects”.

Dr. Manmohan Singh, in his Independence Day address from Red Fort (August 15, 2006) had mentioned about “shortage of highly skilled and qualified employees” in government which is likely to adversely effect efficiency of civil services.

In the same, he indirectly admitted that the present rate of growth of economy of the country which stands at eight per cent was never witnessed by India before.

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