Time to exploit the flaws
Couple of months back, Narayana Murthy, Chairman and Chief Mentor, Infosys in a seminar asked the government to “abolish the system of generalised administrators under the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and replace it with specialists under a new "Indian Management Service." India bureaucracy was even ranked the least-efficient by Hong Kong-based Political & Economic Risk Consultancy which further stated that “working with the country's civil servants was a slow and painful process.” Corrupt practices not only hamper effectiveness and productivity of an officer but also delay numerous projects and schemes they handle. These further lead to huge economic and even bigger social loss.
Along with corruption and low productivity, the Indian administrative staffs suffer from extra workload and shortage of manpower. According to official figures, around 1,155 posts are vacant in the IAS on January 2010 at the national level. This not only increases the work pressure on the present strength of IAS officers, but also leads to inefficiency in work. Take for instance, in West Bengal, 59 out of 296 IAS posts are currently vacant which is expected to swell further by at least another 40 within a year. In Orissa, the government has recalled at least eight of the 34 IAS officers who have been on central deputation to fill the gap while Maharashtra has asked the Centre to allot 15 more IAS officers as around 50 IAS posts are vacant in the state. Under such a situation, the pressure on an officer increases manifold and the projects under them also get delayed. Such situations allow corruption to flourish as accountability and scrutiny in such situation is mostly low and weak.
The proposal of allowing technocrats to handle administrative work is not new. Allowing technocrats and people with expertise to enter Indian administrative services will not only fill the current vacancies and thus lower the work pressure, but would eventually increase the efficiency and productivity of the department. In the long run, this practice will inculcate accountability and professionalism in the system and also motivate industry experts to enter such services. DMRC and UID projects are a case in point. An IAS officer can then be treated as a professional and the whole system of promotion and increment can be based on performance based pay.
But then, bringing such reforms at a national level will not be very easy. As the IAS officers form a powerful lobby at the national level, they will definitely oppose such proposal and movement. The current nexus among politicians, industrialists and bureaucrats won’t allow the government to implement any such plan that would threaten their position; even though the objective is to make the system accountable. Presently, IAS officers receive enough immunity from Constitution and thus a dismissal process is still very difficult. Technocrats should be allowed into the administrative system and replenishing the demand would be the best excuse; the whole system would otherwise lose its raison d’être.
Visit below mentioned IIPM website.
IIPM Prof. Rajita Chaudhuri's Profile
Prof. Rajita Chaudhuri's Website
Prof. Prasoon S Majumdar's Articles
Prashanto Banerji's Articles
Rajita Chaudhuri's Articles
Monojit Lahiri's Articles
K K Srivastava's Articles
Couple of months back, Narayana Murthy, Chairman and Chief Mentor, Infosys in a seminar asked the government to “abolish the system of generalised administrators under the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and replace it with specialists under a new "Indian Management Service." India bureaucracy was even ranked the least-efficient by Hong Kong-based Political & Economic Risk Consultancy which further stated that “working with the country's civil servants was a slow and painful process.” Corrupt practices not only hamper effectiveness and productivity of an officer but also delay numerous projects and schemes they handle. These further lead to huge economic and even bigger social loss.
Along with corruption and low productivity, the Indian administrative staffs suffer from extra workload and shortage of manpower. According to official figures, around 1,155 posts are vacant in the IAS on January 2010 at the national level. This not only increases the work pressure on the present strength of IAS officers, but also leads to inefficiency in work. Take for instance, in West Bengal, 59 out of 296 IAS posts are currently vacant which is expected to swell further by at least another 40 within a year. In Orissa, the government has recalled at least eight of the 34 IAS officers who have been on central deputation to fill the gap while Maharashtra has asked the Centre to allot 15 more IAS officers as around 50 IAS posts are vacant in the state. Under such a situation, the pressure on an officer increases manifold and the projects under them also get delayed. Such situations allow corruption to flourish as accountability and scrutiny in such situation is mostly low and weak.
The proposal of allowing technocrats to handle administrative work is not new. Allowing technocrats and people with expertise to enter Indian administrative services will not only fill the current vacancies and thus lower the work pressure, but would eventually increase the efficiency and productivity of the department. In the long run, this practice will inculcate accountability and professionalism in the system and also motivate industry experts to enter such services. DMRC and UID projects are a case in point. An IAS officer can then be treated as a professional and the whole system of promotion and increment can be based on performance based pay.
But then, bringing such reforms at a national level will not be very easy. As the IAS officers form a powerful lobby at the national level, they will definitely oppose such proposal and movement. The current nexus among politicians, industrialists and bureaucrats won’t allow the government to implement any such plan that would threaten their position; even though the objective is to make the system accountable. Presently, IAS officers receive enough immunity from Constitution and thus a dismissal process is still very difficult. Technocrats should be allowed into the administrative system and replenishing the demand would be the best excuse; the whole system would otherwise lose its raison d’être.
Visit below mentioned IIPM website.
IIPM Prof. Rajita Chaudhuri's Profile
Prof. Rajita Chaudhuri's Website
Prof. Prasoon S Majumdar's Articles
Prashanto Banerji's Articles
Rajita Chaudhuri's Articles
Monojit Lahiri's Articles
K K Srivastava's Articles
No comments:
Post a Comment