A few days after UPA II took office, a mainstream newspaper informed readers: “The end of the transfer-posting-raj is in sight. Bureaucrats are set to get a new deal from the new government with the Centre readying a legislation that will not only assure babus of fixed-tenure postings but also protect them from political interference in their day-to-day functioning.”
Enthused by this new assertion in basic governance, I recalled a conversation with a leading North Indian industrialist several years ago when I was still in service. I had asked him the secret of a healthy bottom-line in industry and trade. “Turnover, my dear sir,” was the reply. “It is the volume of productive turnover of goods and services that determine the earnings and profitability of business.”
I was nonplussed. In government too we have huge “turnovers” of officials with the “transfer industry” working overtime. Why then was the government’s bottom-line sinking? Once again, the answer was crisp. “These are unproductive turnovers for some people to make money on the sly.” Indeed so. In government, when the “transfer industry” is in full production, there is money for transferring, for not transferring, for staying transfer, for cancelling transfer and for influencing all these. An entirely wasteful “turnover” but one that rakes in big money for the bandicoots!
Now, one has to wait and see whether their days are numbered under the new government. Meanwhile, the proposal for parliamentary scrutiny on all bureaucratic appointments, transfers and postings is a welcome step. If this happens, IAS and IPS officers in the country will no longer be at the mercy of the whimsical transfer and posting regime that has been operating for long.
As part of this new initiative, the government plans to bring in a public service code that will lay down a strict performance evaluation regime for promotions and postings of civil servants.
The provisions would first be applicable to IAS and IPS officers and might later be extended to all services under the all-India services…. What about other services who are victims of worse forms of the transfer-posting-raj?
All these provisions are expected to be part of the Civil Services Bill, 2009, a draft of which is being fine-tuned. It is believed to be an improved version of the Public Service Bill, 2007 which could not see the light of day under UPA I. It did not even see the light of Internet browsers, because it was tucked into a corner of the Department of Personnel website, veritably out of public view The provisions would first be applicable to IAS and IPS officers and might later be extended to all services that come under the all-India services category, including the Indian Forest Service. What about other services who are victims of worse forms of the transfer-posting-raj? A question that needs to be asked and answered.
Unlike the current practice of annual confidential reports…the new performance management system will evaluate officials on their job-specific achievements and the number of tasks that they perform as a team leader
The Bill, which incorporates various suggestions of the second Administrative Reforms Commission, envisages setting up of a new Central Public Service Authority (CPSA) which will not only professionally manage the civil services but also serve the interests of civil servants and citizens alike through checks and balances.
If the Civil Services Bill becomes an Act in its present form, all bureaucrats will get a minimum fixed tenure of three years. If any bureaucrat is transferred before three years, he or she will have to be compensated for the inconvenience and harassment caused due to such a move. This is vague as vague can be. What “inconvenience and harassment” can be claimed if an official is transferred 10 times in three years within the same building and retains the same residence?
Regarding top-level appointments in states, the Chief Secretary and Director General of Police will be selected from a panel of suitable candidates by a committee comprising the Chief Minister, Leader of the Opposition and Home Minister. Currently, the Chief Minister alone decides such appointments. Similarly, the Cabinet Secretary at the Centre will be selected from a panel by a committee comprising the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and the Union Home Minister. If the government deviates from these norms while appointing bureaucrats, it will have to inform Parliament about the reasons for doing so.
The new Bill will put in place a different kind of performance evaluation system. Unlike the current practice of annual confidential reports, which take a panoramic and often prejudiced view of a civil servant’s work, the new performance management system will evaluate officials on their job-specific achievements and the number of tasks that they perform as a team leader in a particular department.
The system will be managed by the CPSA which will work under a chairman whose rank will be equivalent to that of the Chief Election Commissioner. The CPSA, comprising three to five members, will have the power to recommend action against public servants who do not adhere to the codes and public services values. The Authority will also aid and advise the Central government in all matters concerning the orgnization, control, operation and management of public services and public servants.
The CPSA will also be the custodian of the public service code for civil servants. Such a code will be framed to facilitate civil servants “in discharging official duties with competence and accountability; care and diligence; responsibility, honesty, objectivity and impartiality; without discrimination and in accordance with the law”.
Reforms to develop Public Services as “a professional, neutral, merit-based and accountable instrument for promoting good governance and better delivery of services to the citizens” is a bold and assertive step by the Prime Minister and his team and therefore praiseworthy.
But what is actually happening right under the nose of the Prime Minister is diametrically the opposite of this. In recent times, a debilitating linguistic-parochial inbreeding has gripped the PMO, Cabinet Secretariat, Ministry of External Affairs, Home Department and other higher echelons of the Central government! The first acid test of the UPA II reformers is whether they will submit these “linguistic-parochial appointments and postings” to Parliamentary scrutiny! Otherwise, this laudable reform initiative will appear highly hypocritical!
IAS (retd) with a distinguished career of 40 years - worked in Army, Govt, Private, Politics & NGOs.
