A govt that runs, but how?

COVER STORY
civil services day

Sometimes, how you run the government is more important than merely running it. This was the message that came out loud and clear during the 7th Civil Services Day.

by Neeraj Mahajan

As compared to a mini-skirt, which reveals more than it hides, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s speech on the 7th Civil Services Day was more like a sari – hiding more than it revealed. Besides Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Former President APJ Abdul Kalam, leading civil servants such as cabinet secretary Ajit Seth and principal secretary to the Prime Minister, Pulok Chatterji, were present on the occasion at Vigyan Bhavan.

Accepting the fact that there was a growing perception that the moral fibre of today’s public servants “who rank among the best in the world”, is not as strong as it used to be and that the present lot of civil servants are more likely to succumb to extraneous pressures, the Prime Minister said, “these perceptions might be exaggerated, but I do think that there is a grain of truth in them.”…..Readmore

EXPOSE

coal scam

Robbing the Black Gold

The CAG report on discretionary allotment of coal blocks only touches the tip of the scandal, and could well turn out to be the ‘mother of all scams’

by Naresh Minocha

The Comptroller & Auditor General’s draft performance audit on discretionary allocation of coal blocks, identifying windfall benefits reaped by allottees, has evoked extreme reactions from its critics.

A high-profile economist, for instance, dubbed the CAG findings as “outlandish” under a column headlined ‘Where donkeys fly’ published in The Indian Express. Similarly, Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal rubbished CAG contentions, including its recommendations for auction of coal blocks as “baseless” and “illogical”.

Both these eminent persons apparently did not do their home work before targeting the CAG. They should eat their words after reading this write-up. The fact is that the CAG has barely scratched the surface of the coal blocks’ allocation scam! Its 110-page draft report made public by The Times of India does not mention certain crucial elements of the scam……Readmore

First among equals

COVER STORY

public sector day

The SCOPE Awards given away by the President of India saw several Navratnas bag the spotlight as award-winning PSEs in different categories.

by Ravindra Dubey

The Department of Public Enterprises and Standing Conference of Public Enterprises (SCOPE) jointly organised the function on April 13. The President of India, Pratibha Devisingh Patil, presented the awards. Oil and Natural Gas Commission (ONGC) was presented the SCOPE meritorious award for Environmental Excellence and Sustainable Development for 2010-11. The SCOPE Gold trophy also went to this enterprise along with the Steel Authority of India Ltd for Corporate Governance. The National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) and Tehri Dam and Hydro Electric Project (THDC) won the award for Corporate Social Responsibility, Indian Oil and Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) for R&D, Technology Development, Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) for best practices in Human Resource Management, Power Finance Corporation (PFC) for best managed bank and financial institution and National Scheduled Castes Finance & Development Corporation (NSFDC) for best managed PSE set-up under Section 25…………READMORE

Civil Services: O Tempora! O Mores!

COVER STORY

corruption m g devasahayam

Today, the objectives of civil servants and their political masters have seamlessly coalesced, with the former awaiting ‘orders from above’ on almost everything

 

IN the mid-fifties, Management Guru Peter Drucker advocated ‘Management by Objectives (MoB)’, a system that seeks to align employees’ goals with the goals of the organisation. This ensures that everyone is clear about what they should be doing and how that is beneficial to the whole organisation.

Nowadays, any American idea is instantly gulped up. But this concept took time and became a rage only in the early eighties. As the then chief of Haryana’s State Transport Undertaking, I attended a World Bank training course at the Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI) for senior Government and PSU officials. A professor from one of the Ivy League universities in the US gave a two-hour lecture on MoB. Balwant Reddy, ASCI’s officiating Director, was present.

During question-time, I remained silent, but Balwant goaded me. So I queried: “Government is a combination of employees (civil servants) and non-employees (Ministers). On whose objectives should an organisation be managed?”

The Professor was baffled and could not understand the question. So I elaborated: “I am the Chief Executive of Haryana Roadways and my objective is to run the organisation in an honest, efficient and viable manner. My Minister’s objective is to make money on purchases, transfers and protecting corrupt elements. The Chief Minister wants big deals. Now, by whose objective should Haryana Roadways be managed?” The Professor acknowledged the mismatch of objectives, but did not give an answer……READMORE

Heroes or villains?

COVER STORY

psychology prabhat kumar

The civil servant is afraid of annoying his political masters; afraid to do something that does not have a precedence and is always fearful of being victimised.

The civil service in India has lost much of its credibility because of its own undoing. Despite possessing unmatched intellectual calibre, its members have relegated themselves to playing the role of passive advisors and order takers. They have not assumed the ownership of policies aimed at improving the welfare of the people. Instead of talking about innovative strategies for poverty alleviation and social justice, they have ceded the initiative of voicing the aspirations of the masses to other actors. In fact, politicians, civil society and the media have rendered the civil service into being a caricature of stupidity. Now its incompatibility with governance is a syndrome that is being passed down from senior members to new entrants.

It is said that every dog has his day; except the Indian civil servant. For the last 60 years after Sardar Patel, rarely has a civil servant been credited with anything. While he is regarded as a character in the drama of governance, one is not too sure about the role he plays. Is it that of a villain or of a comedian? Or is he merely a sidekick of the villain?………READMORE..

Think About a Second Republic?

GOVERNANCE

democracy  a k verma

 

Questions are being raised about the validity of democracy in the Indian Republic. There is a widespread view that democracy in India is no longer by the people, of the people, for the people.

The leaders who brought democracy to India in 1947 were giants in conviction, commitment, ethics and morality. There were many of them. Their tribe lingered for many years after Independence but their numbers kept on diminishing. Today, that tribe has vanished completely. Search as one might, not a single individual can be found qualifying for the citizen’s unquestioning acceptance as the leader of the nation.

Responsible for this sad state is the continuous growth of unscrupulous politics, degeneration of instruments of democracy and emergence of a new elite, reliant on the power of money, muscle and mafia, to monopolise the rewards of democracy. Today, no sense of shame is felt in claiming that compulsions of coalition….Readmore

Appointed to disappoint

MY CORNER

appointments amitabh thakur

There are thousands of senior posts in various bodies, commissions and institutions belonging to the Government where no definite method of  appointment exists

OUR country has a very large number of bureaucratic posts, which have been framed in a manner that only career bureaucrats (or government servants) can be appointed. Thus, we know that a peon in a State Secretariat or a Secretary belongs to some distinct services. So is the case with a major chunk of the governance machinery. These people join a particular class of service and remain part of it, moving from one rank to another and getting appointed to various posts available to that particular service. In all such cases, the concerned person becomes a part of such service through a selection process. Posts are advertised and applicants get selected and become part of the service, if they fulfil the requirements.

There is another class of people associated with governance who are not career bureaucrats or permanent government servants. They get appointed on some kind of contractual basis. The posts of Vice-Chancellors of Universities and various technical or expert advisors in different organisations can be cited as examples. Here again, most of the time there is some definite process of appointment. Advertisements are issued, the intention to fill in the required vacancies is made public through some definite process and then through some kind of selection process, a few persons are found more suitable than others to be appointed to the post…Readmore