The Hindu Business Line : `TAPAS' for ministers

THIS article is not to inspire the ministers at the Centre and in the States to march to the forests and do penance. "TAPAS" stands for Transparent Annual Performance Appraisal System.

The Prime Minister is a distinguished and internationally-reputed economist, who understands very well that under-performance from any constituency is not going to help the Common Minimum Programme. Hence, we need TAPAS which should be initially applied to all central ministers.

Ministers' jobs are no less demanding than those of the chief executives of companies. Corporate bosses are subjected to performance appraisals. There must be similar appraisals for our ministers, with a difference. The annual evaluations must be on the web of the concerned department/ministry, thus ensuring transparency.

What is needed is not the frequent opposition cries seeking resignation of a minister, when some facet of his performance is less than desirable — as in the case of railway accidents, for example, when all seek the minister's resignation. It is not right to ask him to resign every time there is an accident. Instead, if he were to `achieve' a historical record number of accidents, and if the `glory' is widely transmitted on the government pages of the Internet, it can be reasonably assumed that the Prime Minister himself would seek his colleague's resignation for performance below expectations.

Expectations must be based on goals — again, as in corporate contexts, where annual goals and budgets are related and performance evaluation is against set goals. Despite the plethora of officers, expense heads and complex systems in each ministry with regard to its actual operations, it should be mandatory for each minister to set out a few important goals to be achieved in a fiscal year. Those goals and the extent of achieving them should be put on the Internet. In fact, part of the oath that the ministers take could have some thing like "I also declare solemnly that I would submit to the Prime Minister annually a set of key goals for which I will be personally responsible in regard to my ministry's mission and overall objectives to serve the nation. I further declare that in case I fall short in achieving the goals to a significant extent, I shall not continue as a minister." `TAPAS' will be an effective tool if and if only if the ministers set observable and measurable ministerial goals. The system, once in place, will bring tremendous discipline in terms of how the ministers allocate time between ribbon-cutting and endless speech-making trips versus project inspection and supervision. Indeed, there will be a quantum leap in setting right the work culture among the officers and staff, once the ministers are seen to worry about achieving goals and spend much time in periodic monitoring of progress. Mismanaging a company and not achieving set goals would bring ruin to the chief executive. It equally applies to departmental heads in the company. Carrying that analogy, `TAPAS' would internalise and tune the mindsets of the top functionaries of our democracy — namely the ministers — to be answerable to the people in a real sense.

Some might argue that ministers are so much at the top of the great departmental or ministry pyramid, that it is just not possible to set goals for them. Nothing can be farther from the truth. If, indeed, it were difficult to set a few major goals at the level of the minister, it would mean that the ministry itself is not justified. Below are some goals one could look into.

Revenue augmentation and reducing debts are quantifiable and meaningful goals for the finance minister. Operational efficiency and passenger safety are top goals for all ministries delivering passenger transport.

Efficiency and productivity and higher consumer satisfaction are goals for such ministries as posts and telecom. Land conservation yield maximisation and farmer welfare are the goals for the agriculture minister. Under each of these heads, there should be measurable progress indicators against the goals and in addition to the government's own reporting of progress against the goals.

If, annually, at least half a dozen important countries are persuaded not to require Indians to have a visa to enter those nations and if one or two countries are added annually to the list of those that look to our manpower for their needs, we should indeed applaud the contribution of our foreign minister. Similarly, the Indian diplomats should be evaluated on their FDI and trade augmentation efforts.

(The author, formerly with the World Bank and NUS, is Professor Emeritus, GITAM Institute of Foreign Trade, Visakhapatnam. He can be contacted at bhanoji@vsnl.net)