The Hindu Business Line : Second Administrative Reforms Commission

THE Government of India recently announced its decision to set up a Second Administrative Reforms Commission (SARC), the first one having been set up nearly three decades ago in 1966. The Government has also formed a Group of Ministers to work on the details of areas, which may be looked into by SARC. Given the current pre-occupation with cricket and visits of Pakistani and Chinese leaders, the decision has not evoked many sharp reactions from politicians or the media. Administrative reform is an important partof the process of economic reform, which is under way in India. There have been many reports by experts and there is a need for a holistic view of their recommendations.

This is particularly necessary given the current stress on decentralisation and deregulation, and in particular, the emergence of Information Technology (IT) as an important tool for communication, data analysis and administration. SARC needs to incorporate these aspects into its recommendations. The Government press communiqué announcing the setting up of the Commission recounts the areas that can be possibly covered. It lists as an important item the organisational structure of the Government of India — an ambitious but necessary objective.

Reorganisation of ministries has been an ongoing process of governance over the years, owing mainly to political exigencies. What is material is to find out how functional the ministries, as they are constituted, are, and in their interaction with each other. A specific item for enquiry for SARC could be the overarching role of the Finance Ministry in the governance of the country.

Whether it is a speed-breaker or an enabler has much to do with the efficiency of the overall system. The scrutiny of minutiae by financial ministry advisers functioning in different ministries has been alleged to be the cause of delay in government. The time has come to carry forward the ongoing reform under which each ministry is empowered to set up its own budget and implement it, subject only to the overall clearance by the Cabinet.

Second-guessing by the financial advisers, given their loyalty to another ministry — who are not answerable for results — is counterproductive. The best practices of management in private and public sectors do not encourage such external mentoring in an executive organisation.

The tyranny of precedent is another major systemic problem which SARC has to investigate and tackle. Bureaucracy in India has come to earn its desserts by the number of precedents,which it can search out in "examining" any new proposal.

While precedents are, no doubt, useful for examining policy options, they cannot always constrain them. Our system of governance encourages elaborate note-writing and citing precedents. This lead to delays and alibis. A keen observer of Indian administration spoke of an officer who had refused to deal with a matter because it had not been put up to him with notes. The obvious solution was to "persuade" the Section Officer to expedite his examination of the case, and voila, the job was done. An officer-based system is the answer. But, the solution is not easy.

The procedure in the private sector involves much less note-writing and has less respect for precedent. The domination of the process by the noting clerk will come to an end if the new proposals placed before the Government are dealt with based on their merits. SARC will be considerably assisted in its work if its members include a few private sector veterans, especially from the IT sector.

Administrative reform has tokeep in mind the ultimate objective of delivering outcomes, rather than of perfecting the process. The job of administrative reform has to devote attention to the States, which are at the forefront of government everywhere. States such as Andhra Pradesh, have already started on various programmes of administrative modernisation. SARC needs to maintain a fine balance between IT-led reforms and other basic systemic changes, such as decentralisation with accountability.

The States will do well to set up their own administrative reform bodies that can concentrate on specific changes. Of particular interest are areas in which the common man comes in contact with bureaucracy. The Department of Registration, Commercial Taxes and Police are among those that come to mind. Introduction of IT can simplify the search for information, which is part of the problem encountered by applicants for clearances and registration certificates.

Land records, in particular, have been considered for introduction of IT. So also the Commercial Tax Department.With the introduction of VAT, States will do well to draw a roadmap of the necessary changes in their administrative set-up to match the Central Administrative Reforms Commission outlines.

The difference between an advanced country and a developing country, such as ours, lies in the responsiveness and the sensitivity of the administration to grievances and requests of the public. NRIs often compare the slowness with which their requests are considered in the countries of their origin with that in the countries they reside in. This is particularly true of clearances needed by investors. So too is the case with proposals for credit from banks.

The objective of the processes, which our governments undertake, is for the most part the same as those undertaken in advanced countries. But the time taken is more. There is scope foradoption of greater discretion at various levels and the introduction of IT where it is feasible. An Administrative Reforms Commission is only as good as its members enable it to be. It is hoped that the Government of India will be eclectic in its choice of persons to serve on the Commission. Hopefully, it will not be an exercise in political accommodationwhere distinguished, but not yet extinguished, political personalities are rewarded.

There is a need for a sophisticated, but practical, new look at the problems of reinventing the Government. The leadership under Dr Manmohan Singh is used to thinking out of the box when it comes to reform. It should not be difficult to draft well-known corporate leaders in IT and other sectors to serve on the Commission. It will also be worthwhile attempting to include `draft' accomplished intellectuals from across party boundaries. This will help make the Commission a truly bipartisan exercise. An important suggestion relates to the activism of the judiciary, which impinges on administrative efficiency. The tendency of the administration to cede space to the judiciary in matters of economic and social policy has been evident in recent times. The judiciary has been eagerly occupying that space.

Decisions, which shouldlegitimately be taken by administrators and political authority, are now, by default, in the judicial domain. This may be convenient for the politicians, but is injurious to the efficiency of the government, particularly given the gross overburdening of the judiciary in India. SARC has to seek ways to reduce the potential for such judicial activism due to litigation or other reasons. The press communiqué includes refurbishing of personnel administration. This is going to be the key issue that SARC has to examine.

The Hota Committee on Civil Service Reform and the Prime Minister's statements on the issue represent a useful, albeit controversial, starting point for SARC. There is also the perennial question of how much to pay civil servants at the senior level.

sCivil services have discharged their duties well, under trying circumstances. But to continue to expect the best among our youth to prefer the civil services when alternative options are more enticing is unrealistic."When you pay peanuts, you get monkeys," so goes a proverb. Surely, the salary system cannot equal the attractiveness of offers by the multinationals or the IT majors. But there has to be some degree of comparability. The principle of fair comparison holds good for civil servants as well as for technical persons. This is a difficult problem. SARC has to evolve solutions for such problems that are at the core of the administrative challenge.

SARC can be a good or bad initiative depending on its membership, how it is structured and what its terms of reference are. It can do much to transform India's governance from a procedure-oriented and process-dominated system to an outcome-oriented one.

Hopefully, Dr Manmohan Singh, the successful economic reformer, will also initiate an epoch-making phase of administrative reforms. Here is wishing SARC a successful start and a useful tenure.

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