The Hindu Business Line : Battle plan for best effect

A recent paper of the Department of Administrative Reforms titled "Towards a Citizen-Friendly Government" is further proof that Government officials and public sector executives are still not ready to serve the way they should. The Commission should, in the remaining five months of its tenure, prepare and place before the Government a short, crisp, compact battle-plan that would be easy to grasp and execute.

The political and governing classes pretty much know the ills and evils that make a mockery of governance and what they need to do to combat them. But, then, there are none so blind or deaf as those who choose not to see or hear. All that the Prime Minister really needs to do to know what ails the administration is to sit with a few citizens chosen at random from different States. They would come straight to the point by telling him that the three most intensely painful encounters they have with officialdom on a daily basis are in respect of the delivery of essential services, corruption and the attitude of callousness and hostility of the administrative personnel towards the people.

If he makes enquiries, he would know that among the countless copious notes churned out over the years by the Ministries/Departments on the subject is the one prepared in November 2005 by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) of the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions. The special focus of this 19-page note, titled "Towards a Citizen-Friendly Government" is on service delivery. The needle buried in the verbose haystack is about a proposal for an evaluation model to be developed in the next three years and for instituting a certificate of excellence to be awarded to Ministries/Departments/bodies that measure up to certain prescribed criteria.

This paper is an admission that nearly 60 years after Independence, and with all the voluminous reports on administrative reforms, Government officials and public sector executives are still not ready to serve the people the way they should and need three more years to attune themselves.

Wasted labour

It is wasted labour on another count as well. The Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Sector Unit of the South Asia Region of the World Bank had actually done a better job of highlighting the inefficiencies and failings in the delivery of services in a lucid and well-documented report: "Reforming Services in India: Drawing Lessons from Success," published in June 2005. That there is no mention of the findings of this report in the entire paper of the DARPG is typical of the proclivity of the Government to reinvent the wheel.

If the Prime Minister is still keen that the new Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC) should run its full course, he should make sure that it does not imitate its precursor — the first Commission headed by Morarji Desai — which overwhelmed the Government by producing 20 bulky reports containing 500 recommendations. Expectedly, most of them were swallowed up by "the dreary desert sands" of the secretariat.

Considering that there has been a precipitous fall in the reading habits of politicians and civil servants, the best thing for the Commission to do in the remaining five months of its tenure is to prepare and place before the Government a short, crisp, compact battle-plan that would be easy to grasp and execute. A model is given below:

Training

Inculcate the spirit of public service, by making each recruit of whatever grade work under a panchayat president, district panchayat chairman and a civil society organisation, before giving him regular work.

Instil social responsibility and the following seven components of service:

Make the people feel they are equal partners and stakeholders. Their communications should be acknowledged and replied to. Ministers downwards should set apart sufficient time at regular intervals of, say, three months, to discuss with the people matters of interest to them on a common platform.

Sensitivity: Sensing intensely, instinctively and instantly the feelings, emotions and reactions of other human beings, avoiding anything that will discourage and alienate them and going out of the way to help those in need.

Empathy: The ability to view and understand things by putting oneself in the other person's shoes.

Responsiveness: Being receptive to ideas, suggestions and requests in a positive, "will do" spirit.

Values: Making intellectual, professional and personal integrity one's second nature.

Involvement: Total identification with the objectives of an entrusted task. It is the mainspring of creativity and innovation.

Commitment: Passionate dedication to a cause of public weal and nation's progress.

Excellence: Being a little ahead of, and doing a trifle better than, requirements.

Achieving a little more than what is strictly expected.

Expose trainees to specialist, world-class faculty by inviting professors from IITs, IIMs and kindred institutions such as Harvard, Wharton and Stanford. Arrange a retreat for 2-3 months of composite groups made up of political leaders, achievers from various walks of life and civil society representatives.

Arrange courses of joint training of new recruits with elected representatives on maintaining smooth and harmonious relations with one another.

Administrative procedures

Apply the hire-and-fire system to officials from the rank of District Officers and above. When in doubt about the suitability of any official, fire him!

Set performance criteria for each post. On failure to meet them on three consecutive occasions, fire the laggard!

Bring a preponderant proportion of posts under contract system.

Revive the custom prevalent under the British Rule whereby functionaries from the President downwards signed themselves as, "I beg to remain, Sir/Madam, Your most obedient and humble servant"

Rename Goverment servants as People's Servants and refer to the working levels not as classes or grades but as accountable, more accountable and most accountable.

Entrust decisions on career prospects of People's Servants of designated levels to an independent Commission comprising eminent persons of unimpeachable credentials with hands-on experience of the different aspects of governance, and make their advice binding.

Corruption

Begin at the very top. That is where the rot starts.

Enforce the measures suggested by the Santhanam Committee to the letter. Rid Constitutional positions, Cabinets, and legislative bodies of persons whose integrity is suspect; debar them from being office bearers of political parties.

Debar from contesting elections political parties which do not furnish annual audited reports disclosing full details of receipts and expenditure.

Exclude persons against whom judiciary has framed charges from being candidates for election or from being appointed Ministers.

Set up Court Martial-type forums for trial of persons accused of malfeasance with a limit of three months for conclusion of trial and delivery of judgment. In the present drastic situation, it need not matter if one or two innocent pay the price of miscarriage of justice to get a hundred wicked persons into jail.

Confiscate property of all convicted of corruption/disproportionate assets, forfeit their passports, right to vote, right to travel and right to acquire property.

Entrust scrutiny of tenders to an independent Commission composed of professionals and technical experts of the highest reputation for integrity and competence, and make their advice binding.

Reinforcement of favourable features

Adhere to Citizens' Charters in letter and spirit; ensure right of access to information; give free hand and provide for direct release of funds to panchayati raj institutions; and wire all government offices to make governance responsive, accountable and transparent.

Public censure of citizen-hostile acts

Join hands with civil society to expose, in public forums and on Web sites, government and public sector functionaries who behave in an unbecoming, oppressive or cruel manner towards the people.

(Concluded)