BABU BEAT. Shortfall at Raisina

When Finance Minister Arun Jaitley sets out on the budget exercise for 2018-19, he will have a new set of faces on his team. Three key secretaries are soon demitting office - Finance Secretary Ashok Lavasa in October, Secretary - Financial Services, Anjuly Chib Duggal, who retires in August, and Secretary - Economic Affairs, Shaktikanta Das, who is on extension till May 31.

So how does it matter? Aren’t transfers and retirements par for the course? What makes the situation challenging for the Finance Minister is that Budget 2018-19 is seen as the ‘Election Budget’. The country will go in for general elections in 2019.

This has led to some debate in bureaucratic circles on whether having a fixed tenure – two years minimum – for officers at the Secretary level makes more sense, a provision that exists for the Cabinet Secretary, Home and Defence Secretaries’ posts.

Says BK Chaturvedi, former Cabinet Secretary, during whose tenure the terms of Home and Defence Secretaries were fixed: “It was meant to be a temporary arrangement. Ideally, secretaries should hold office for minimum two years.” Chaturvedi himself was Cabinet Secretary from 2004-2007, and earlier was Secretary in important ministries.

On why the Finance Secretary’s post did not get the same treatment, Chaturvedi says, “There was nothing political in this. In fact, ministries were not involved when this decision was taken. The reason for Home and Defence was because of the work they handle – internal and external security.”

The Civil Services today is struggling with a crisis at the top as fewer officers are available for promotions to a Secretary’s post.

The total cadre strength of the IAS is 4,700, with an estimated shortage of around 900. There are around 94 secretaries (IAS and non-IAS combined) in the Union Government.

Sanjay Bhoosreddy, Honorary Secretary, Central IAS Officers Association, says this situation has arisen due to extraneous factors. “Ideally an officer should be able to work at the rank of a Secretary for minimum five years.”

Today, by the time an officer becomes a Secretary, he/she is counting the days to retirement. “ The main reason why is that the promotions have not been happening at the right intervals. In the beginning of the 17th year of service the officer should ideally become Joint Secretary, by the 23rd year should be holding the post of a Additional Secretary, and at the beginning of the 26th year start stint as Secretary,” he said.

Repeated extensions have harmed promotion prospects of those down the line. In the Finance Ministry itself, there have been instances where secretaries have been given extension if their term ended between Budget-planning exercises.

On Monday this week, Cabinet Secretary PK Sinha’s term was extended by another year. Sinha was appointed Cabinet Secretary with effect from June 13, 2015. His term was to end in June 2017. The reason for extension could be continuity, as the Cabinet Secretary is the bridge between civil servants, government as well as the Prime Minister’s office.

Another factor that has affected the shortage of officers at secretary levels is the increase in age limit to take the Civil Services exams (32 years for candidates in the general category and goes up to 37 years across various categories). Many reach the retirement age (60 years) even before they attain the highest post.

While the age limit issue is politically sensitive, there is now the added competition from lateral inductees. There is talk of getting professionals at the rank of Joint Secretaries and subsequently absorbing them. This, according to Bhoosreddy, may not be sustainable in the long run going by the past experience. However, if these people come through open competitive exams, as is the case with civil servants, they are always welcome, he argues.

A senior Secretary notes that workloads of civil servants have increased and the role has changed. Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Civil Services Day on April 21 observed that work conditions prevailing today are quite different from about two decades ago, and would evolve further over the next few years.

Essentially, civil servants are backroom boys, and this was evident from what the Prime Minister said. “… Anonymity is one of the greatest strengths of the civil services.” He cautioned officers that the use of social media should not lead to a decline in this strength, even as social media and mobile governance are leveraged for connecting people to benefits and government schemes.

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