GOVT. PLANNING MINIMUM HUMAN RESOURSE AND MAXIMUM GOVERNANCE -
REPEATING VAJPAYEE FORMULA TO REDUCE THE NO. OF EMPLOYEES
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley seems to be
holding a view that minimum human resources means maximum governance.
At least the Budget speech he delivered on
February 29 could create such an impression as he talked, in the same breath,
about IT-enabled process reforms and the need for human
resource rationalisation.
The "governance and ease of doing
business" section of the Budget speech talks about NDA government's
"unparalleled" emphasis to good governance with special
focus on process reforms, IT-enabled government processes, etc. Stating that
the whole idea is to remove the irritants for the public in their
interface with government agencies, Jaitley explains that a task force has been
constituted for rationalisation of human resources in various
ministries. A comprehensive review and rationalisation of autonomous
bodies is underway, he informs.
The message seems to be favouring automation
and less job openings in the Central government services in future. While one
can only appreciate the government's intention to provide quicker, transparent
and efficient services to its citizens, reduction of human resources need not
always achieve that goal. In some cases, even replenishment of human
resources could be the need of the hour.
HERE IS WHY
The Central government is already functioning
with less number of employees than what is supposed to be its sanctioned
strength.
Of the total sanctioned posts of 37.16 lakh in
various Central government services, over six lakh remain vacant today. A huge
majority, 5.3 lakh vacancies, are at the clerical and support staff level.
There are over 50,000 vacancies among Group B level positions and close to
18,000 at the Group-A officers' level. A year ago, 4,802 IAS officers were in
position against a total sanctioned strength of 6,375.
The Seventh Central Pay Commission, in its
report in November 2015, informs that the current sanctioned
strength of the Central government is approximately the same as it used to be
10 years ago (37 lakh in 2006). In other words, rationalisation of
human resources has been an on-going process because of which the total
sanctioned strength of 38.9 lakh in 2014 has come down to 37.16 lakh. The
effective employee strength, if one takes out the vacant posts, would be 31
lakh, a figure that is closer to 29.82 lakh of sanctioned strength forty five
years ago (in 1971).
The total number of sanctioned posts was
perhaps the highest in 1994 (41.76 lakh) as India's economic liberalisaiton
during that period saw disinvestments in sectors like telecom and resultant
reduction in government jobs in the following years.
There are more reasons to believe that we may
not be able to do away with too many posts immediately. In a submission before
the Pay Commission, the Joint Consultative Machinery (JCM)-Staff Side had
pointed out that contrary to the common perception, 88 per cent of Central
government employees are either industrial or operational staff or
not administrative staff. It also points to the increasing trend of outsourcing
human resources through contracts, another reason, perhaps, for
less-optimal performance.
Finally, this is not the
first time BJP government is attempting to downsize the number of
Central government employees. The first NDA government under A.B. Vajpayee had brought
in a plan to optimise (not rationalise) the recruitment to Central
government jobs in 2001. The government wanted to bring in 10 per cent
reduction in total sanctioned strength in a phased manner over a period of
time. As per the "Optimisation Scheme", all ministries and
departments were mandated to prepare the Annual Direct Recruitment Plan for
each year in order to prioritise the fresh intake of manpower. It continued for
five years, and was extended for three more years, even after the change
of regime at the Centre.
It was the Sixth Central Pay Commission which
recommended the scrapping of the scheme as it felt that while
"multiskilling of the government employees would increase
their operational efficiency while simultaneously optimizing the
staff strength", a blanket ban on filling up of vacant posts across the
board can impact effective functioning of the government.
While appreciating the government's intend to
right size its human resources given the changes in the work process due to
technology and consequent reduction of layers, the Commission suggested more
flexibility for effective service delivery. "Care has to be taken that
administrative delivery structures do not become hollow or thin in critical
areas", it had stated.
By explicitly announcing the government's
decision to revise the pay structure of the Central government employees on the
basis of the Seventh Pay Commission recommendation, Jaitley has committed to
spend more on salaries. However, it should not result in the finance minister
ignoring the warning given by the Sixth Pay Commission.
Rationalisation of human resources is
good, if it is purely to improve governance and efficiency. Cutting jobs with
the sole objective of reducing the salary burden may not be advisable.
Source : http://www.businesstoday.in
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