Good Governance – An Agenda for Change
Structural Reforms, Technology leverage, Lateral entry of Experts and Professionals
Governance - a holistic process combined with an underlying framework or structure, determines who takes the important decisions, how such decisions are taken and in what time, who all get to know those decisions, what results are desired out of those decisions, what all it takes to execute such decisions, what results are ultimately achieved out of such decisions and who all are accountable for such decisions and for their outcomes. With rising levels of education, awareness, aspirations and expanding reach of social media and communication technologies, demand for governance by the citizens has grown manifold. Moreover, the complexities and challenges of governance in a fairly liberalised and globally connected economy have grown significantly too. Understandably so, governance has increasingly acquired the prominence in national discourse today – primarily on account of its direct and profound relevance in efficient and effective delivery of welfare programs and development initiatives towards the common good of citizens.
Governance, by nature, is dynamic and positive as it aims to achieve the desired results of common good for the benefit of citizens, society and nation, irrespective of where it is applied – in government or in private sector or in civil society organisations. Therefore, calling governance as good governance does not change its meaning - rather it enhances and reinforces the idea of common good. Given the all-encompassing functions of government, good or bad governance really determines the fate of any delivery mechanism adopted by the government, irrespective of the field in which it operates.
Good governance is perhaps the single most important factor today in determining the success of government’s poverty eradication programs, in maintenance of rule of law, in administering of timely justice, in driving rapid economic growth (in a globally connected economy), in promoting level playing field, in fostering equity, in facilitating a liberal and compliance-oriented regime for businesses and so on and so forth. Naturally, it plays a powerful role in government functioning towards ensuring an overall enabling environment for delivering the desired outcomes – rapid, balanced, equitable growth and development.
No time in the history of this nation has been as critical as it is today when India is on the verge of taking that big leap into the frontline of nations. The risk, otherwise, is that it could be left behind forever. No matter how able are the politicians or how efficient are the bureaucrats or how abundant are the resources or how entrepreneurial is the private sector or how productive is the human capital (not that we don’t need all of these in reasonable measure), without the system of good governance underlying a lean, robust and responsive government structure, the best outcome typically would be either a status quo situation i.e. more of the same for the nation.
Adoption of good governance processes and systems can only be ignored by this nation to its own peril given the complexity and scale of challenges and issues in this day and age. It is good that the idea of good governance has arrived with a bang in this country and the nation understands its relevance and promise. People’s overwhelming support to Modi-BJP in the last general elections is ample evidence of the same.
Today, citizens want participation and their voices heard in the overall decision making process from which they have been kept out for long. Aspirational India is demanding a strategic vision for the nation from its leaders and wants to see the translation of that vision in form of progressive, pragmatic policies and procedures and their efficient execution. These are the times of transparency and accountability. Nobody can take the India of today for a ride. The citizens are increasingly aware and conscious of their rights now unlike the days of the past. Systems and processes can’t remain opaque any more. Information on policies, processes and decisions taken (or not taken) will have to flow freely and access to such information will have to be provided in a timely manner.
The nation can’t be kept in the dark now. Citizens are not only looking at being a part of the decision making process but seek to monitor the progress as well. People, as stakeholders, want to be taken into confidence and to have their voices heard when plans, strategies and priorities in the context of development are decided and also while fruits of development are shared across regions. Similarly, days of minimal / zero accountability in this country are over now - for good. The governance system needs to be credible and citizen friendly rather than adversarial. Citizen is not because of the system. It is rather otherwise.
The nation can’t be kept in the dark now. Citizens are not only looking at being a part of the decision making process but seek to monitor the progress as well. People, as stakeholders, want to be taken into confidence and to have their voices heard when plans, strategies and priorities in the context of development are decided and also while fruits of development are shared across regions. Similarly, days of minimal / zero accountability in this country are over now - for good. The governance system needs to be credible and citizen friendly rather than adversarial. Citizen is not because of the system. It is rather otherwise.
Moreover, the nation today needs equity and rule of law to prevail – perhaps more than ever. It has suffered on this account for long and it can’t afford to do so now if it has to take that big leap. No growth or development on a sustainable basis is possible in an unfair system which breeds violation of rights, inequity, corruption, discrimination, injustice, violence, apathy, bias, non-enforcement and non-compliance of laws, etc. Rule of law brings equal opportunity to all towards their well-being, protects human rights, empowers the weak, and makes the system fair and free. Moreover, economic growth can’t be allowed to be skewed anymore after having experienced the situation where various States (West Bengal, Orissa, BIMARU, North Eastern states, etc.) got left out. Moreover, people are just fed up of dealing with compromised integrity and ethics of personnel manning the governance system.
The integral and moot question is that how does the nation get there. It is true that strategic vision, strong political will, administrative acumen and decisiveness in the political leadership shall play critical roles in driving this process. However, the real planning, organising, implementation, delivery and monitoring on the ground are done by the administrative machinery - the system. Unless the administrative framework, the structure and the personnel manning the administrative system are geared towards the needs of the times, this good governance process either won’t yield desired results or would remain a non-starter.
Clearly, the existing structural framework of bureaucracy continues to suffer from a deep colonial hangover wherein the legacy colonial
bureaucratic structure and machinery (so called “steel frame’) was designed to rule
this colony and sustain the rule of sovereign British Masters. Founding fathers
of Constitution, in the aftermath of Partition, decided to continue with this legacy
framework for a strong Centre, as that was the pragmatic way out (in the
contextual sense) at that point in time. Successive governments since
independence have continued to feel the need for restructuring the bureaucracy
but have failed to do so. Most of the Administrative Reform Commissions /
Committees (ARCs) and their recommendations have remained non-starters at best. Some well-meaning recommendations of ARC’s (one such Committee had 500+ recommendations) and of other committees have continued to bite the dust for several decades. Besides,
absence of strong political will, the politician-bureaucrat nexus, license raj regime, lack of consensus and bureaucratic stranglehold over administrative reforms have successfully been able to scuttle such reform moves until
now.
Today, the general problems of bureaucracy are many. Poor professionalism, patchy quality of policy making, absence of benchmarking, capability deficit and relevant skills gap, poor public service aptitude, incompetence, non-performance, integrity issues, inefficiency and ineffectiveness, poor use of technology, partiality and bias, resistance to change, prevalence of mai-baap culture, collusion with political class, being too involved in maintenance of party in power at times, nexus with vested and special interests, widespread corruption, little empathy towards the needs of citizens it serves, poor connect with public, critical cog in crony capitalism, etc. are all widely known and acknowledged. This is notwithstanding the fact that bureaucracy still has some very competent and bright people within its fold but their spark, talent, vigour and motivation are usually marred and blunted by the long standing systemic ills of bureaucracy.
Too many generalists, too much of discretionary power (and its misuse), little accountability, security of job, constitutional protection that has outlived its utility, ruler/regulator role instead of facilitator / public service orientation, absence of timely recognition, lack of reward and deterring punishment, absence of personal responsibility, interference of politicians, frequent transfers and absence of continuity are some of the systemic issues afflicting the “steel frame”.
During the LokPal debates last year, an argument was floating in the media about possibilities of frivolous public complaints against bureaucrats that could make even honest and upright officers stop taking decisions for the fear of the same. People making such arguments were conveniently forgetting the fact that the bureaucrats are hired to make decisions in an independent and honest manner - without fear or favour. And they are mandated to implement such decisions as well. Aren't they paid and well taken care of by the taxpayers for their services rendered to the nation. If suppose, for any reason, a bureaucrat stops taking decisions, then, will there be any justification left for him to continue in office and continue to draw salaries and perks. After all, such bureaucrats always have the option to step down and pursue something else and let other capable people - who are willing to serve and make decisions, replace them. There is no dearth of talented and committed people outside the bureaucracy. The very notion that bureaucrats do some sort of a favour to the nation by taking decisions is plain elitist and is completely obnoxious. There is no dearth of talented and capable replacements available outside the bureaucracy nowadays.
During the LokPal debates last year, an argument was floating in the media about possibilities of frivolous public complaints against bureaucrats that could make even honest and upright officers stop taking decisions for the fear of the same. People making such arguments were conveniently forgetting the fact that the bureaucrats are hired to make decisions in an independent and honest manner - without fear or favour. And they are mandated to implement such decisions as well. Aren't they paid and well taken care of by the taxpayers for their services rendered to the nation. If suppose, for any reason, a bureaucrat stops taking decisions, then, will there be any justification left for him to continue in office and continue to draw salaries and perks. After all, such bureaucrats always have the option to step down and pursue something else and let other capable people - who are willing to serve and make decisions, replace them. There is no dearth of talented and committed people outside the bureaucracy. The very notion that bureaucrats do some sort of a favour to the nation by taking decisions is plain elitist and is completely obnoxious. There is no dearth of talented and capable replacements available outside the bureaucracy nowadays.
Casteism, regionalism and communalism are factors that are also widely prevalent today - across levels of bureaucracy and which significantly hamper its functioning, delivery and credibility. The divisions in Indian society are not only reflected in the ranks of the bureaucracy, but this bureaucratic malaise reinforces such social divisions leading to repeated violations of social, economic and political rights of people - especially of the weaker sections. This not only widens the existing fissures in the society but considerably weakens the nation and its progress too.
The role of a bureaucrat has itself widened beyond recognition - from merely enforcement of law and order and revenue collection during independence time to administering a plethora of planned national and State welfare programs, economic policy formulation, implementation and regulation besides running of PSUs, today. Bureaucracy is simply overburdened with too much stuff in its plate than what it can really chew. And this is topped up by too much of discretionary power and very little systemic accountability towards the stakeholders, it serves. Interestingly, the salary and perks along with time-bound promotions are assured even if a bureaucrat just keeps signing on the files put up before him without making any reasonable contribution until retirement. Absence of reward or punishment on delivery or non-delivery of performance, absence of personal responsibility and lack of accountability are key factors in such rut settling in there.
The bureaucracy, hardly has any delivery driven and performance improvement culture wherein objective and scientific performance measurement could be the focal point of its evaluation process. One can’t improve anything which doesn’t ever get measured – both quantitatively and qualitatively. There is still no metrics based appraisal system for bureaucrats where-in they could be appraised on measurable achievements against pre-set mandatory annual / half yearly quantifiable and qualitative targets. The tragedy of performance in current bureaucracy is that a zero and a hero are appraised and treated alike. There is simply no incentive or systemic benefit for talent and hard work in bureaucracy - motivating it to perform to its potential or to excel, thereby causing talent and potential to waste in mediocrity over a period of time. Culture of excellence appears to be an alien phrase in this space.
Structurally, the issues start right at the recruitment stage where bureaucrats (excluding a few academicians on UPSC panels) select bureaucrats. Aspirants from all academic backgrounds have been allowed to sit for IAS in the Civil Services exams. It is hard to comprehend that a Bachelors degree in Public Administration is still not a compulsory requirement to be an IAS officer in India. Then, there is the grossly misused constitutional protection provided to bureaucrats through Article 311 that deals with protecting them from dismissal or removal from service. Although it was meant to enable bureaucracy to function honestly and independently but in this day and age of rampant corruption, such protection has virtually given it a free hand.
Another grossly misused protection for bureaucrats is granted vide statute – Section 6A of DSPE Act wherein a mandatory sanction or clearance is required from the Ministry (politician) before prosecuting senior bureaucrats on corruption charges while in office. And such undesirable and unreasonable protection continues throughout the life cycle of a bureaucrat giving him or her virtually a free hand in use or misuse of authority. In other words, the issue is that there is too much of discretionary authority vested in bureaucracy that virtually provides unfettered grounds for misuse of such power and authority without fear or accountability. Then, there are issues of very wide range of functions and job responsibilities of bureaucrats that most of them simply fail to handle and do justice with besides the fact that there has been growing tendency towards systemic centralisation of power in bureaucracy and very little devolution of power to the people on ground.
For instance, more than desired authority and responsibility assigned to the office of DM / Collector has almost made this Office loaded with unbridled decision making authority and, at the same time, has burdened it with a work load that is realistically unmanageable and unjustified - more so for a relatively junior bureaucrat. The current job description of a District Magistrate - in its current form and substance, definitely needs to be objectively evaluated. It defies logic that the senior District Education, Planning, Public works, Irrigation, Rural Works, Health, Transport, Food and Civil supply, Industries, Disaster Management, Drugs Control, and other senior functionaries (having 20-25 years of experience) have to report to the District Magistrate who is a relatively junior bureaucrat with just 6-7 years of administrative experience and little clue of the specific functions.
Another example of questionable arrangement at the District level is that delivery of most of the social welfare schemes at district level is routed through the overly burdened office of DM / Collector instead of having direct planning and implementation at the level of Panchayat institutions and Urban local bodies having due representation from local people with self-help groups / NGOs assisting the effort . In essence, there isn’t much of devolution of real power and authority to the citizens at ground level. Neither is any outsourcing of non-core activities to autonomous, semi-autonomous bodies, NGOS at the District or State level despite two decades of 72nd/ 73rd amendments. The answer to this malaise probably lies in divesting the office of DM / Collector with development and judicial functions and letting it focus on core functions of revenue collection, law and order and coordination with different agencies.
There is no mid-career appraisal system to remove the bottom 20-30% in bureaucratic machinery. Absence of any mid-career performance appraisal to weed out the chronic non-performers, lack of any lateral entry of professionals and experts in middle and senior levels of bureaucracy or even in PSU senior management , absence of any independent social or community audit of performance of a bureaucrat, poor customer service and development orientation, poor quality standards and lack of benchmarking on services delivered by bureaucrats, absence of meaningful performance metrics in appraisal system, lack of timely rewards and punitive measures, inadequate reach out and interfacing with public, very little leveraging of technology and analytics in planning or delivery, foo much focus on adherence to rules instead of on outcomes, reactive approach to governance instead of a pro-active one, absence of collaboration and partnership with citizens, advisory nature of constitutional offices of CVC and CAG, etc. are some major impediments in obtaining operational efficiency and accountability of bureaucrats.
Interestingly, the bureaucrats keep getting half month salaries and perks even when they get suspended (though seldom they are) on corruption or misdemeanour charges. Has any bureaucrat - found guilty of causing loss of revenue or loss of capital to the exchequer, ever been asked to deposit the lost amount? Given the widespread corruption in government departments across levels, large scale misappropriation and wastage of governmental funds and increasing misuse of authority / discretionary power in allocation of quotas and licenses - all happening under the watch of bureaucrats, how many bureaucrats in independent India have been dismissed from service for corruption or for dereliction of duty or for misdeeds in last sixty five years? Probably, they can be counted on fingers. Tragic isn’t it? For instance, 20+ people died in Patna in the wake of a stampede during Dusshehra celebrations last year. For administrative action, a few officers (DM, ADM, SP, and IG) were simply transferred and an eye-wash enquiry was set up. Is this a proportionate punishment for such a tragedy - arguably caused by dereliction of duty of officials? In private sector, loss of lives in such high numbers due to safety issue or inaction of officials in, e.g. let's say in a factory of a Manufacturing Company could have led to not only the dismissal of some officers directly responsible and the Chief of that Factory but could also have led to the resignation of CEO of that company in some cases. Thus, the drift in accountability and personal responsibility in bureaucracy has gone on for too long now and it must be arrested sooner than later, by all legitimate and reasonable means.
Given the fact that a number of honest, hardworking, upright, brilliant officers are still in bureaucracy and who are still able to contribute on an individual basis, their number is unfortunately in a minority. Such exceptions and individual / personality driven functioning is no governance system at all and hence not relevant here. The question is whether the current bureaucratic structure and the bureaucracy in general in its current avatar can meet the current needs, complexities and challenges of a rapidly growing economy and of an aspirational youthful nation or not. The existing governance structure and processes are inadequate in today's context. The delivery system as laid out today is ill equipped without a doubt.
Moreover, domain expertise in relevant field - specialised skills, knowledge and adequate experience in the relevant field at the top of bureaucracy has been ignored for far too long. The reasons are simple – the scope, complexities, challenges of a modern day setting and the skills required to comprehend and grapple with the same can only come with specific skills and relevant experience over the years. These are times of extremely complex problems requiring specific skills and vast relevant experience to deal with the problems and issues at hand. In such a scenario, Air India has had successive bureaucrats with little or absolutely no aviation experience as its MD/CEO – driving that Airline into a debt hole of Rs.40000 crores with losses running into Rs.5000 crores a year over the last decade or so. Those bureaucrats, having spent 15-20 years in leading unrelated small size Departments in States and in Centre, got pitch forked into running a complex global commercial Airline with a turnover of Rs.20000+ crores and with 27000+ people working there. Had the Airline not been bailed out with the Rs.30000 crores government package of taxpayer money, the Airlines would have surely gone down into bankruptcy.
Coal is such a critical input for fuel depleted power industry in this country. Coal India Ltd. (CIL) is already grappling with production target shortfalls, lately, thereby creating fuel shortages for fuel hungry power industry across the country. This shortage has forced various power plants to import coal at a higher price and those power plants which can't afford to import coal are lying idle for want of coal supplies from CIL. The current CIL Chief is a bureaucrat having just two years of experience in Coal Ministry and rest of his experience is in unrelated departments and Ministries. Previously, he has spent most of his time in his parent State in departments of land revenue, irrigation, urban development, textiles, sugar, etc. Another bureaucrat – an Additional Secretary Coal was heading CIL for the last six months. He had no coal sector or industrial experience and had served in his parent State in departments of Taxes, Expenditure, Forests and Wild life, and at Centre in Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Panchayati Raj, Cabinet Secretariat, Delhi University (as Registrar), etc. It is interesting to note that more than 3.5 lacs people work in this organisation and CIL’s annual turnover stands at Rs.1 lac crores plus. Will any private sector organisation of that size and complexities commit such hara-kiri and hire a person of that profile as CEO/MD anywhere in the world?
Another bureaucrat is the MD of Projects and Development India Ltd. – a consultancy organisation of project experts. Another one is the CEO of HUDCO. National Highway Authority has three bureaucrats as Member -Technical and Member - Finance. Controller General of Patents and Trademark is a bureaucrat. CAG, CIC, Competition Commission, Telecom Regulatory Authority, SEBI, CERC, Spice Board, Rubber Board, etc. all have bureaucrats as Heads. Previous RBI governors have been bureaucrats. PSUs like SAIL and FCI have had bureaucrat CMDs in the past. There is only one Authority – DG Hydrocarbons where a technocrat is the Head today. Probably, some more PSUs have technocrat Heads as aberrations. In States, almost all PSUs have bureaucrats as CEOs/MDs. And the long list of such appointments in PSUs, Regulatory Authorities, Boards, and even Universities continue unabated - both at Centre and in States.
The most interesting aspect of bureaucrats heading these PSUs is that there is hardly any accountability of these bureaucrats as they move on to some other assignment after their tenure at PSU or at any Authority – with contribution or without any contribution of any note. Due to job security, they can’t even be dismissed even if they take the PSU down into red during their tenure. Even after their retirements, they end up grabbing independent Director positions on Boards of PSUs. It is amazing to note that 35-40% of independent Directors on Boards of Maharatnas and Navratnas are retired bureaucrats today. Given the fact that many of these bureaucrat run, taxpayer supported PSUs are badly managed institutions with very poor corporate governance and many in red, such appointments on PSU Boards and of CEOs must be stopped. Bright and experienced professionals and domain experts should replace such generalist bureaucrats. PSUs have long been used as a parking lot for serving and retired bureaucrats and that policy needs to be reversed.
Interestingly, a bureaucrat (without adequate domain experience) even leads extremely functional, technical and expertise oriented Ministries in Centre and States - Ministry of Finance, Economic Affairs, Financial Services, Health, Telecom, IT, Defence, Law, Power, Public Enterprises, Highways, Shipping, Tourism, Textile, Industry and Commerce, Aviation, Oil and Gas, Environment and Forests, Agriculture, Disaster Management, etc. The fact of bureaucrats leading the welfare-oriented Ministries is understandable and logical but as Heads of Technical Ministries should be a big NO in these challenging, complex and daunting times. Allowing lateral entries of domain experts, professionals, academicians, researchers, etc. in bureaucracy especially at the top and middle levels at both Centre and Sates looks imminent now. No wonder, most of the developed nations have experts, professionals, senior members of academia and research organisations manning such Ministries at senior and also at middle levels in government there.
Governance can’t be good governance until it is enabled by optimal use of skills, systems, processes and technology for delivering efficient governmental services. The key drivers of efficiency in governmental services are convenience of interfacing with government, ease of use, simplicity of interaction and choice of alternative delivery channels. Technology is the key enabler behind these drivers. Efficiency, optimised processes and technology go hand in hand. With innovation, creativity, speed and ease of use, technology has gone on to change the way people live and work forever and it has the potential to revolutionise government functioning and outreach too. Unless power of technology is harnessed to the maximum, efficient delivery of governmental services and programs to the weakest in the chain will be a distant dream.
Digitisation, e-governance, operational resilience, departmental portals, online transactional services, customer relationship management, cheap access to reliable internet / web services / mobile services, data integrity and privacy, integration of databases and networks across governmental agencies, credible payment gateways, robust scheduling software, cyber security, etc. are some of the primary requirements for the current governance system to graduate to the next level. The priorities of overall ICT leverage will have to be set right. Powerful social media will have to be increasingly leveraged by government departments and agencies in order to enhance citizen engagement (through interaction and communication) and quality of government’s service delivery. The daunting challenge will be to get the bureaucracy moving in order to embrace new technology, to integrate various legacy platforms and databases – BPL, APL, Aadhar, Driving license, PAN, etc., to reduce IT infrastructure costs and to move the old age opaque outdated governance mechanism - from floppy disks, CDs, etc., onto the 21st century new age technology platforms - cloud computing, mobile apps, etc.
Statutes and laws which have lost meaning and relevance in present times must be repealed in right earnest. Such archaic redundant laws are unwarranted burden on the governance structure and hamper its responsiveness and credibility in changing times. The laws and rules must reflect the liberalism and dynamism of changing realities on ground. Redundant and obsolete laws (and there are many in the system) that hold back bureaucratic functioning and delivery must be weeded out quickly. Colonial era laws which are in direct conflict with constitutionally guaranteed fundamental rights in independent India must go. All pre / post-independence statutes which breed secrecy in governance and inaccessibility of public need to be identified and be removed quickly. Bureaucracy must be working with laws which are in sync with the needs of this day and age. If bureaucracy has to deliver the desired goals, antiquated laws and rules will have to be removed from the system and be replaced with progressive, just and reasonable statutes and rules - enabling quick decision making, efficiency, effectiveness and compliance.
A paradigm shift is required to correctly position the concept of good governance in public administration to deliver results that the nation is looking for. For a rule of law based development and delivery oriented new age governance system, top focus will have to be on efficiency and management than merely on policy advice, on high levels of competence and public service, on high standards of responsiveness and performance, on high moral and ethical standards, on responsive citizen centric and facilitative approach, on flexibility and adaptability, on innovation and creativity, on information sharing and full accountability, on enhanced trust levels and confidence, on recognition and protection of rights and values in governance, on objective setting and outcome measurement, on timely rewards and punishment, etc. All of these will have to be brought into play for good governance to deliver the India that everybody is looking for. With a new decisive dispensation @Centre in place and kicking, time for incremental and cosmetic changes in governance will not suffice as the pace of proposed change is fast and exponential.
This great nation has lived and borne with poor archaic governance for long and is not at all ready to accept more of the same. Aspirational India of today has the required human capital, power and drive of youth, talent and education, natural resources, human enterprise and a decisive leadership at the helms to go all out for the desired outcome. What it needs is a paradigm shift towards a responsive, efficient and effective decision making governmental structure and processes in place to make it happen. This is really the nation’s calling today. The challenge is humongous but the time and space is right for such a move.
Disclaimer: These are my personal viewsThis great nation has lived and borne with poor archaic governance for long and is not at all ready to accept more of the same. Aspirational India of today has the required human capital, power and drive of youth, talent and education, natural resources, human enterprise and a decisive leadership at the helms to go all out for the desired outcome. What it needs is a paradigm shift towards a responsive, efficient and effective decision making governmental structure and processes in place to make it happen. This is really the nation’s calling today. The challenge is humongous but the time and space is right for such a move.
