PERFORMANCE OF OUR IAS OFFICERS AND THEIR DEPARTMENTS IN MAHARASHTRA
Have we ever wondered why our Governance is getting worse, and our own expectations from the Government becoming so less? Infact, discussions with most of our senior bureaucrats reveals that they accept that the State is incapable of handling such elementary issues like public health and education, housing, water and electricity distribution and so on. Hence, there is a mad rush to hand over Public assets, lands and invaluable properties to Private interests. A report was published revealing some measurable performance indicators of the departments. These are obviously reflective of the performances of our senior IAS officers who head them. This administrative system has got used to having no formal consistent appraisal system. Earlier RTI queries have revealed that Annual Confidence reports of around 25% of the officers are not available even four years later! An exercise to rate their performance based on measurable criteria shows that even if a very low pass percentage of 35% were to be fixed, 32.1% of them fail to pass.
The IAS officers are upset and have declared that they should not be judged by any measurement criterion. The Add.Chief Secretary Revenu, Smt. Neela Satyanarayan has infact sent a letter to the Chief Secretary asking how the government was being run if the officers are incompetent. The appraisal report only validates what most Citizens know; and the lady giving Narayan Rane’s certificate for her satisfactory performance confirms that to most officers their Minister’s approval is their only concern.
The plea of the IAS officers that the simple clearance of files, meeting financial performances, meeting assurances given to legislature are very mundane, and should not be used to judge their performance, displays their complete ignorance of the fundamentals of managing an organization. No wonder they perform so badly. They seem oblivious to the idea of Qualtity management, which would have taught them that without measurable demonstrated office efficiency, no policies can ever get implemented. Senior journalist Nitin Yeshwantrao has shared the detailed data with me, and a slightly detailed analysis shows that the IAS officers treat the legislature and the PAC with complete contempt. Measured in terms of the percentage of departments which have addressed the issues raised by the PAC, 66% of them have not even fulfilled 35%. On the count of fulfilling assurances given to the Legislature the figure is completely disastrous; 89% of the officers do not meet the pass criterion I am suggesting of 35%! 21 out of the 56 departments have the dubious distinction of not fulfilling any assurances given to the legislature. Amongst those with the dubious distinction of getting 0% on fulfilling assurances given to the house, are Principal Secretaries Subodh Kumar, Sunil Soni and Vidyadhar Kanade of Finance; K.P.Bakshi (Food & Civil supplies), N.B.Patil (Agriculture), Swadheen Kshatriya (Housing). Will our legislators try and get a better compliance of the assurances they get? Citizens must demand that over 50% of the IAS officer’s performance must be on measurable criterion, and the good beginning must be continued. Without this a Quality improvement in Governance is not possible. The primary and basic job of the IAS officers is to run efficient organizations.
Click the link below to view a chart giving all the details. Total ratings given and details of failures given. 10 means 100% and 3.5 will be 35%. [Click to view chart]
The above article was sent to the President of our unit by Mr. Shailesh Gandhi, RTI Activist, on 18th Feb 2008
