Civil servants must change modes of functioning: PM
Apr 21, 2007 - 4:30:42 PM
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'I am hopeful that once this mechanism of agents of change takes shape, we will be able to see visible results in a reasonably short period of time.'
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By IANS,
[RxPG] New Delhi, April 21 - Exhorting bureaucrats to be more forward-looking in their working style and orientation, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Saturday said these traits were vital for the country's economic transformation.
'We need to think 20 to 30 years into the future and design systems, structures and procedures which are robust enough to deliver results far into the future. I already see the stress and strain in many areas of governance and wonder how much longer a creaking system can go on,' Singh said while addressing a function organised on the occasion of Civil Service Day.
'While economic reforms abolished the License Raj, complaints of Inspector Raj persist, in fact, they may be getting louder.'
Delving on the slew of measures introduced in the last couple of years to make the bureaucracy more responsive, citizen friendly and result oriented, Singh lamented that much more needs to be done to promote a culture of excellence and probity in public conduct in the coming years.
Addressing top civil servants at the Vigyan Bhavan, Singh left the audience with a series of posers for improved governance and human resource development.
'We need to think whether this framework is adequate in the years to come; whether past modes of functioning will address the demands of the future in a fast changing world; whether skills and capabilities that were relevant in the past have outlived their utility?' said Singh.
'It is only by asking and answering these questions will we be able to identify institutional reforms which will meet the needs of our times.'
In an unusually frank speech, Singh also made it a point to mention that often policy reform measures do not deliver the desired outcomes because of lack of forward movement in government processes.
'This is after all what gives rise to the so-called Inspector Raj. This is what makes the interface of a common citizen with government a cumbersome and daunting affair. This is often the root cause of corruption as well. When I meet individuals or industrialists, it is this aspect of government, which is crying out for change,' he said.
Singh also spelt out his personal philosophy of how he viewed reform of government as a means of making citizens central to all activities and reorganising government to effectively address the concerns of the common people.
'This requires out-of-the-box thinking. It requires innovative thought backed up by a mechanism to implement new ideas. We live in a world characterised by unprecedented social, economic and technological change. An efficient management of change should be a key concern of a dynamic and well-functioning system of public administration.'
In addition to the mandatory mid-term career training programme and performance appraisal formats introduced for officers, Singh said his government was also preparing to appoint 'agents of change' who would catalyse process reform initiatives.
'These agents of change would be public oriented personnel of outstanding calibre and would be strategically located to engineer reform. They would be free from departmental baggage and work on a full time basis within the system to deliver results,' declared Prime Minister Singh.
'I am hopeful that once this mechanism of agents of change takes shape, we will be able to see visible results in a reasonably short period of time.'
The Prime Minister's Awards for Excellence in Public Administration were given to Rajiv Chawla, secretary, e-governance, Karnataka, and R.S. Pandey, secretary in the ministry of steel and a former chief secretary of Nagaland.
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