BUREAUCRACY

Characteristics of Bureaucracy
• Weber identified the following characteristics of bureaucracy:
– Officers are organised in a clearly defined hierarchy of offices.
– Candidates are selected on the basis of technical qualifications.
– They are remunerated by fixed salaries in money.
– It constitutes a career. There is a system of ‘promotion’ according to seniority or to
achievement or both.
– The official works entirely separated from ownership of the means of administration
and without appropriation of his positions.

– Each office has a defined sphere of competence

– The officials are personally free and subject to authority only with respect to their
impersonal official obligations.

Increasing importance of Civil Service in Modern Day Society

• The scientific and technological development: The invention of telephone, telegraph,
railways and airways has made big government and large scale administration possible
• Industrial revolution:
– Growth of industries  Better regulation
– Growing Cities  Better management
– Unemployment and exploitation of labours
• Economic Planning
– Plan formulation and implementation and creation of elaborate necessary
administrative machinery have widened the scope of public administration
– Due liberalization of economy administrative functions relating to it are gradually
getting diminished
 • Calamities and crisis:
– Public administrators have to act quickly and undertake rescue operations in order to
prevent loss of life and property of the affected people.
• Population and the problems of metropolitan cities:
• High population causes various problems
• The responsibility for tackling these acute social and economic problems increases the
sphere of activity of civil service
• Emergence of welfare state:
• Government is dispenser of social services, a provider of essential commodities, a
manager of key industries and banking services and a controller and regulator of private
economic enterprises and activities.

Civil Service and its role in Governance

• Civil service plays a pivotal role in providing shape to policies that reflect people’s needs
and put their suggestive, analytical and informative roles to implement the policies.
• Our development, upliftment and progress depend mainly upon the efficient functioning
of bureaucracy
• Civil Services are the bedrock of public administration. Civil services play important role in
democracy to ensure good governance, both in developing and developed countries.
• An instrument for implementing Laws and Policies
• Participation in policy formulation
• A great stabilizing force
• Provides continuity
• An instrument of social change and economic development
• Provides a wide variety of services in the public interest

An instrument for implementing Laws and Policies

• Implement laws  regulates the behaviour of the people in society.
• Implementing public policies and programme  delivers the promised goods and services
to the intended beneficiaries
• An efficient civil service avoid waste, correct errors; limit the consequences of
incompetence or irresponsibility
Participation in policy formulation
• Civil service is the chief policy maker in government as it is a source of facts; experience;
ideas and solution
• Public administration gives advice to ministers and providing them the necessary
information.
• Civil Servant assist in formulation of policies and plans, executing and monitoring
programmes, laying down laws, rules and regulations etc.

A great stabilizing force

• Several divisive forces such as communal and ethnic conflicts, caste feuds and regional
rivalries often threaten the national unity.
• In order to develop a sense of nationhood among the people of these countries, the civil
servants have to resolve the sub-national and sub- cultural differences among the
people.
• All India Services provide uniformity in service standards and acts as great stabilizing
force

Provides continuity
• Civil services carry on the governance when governments change due to elections etc.
• Ramsay Muir has remarked that “while governments may come and go, ministers may
rise and fall, the administration of a country goes on forever. It is needless to say that civil
services form the backbone of administration”

An instrument of social change and economic development

• The developing nations are mostly traditional and poor agricultural societies without
adequate basic amenities of good life.
• These nations strive to achieve modernisation of society and economic development and
realize welfare goals.
• The accomplishment of these goals requires honest and competent civil servants.

Provides a wide variety of services in the public interest

• Protective Functions:
– protect the life and property of the people by maintaining law and order
– Protection of the environment
 • Management of public enterprises
• Assisting ministers in fulfilling their responsibilities towards the parliament and its
committees
• Handling financial operations of the state
• Administrative adjudication:
– Quasi- judicial function performed by the civil service.
– The civil servants settle disputes between the citizens and the state.
– Administrative Tribunals, with civil servants as judges are established. Ex The Income
Tax Appellate Tribunal

Civil Services in India

• The various Civil Services at the Union and State levels can be classified in different way
– the Civil Services can be categorized into three broad groups: Central Civil Services, All
India Services and the State Civil Services.

 The Central Services function under the Union Government and are generally
engaged in administering subjects which are assigned to the Union under the
Constitution.

 All India Services are common to the Union and the States and the State Services
function only under the State Governments.
– Secondly, the Union and State Services can be classified into Group A, B and C
categories based on their role and responsibilities.
– Thirdly, these services can also be classified into technical and non-technical services

Issues with Civil Service in India

• As per 2nd ARC Civil Service in India is more concerned with the internal processes than
with results
• The systemic rigidities, needless complexities and over-centralization in the policy and
management structures within which the civil service functions are too complex and
often too constraining
• The structures are based on hierarchies and there are a large number of veto points to be
negotiated for a decision to eventually emerge
 • The size and the number of ministries and departments have both overloaded the
decision-making system and diminished the capacities of the individual civil servants to
fulfil their operational responsibilities.
• Civil Services is not able to adapt to rapid and fundamental changes are taking place in
the country in terms of rapid economic growth, urbanization, environmental
degradation, technological change etc.
• They resist change as they are wedded to their privileges and prospects and thereby have
become ends in themselves
• The progress on 73rd and 74th Constitutional amendment remains very slow and local
governments are ‘local’ only in ‘form’ but are ‘central and state in content’.
• There is need to shift from pre-eminence of governance to effective governance with a
focus on decentralization and citizen-centricity

Conflict between Civil Service and Democracy

• Rigid organization structures and cumbersome procedures
• Elitist, authoritarian, conservative outlook
• Little or no opportunity to exercise individual judgment
• The requirement that a bureaucrat should follow the principles of consistency and
regularity automatically limits his capacity to adapt to changing circumstances.
• The general rules which may take for overall efficiency produce inefficiency and injustice
in individual cases.
• Civil services’ difficulty to cope with uncertainty and change is a key limit on its efficiency.

Reforms Needed in Civil Services

• Need for flexibility from a strict observance of rigid rules and regulations. Rigid rule
bound bureaucracies should be changed into flexible and action-oriented.
• Reforms are required in the field of recruitment of civil servants so that right people could
be recruited who can ensure smooth functioning of democracy.
• Training of civil servants should be able to bring about behavioural and attitudinal
changes.
• Adoption of modern management techniques; elimination of corruption; creation of new
work culture and encouraging creativity
• Other reforms
 • Simplifying rules and regulations need to be simplified so that red tapism could be
minimized
• decentralization of authority and collegiate decision making
• de-emphasis of hierarchy in the administrative structure

Reforms Needed: 2nd ARC

• National Institutes of Public Administration should be established to run Bachelor’s
Degree courses in public administration/ governance/management
– Graduates from these institute would be eligible for appearing in the Civil Services
Examinations

– Graduates in other disciplines would also be eligible to appear in the Civil Services
Examination provided they complete a ‘Bridge Course’ in the above core subjects
• The induction of officers of the State Civil Services into the IAS should be done by the
UPSC on the basis of a common examination.
• In the case of disciplinary proceedings, consultation with the UPSC should be mandatory
only in cases involving likely dismissal or removal of a government servant
• Structure of Examination: There is need to compress the examination cycle.
– The Preliminary and Main Examinations for the Civil Services Examination would be
conducted together. Evaluation of papers for the Main Examination should be done
in case of only those candidates who have secured a threshold level of marks in the
Preliminary Examination or
– Conduct Mains and Personality test together after prelims
• Capacity Building
– Mid-career trainings
– Encourage higher academic qualifications and promote writing papers for reputed and
authoritative journals
– The composition of governing bodies of the national training institutions such as the
LBSNAA, SVPNPA, IGNFA and also the State Administrative Training Institutes should
be broadened by inducting eminent experts
Other Reforms
• Performance Appraisal
– Surinder Nath Committee, 2003

 Using performance appraisal for the placement in an area where his/her abilities
and potential can be best used.

 Promotion based on actual performance, knowledge and skills required for higher
responsibilities

 No Benefit in retaining officers who lack competence, integrity etc.

– The Hota Committee on Civil Services Reforms, 2004

 Replace ACR with a system of performance assessment in which greater emphasis

is placed on objective assessment against agreed work plans.
• Accountability
– Santhanam Committee

 Constitute CVC, and administrative vigilance divisions in all Departments and

major organizations of the Government.

 Amend Article 311 of the Constitution of India for conducting disciplinary

proceedings against government servants

 Offering of bribes should be made a substantive offence.

– First ARC

 departments and organizations which were in direct charge of development

programmes should introduce performance budgeting.

 Establish the Lok Pal to deal at the Centre and the Lok Ayuktas in States.
– The Hota Committee

 Amend Sections 13 (1) (d) and 19 of the Prevention of Corruption Act and Section
197 of the Code of Criminal Procedure to protect honest civil servants from
malicious prosecution and harassment.

 Code of Ethics should be drawn up for civil servants incorporating the core values
of integrity, merit and excellence in public service.

 Each department should lay down and benchmark services to be delivered,

methods of grievance redressal and public evaluation of performance
  A Model Code of Governance should be drawn up benchmarking the standards of
governance to be made available to the citizens.
– Efficiency

 The Fifth Central Pay Commission (2000) stressed upon the need to optimise the
size of the government machinery.

 Expenditure Reforms Commission (2001) emphasised on a drastic downsizing of

the government staff strength for securing modern and professional governance
and also reducing the increasing salary bill of the Government of India.

 Hota Committee, 2004 emphasised the use of information and communication

technologies (ICT) to transform Government by making it more accessible,
effective and accountable
– Recruitment

 The Committee on Civil Service Reforms (Hota Committee Report, 2004)

recommended that aptitude and leadership tests may be introduced for selection,
and that probationers may be allowed one month’s time after commencement of
training to exercise their option for Services.
– Domain Expertise

 First ARC
o Reorganize administrative machinery along functional lines
o Recommended 8 broad areas of specialization: Economic Administration;
Industrial Administration; Agricultural and Rural Development Administration;
Social and Educational Administration; Personnel Administration; Financial
Administration; Defence Administration and Internal Security Planning

 Surinder Nath Committee Report

o Recommended 11 domains
Miscellaneous: Lateral Entry
• Arguments in favour of lateral entry
– Helpful in Policy Making-

 Bring Domain Experts into the administration

 Lateral entry would enable government to understand the impact of its policies on
stakeholders

 First ARC, Surinder Nath Committee, Hota Committee and second ARC
recommended need for specialization
– Increase in efficiency and governance-

 Political & Economic Risk Consultancy Ltd in its 2012 report rated Indian
Bureaucracy as the worst in Asia due to corruption and inefficiency.

 Career progression in the IAS is almost automatic which could put officers in
comfort zone. Lateral entrants could also induce competition within the system.

 Niti Aayog, in its Three Year Action Agenda for 2017-2020 had said that sector
specialists be inducted into the system through lateral entry as that would “bring
competition to the established career bureaucracy”
– Entry and retention of talent in Government-
 Justice BN Srikrishna-headed Sixth CPC report (2006) said lateral entry could
"ensure entry and retention of talent in the government”
– Shortage of officers:
 According to a report by Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions
there is a shortage of nearly 1,500 IAS officers in the country
– Recruitment of IAS officers at very young age-
 Makes it difficult to test potential administrative and judgement capabilities.
Some who are potentially good administrators fail to make it, and some who do
make it, fall short of the requirements. Mid-career lateral entrants with proven
capabilities will help bridge this deficiency.
– Not a new phenomenon:

 It has been successful in RBI and the erstwhile Planning Commission, as well as its
successor, the Niti Aayog.

 Concept already being followed by countries such as the United Kingdom, the
United States of America, Australia, Belgium, New Zealand etc.

 Arguments against Lateral Entry

 – Difficult to ensure responsibility and accountability
 for the decisions taken by the private people during their service, especially given
the short tenures of 3 to 5 years.
– No long term stakes
 The advantage with the current civil service is that policy makers have long-term
interests in government.
– Bypassing constitutional mechanism
 But this is being taken care of as lateral recruitment is done by UPSC
– Transparency in Recruitment
 Political interference in the Selection process may occur and it may promote
Nepotism and Spoils System
– Lack of field experience-
 Officers who will join might score on domain knowledge, but they may fall short
on the experience of working in the “fields”
– Deters existing talent:

 Reduce avenues for promotion among existing officers

 Argument that existing talent pool is not good enough demoralizes officers
– Earlier experiences
 The past experience of inducting private-sector managers to run public-sector
enterprises has not been particularly satisfactory. For e.g. Air India, Indian Airlines
etc.
– Issue of Reservation
 It is unclear whether there would be reservation for recruitment through Lateral
Entry or not

Way Ahead
• Set up public administration universities for aspiring and serving civil servants
• Deputation to Private Sector
• Central Civil Services Authority: as recommended by 2nd ARC should take decision on
posts which could be advertised for lateral entry and such other matters that may be
referred to it by the Government
• 360-degree Appraisal mechanisms based on feedback from seniors, juniors and external
stakeholders
• Other reforms (discussed earlier)
o Make bureaucratic decision-making less top-down and more transparent
o Institutionalize goal setting and tracking for each department
o Implement an HR system for government employees
o E-governance and paperless governance ranking for ministries at central and state
levels
o Outsource service delivery where possible
o Longer tenure of Secretaries
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