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COVER
STORY: BUREAUCRACY
Contd...
Checking
numbers alone won't help
The
peon, unlike his LDC superior, has not yet lost out to technology, the
movement of files in the government and personal errands still being a
manual exercise. But his strategic clout is markedly less than the LDC/UDC
fraternity. Between 1991 and 1999, the ranks of Group C still managed
to grow from 2.09 million to 2.35 million. But Group D was almost stagnant,
growing from 1.04 million to 1.09 million in the same period. The restriction
in the growth of these subalterns of the government has come about partly
due to the efforts of the special inspection unit (SIU) of the Department
of Expenditure in the Finance Ministry. SIU's work is to identify surplus
staff among civilian employees (excluding the Railways' and the Post and
Telecoms' 2.28 million). During 1991-2000, SIU rolled back 10,593 and
6,969 vacancies in Group C and Group D. With SIU pressure and an all-round
contraction in Group C and D recruitments,
it is likely their numbers will fall over the years. However, checking
the numbers alone will not make the government more fit, more responsive
and less costly.
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| AMBASSADORS
OF INDOLENCE: A top-heavy government with proliferation of secretaries
has slowed the administration |
In 1998-99,
the pay of the civilian employees shorn of all allowances was Rs 19,440.49
crore. The next year, it jumped to Rs 25,842.48 crore. The argument that
it was due to the FCPC recommendations being effected, clubbing together
the basic pay and DA, will not wash because the allowances too rose from
Rs 9,463.73 crore to Rs 11,615.54 crore. In the next budget, experts forecast
the share of civilian employees' pay and allowances will cross 23 per
cent of revenue receipts. That leaves only 77 paise of the tax rupee to
meet the interest charges on past debts, pay soldiers and buy arms to
fight belligerent neighbours, not to speak of building roads and investing
in education and public health.
Worse still,
as economist Suresh Tendulkar, a member of the FCPC, suggests, "The
bloating of the Centre is having a spill-over effect on the general government,
from Delhi right down to the panchayats, which are all increasing the
cost of delivery of their services." Tendulkar has rightful grievances
against the government as the FCPC report was sanitised by the previous
United Front Government, taking out the conditions of job cuts, for acceptance
by a Group of Ministers in which Ram Vilas Paswan, the present communications
minister, was a prominent member. The dramatic rise in the wage bill of
Central government employees in 1998-99 is the direct consequence of that
decision. And now it is spilling over into the states. In Maharashtra,
after a wage revision for state government employees, the administration
is so bankrupt that it has frozen DA payments and halted a promised payment
of pension to artistes. In the states where the governments have revised
wages in line with the Centre, the local bodies are starved of cash.
In India,
where the government is still a giant (its monopoly over insurance, mining
and electricity continues), a staggering 21 million people live off salaries
drawn from one government or the other-Central, PSU, state, aided schools
and institutions and local bodies. They support about 100 million people,
or 10 per cent of the population, with a salary bill which, by the last
count, was 8 per cent of the GDP. It is way below the high salary cost
in relation to the GDP in advanced and socially aware economies of north
Europe, notably Sweden.
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| The
babu gets promoted inspite of delaying decisions and making money |
|
Illustration
by Jayanto
|
However,
even Sweden does not have fixed pay scales for government employees. In
India, the pay-commission culture of wage negotiations for government
jobs has upset all considerations of benefits and costs. A government
driver may cost as much as Rs 6,500 a month, excluding pension, whereas
it costs no more than Rs 3,000 to hire a private driver. The monthly cost
of a CEO of a medium-level private company is around Rs 5 lakh and he
is accountable to the directors. On the other hand, the secretary to the
Central government is entitled to pay and benefits worth Rs 8 lakh a month
but is accountable to none. If found wanting, he can be transferred but
not axed. He is protected by the Constitution. Like Banwari Lal, and everybody
else in the government, he is a privileged citizen with guaranteed rights,
guaranteed pay and no guarantee of productive work. That's the curse of
a bloated babudom on India.
Top
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METRO TODAY
If
planned well, the quake could be the Keynesian opportunity for Yashwant
Sinha to trigger growth, 
