REFORM OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
ADMINISTRATIVE LEADERSHIP The principal objectives to be achieved in public administration are integrity, efficiency, economy and public co-operation. These aims are closely inter-related and, to some extent, inter-dependent. Measures designed to secure any one of the objectives help to achieve others as well. The problem, however, has-to be approached simultaneously from several directions. The end we seek is service of the community through good administration. That service, more especially in a State, which aims to become a Welfare State, depends on the goodwill, appreciation and co-operation of the public. Co- operation and goodwill are obtained when there is a belief in the integrity and efficiency of the administration.
2. The responsibility of the higher ranks of the public services for improving administration in this respect from within has already been emphasized. Cabinets have to provide the machinery and the administrative leadership which can exert itself in favour of reform and improvement. In the Central Government, the object could perhaps be promoted best by placing the Secretary to the Cabinet in a position analogous to that of the Permanent Secretary to the Treasury in the United Kingdom. To some extent this has already been achieved. The Cabinet Secretary should thus become the principal official adviser to the Cabinet and to the Prime Minister and other Ministers on important problems of administration. In the States, the Chief Secretary should fill an analogous role. He might be relieved of some of his routine duties so that he could give greater attention to the problems of co-ordination and administration.
INTEGRITY 3. Integrity in public affairs and administration is essential and there must therefore be an insistence on it in every branch of public activity. The influence of corruption is insidious. It not only inflicts wrongs which are difficult to redress, but it undermines the structure of administration and the confidence of the public in the administration. There must, therefore, be a continuous war against every species of corruption within the administration as well as in public life generally and the methods to root out this evil should be constantly reviewed.
4. The opportunity for corruption in various forms might arise almost anywhere in the administration, but it exists in a larger measure in some fields of public activity than in others. It is more difficult to detect where it is collusive. As a rule, where policy is clearly prescribed and the principles on which claims any may be determined admit of no doubt, the scope for corruption is small. Vagueness of policy or frequent changes in it have the effect of
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increasing the scope for corruption. In recent years, the shortage of essential supplies, which occurred from time to time, led to an increase of corrupt practices. The co-operation of the public is very necessary in order to eradicate this evil.
5. Stable Governments are in a better position to deal with such corrupt practices than unstable governments, where there is a tendency to remain in power by adopting devious methods. In such circumstances, some officials may be willing to compromise themselves to gain their own ends. Ordinarily public servants are sufficiently protected to be able to resist unfair political influence. Frequently, however, the remedy comes long after the event. Some measures to ensure standards in public life when these are grossly abused are necessary in the interest of democratic government itself. Some machinery for this purpose should be devised in order to enquire into cases of alleged misconduct on the part of persons who hold any office, political or other. Where there is a prima facie case for an enquiry, such an enquiry should be held in order to End out and establish facts. If the facts thus ascertained point to a case of serious misconduct, other steps will follow. It may be necessary to have legislation for this purpose. Action under such legislation should only be taken at the instance of a responsible authority, that is, the Central Government or a State Government. In practice, the occasions requiring such a reference would be rare, but the possibility of such a reference might prove a wholesome influence.
6. The law relating to offences involving corruption has been recently strengthened. The Prevention of Corruption Act, 1947, provides for the offence of criminal misconduct on the part of public servants in the discharge of official duty and, besides prescribing enhanced punishment, makes offences under sections 161 and 165 of the Indian Penal Code cognisable. The legislation has now been extended to cover cases of those who offer gratification to public servants. It also provides for cases in which a public servant may be found to have come into possession of pecuniary resources of income which he cannot account for satisfactorily. It does not, however, provide for those cases in which a public servant's near relations may have been found to have become suddenly rich. We suggest that the possibility of removing this lacuna should be studied and the necessary legislation undertaken. Similarly, it would be useful to consider whether public servants should be required to furnish a return each year concerning movable assets acquired by them or their near relations during the preceding year. The present practice in this respect is confined to returns of immovable property.
7. Certain other suggestions have been made recently for dealing with the problem of corruption in government offices. It has been proposed, for instance, that since corruption is often difficult to prove and firm action is essential, the reputation of a public servant may be regarded as almost conclusive evidence of his integrity. It is true enough that the integrity of an honest public servant is seldom called into question, but instances to the contrary are known to have occurred. It cannot always be presupposed that persons making allegations would do so with a sense of responsibility. In relying on reputation, there certainly is risk of demoralising the public service. On the other hand, as a matter of ordinary administrative practice, an official who does not have a reputation for honesty should not be
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placed in a position in which there is considerable scope for discretion. The suggestion has also been made that intelligence organisations for tracing and investigating offences involving corruption should be strengthened. We agree that the special police establishment of the Government of India should be equipped not only to investigate offences in which the Central Government is directly interested but also to deal with important cases in the States, when local agencies need assistance or have to be supplemented.
8. The proposal has also been made that where specific allegations of corruption are made in the press against an individual public servant by name, he should be expected to clear his name by taking the matter to the courts. His legal expenses could be sanctioned on the understanding that if he lost his case, he would have to reimburse the government and if damages were awarded to him the cost would be the first charge on them. We consider that in such cases the first step should be a preliminary and confidential enquiry by a senior officer. On his report it could be determined whether the circumstances justified prosecution by the government or merely permission or even a direction to an officer to clear his name in a court of law. If the second course is decided upon the suggestion mentioned above about legal expenses could be adopted. What is important, however, is that in each case it is the government which should determine the nature of the action which any allegations call for.
9. Apart from prosecutions in courts, it is often felt that the government's own machinery for departmental enquiries needs to be improved. The principal complaint is that departmental enquiries drag on for long periods. To the extent this complaint is justified, it is to be ascribed largely to the fact that senior officers who conduct departmental enquiries are frequently so preoccupied with other duties that they cannot give sufficient attention to the enquiries. Sometimes enquiring officers are not familiar enough with the procedure and may not appreciate fully the difference between a departmental enquiry and a trial in a criminal court. Other factors which may cause delay may be the need for consulting the Public Service Commission and the time required for the administrative authorities to make up their minds whether the findings of an enquiry officer are to be accepted and if so, what the punishment should be. The Government of India have recently framed detailed instructions for expediting departmental enquiries.
10. In recent years, perhaps the most conspicuous areas of corruption have been those in which businessmen had to apply for permits and licences. Supervision and vigilance within the administration were inadequate and illegitimate gains were undoubtedly made. Though less is at present heard on the subject, the need for vigilance and drastic measures continues. It is always implicit in the unwritten code of conduct for those who hold responsible positions, whether political or official, that the public should always have absolute confidence in their disinterestedness and impartiality. In their social relations and all their dealings, they must, therefore, be especially careful to see that there is no ground or occasion to suggest that some, individuals have greater access to or influence with them than others. In this connection, the recent growth of the practice among business firms of employing relations or friends of friends of influential persons as "contact men" needs to be discouraged.
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11. The measures which have been listed so far will help to maintain the conditions under which it should be possible for the government to enforce a high level of integrity. While these measures are necessary, the main attack on corruption must be by ensuring efficiency in every branch of the administration. We may refer here, in particular, to the following suggestions :
(1) Heads of departments should keep under constant review possibilities for corruption which current policies and procedures may provide and should maintain a watchful eye on the extent and forms of corruption which may, at any time, prevail within their organisations. If, through the procedures they lay down they provide that individual claims or requests are dealt with to the maximum extent possible through clearly stated and well-understood rules or principles, they will be able to do much to check the growth of conditions within their organisations in which corruption becomes either an easy risk or a risk worth taking ;
(2) One of the most important sources of corruption is delay in the disposal of cases or applications. The delay may occur on account of excessive concentration of functions or authority, insufficient staff, poor quality of personnel, lack of clear policy or directions or other similar reasons. In each Organisation the sources of delay should be carefully examined and the necessary action taken ;
(3) In positions in which there is greater scope for corruption, the choice of officials should be made with special care ; and
(4) Laxity on the part of employees of government is often due to the fact that honest and good work are not sufficiently rewarded and inefficiency and dishonesty are not sufficiently penalised. Devising means to encourage the honest should, therefore, be a matter of special concern in every administrative Organisation which is exposed to any considerable risk of corruption.
We may also refer to the need for rousing public opinion to the importance of eliminating corruption and of public co-operation in maintaining high levels of integrity in the administration of all government activities.
EFFICIENCY 12. The problems of efficient administration converge primarily on men and on methods. The present state of administrative efficiency has been recently described in the following words by an experienced observer
"The impressions of a recent tour through the larger portion of the country, combined with many years of official and non-official experience , lead to the conclusion that the machine, though sound in essentials and capable after improvement of undertaking arduous tasks, is at the present moment run-down. The work allotted to it has increased, the quality of its output has deteriorated. The parts removed from it have, in many instances, been replaced by those of inferior"
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"workmanship. The edge has been taken off through strain and, occasionally rough treatment, of many of those that remain. The tenter too is new, often impatient and inefficient. Coordination is frequently wanting. For reasons, some within and many beyond the machine's control, efficiency is undoubtedly impaired. AR in all, there is considerable room for improvement."
Both in the Central Government and in the States, a small number of public servants carry a heavy burden of responsibility without adequate assistance. Much of their time has to be given to work which was formerly done at lower levels. Increasingly, while each agency of government is accepting new responsibilities, the stage at which effective decisions are taken within any department is being pushed upwards. This has cumulative effects in as much as the process affects the entire business of government and results in loss of efficiency both in the making of policy and in its execution. For the administrative machine to be equal to the problems which beset it, many changes in methods of work and Organisation and an outlook of innovation are called for.
13. During recent years, mainly because new responsibilities have had to be assumed or new policies evolved, secretariat departments have had to take up an increasing amount of original work. The line between the work of a secretariat department and an authority subordinate to it is not always easy to draw. It would be useful if the Central Government could undertake a systematic review of the new functions which secretariat offices have accepted during the past few years and consider whether some of them, at any rate, could not now be made over to subordinate authorities. A similar review might be useful in the States. Where separate departments or other executive organisations exist, it is essential that the heads of a department or attached or subordinate office should be able to function with reasonable freedom and initiative and, at the same time, with the knowledge that he has the Ministry's confidence. The problem generally resolves itself into one of establishing a clear line of responsibility between a secretariat and a department and, secondly, to one of enabling departments to function with the maximum effectiveness.
PERSONNEL 14. The requirements of personnel may be broadly divided into three categories : (a) administrative (including economic), (b) scientific and technical, and (c) subordinate and clerical. The administrative personnel consists, in the main, of the members of the Indian Civil Service and of its successor, the Indian Administrative Service, and in the States includes also members of the State administrative services. In the States, besides the ordinary work of the administration, the administrative services provide personnel for executive duties in the field of development. Their numbers are, however, small, and complementary personnel for technical jobs is inadequate. At the Centre, there are not enough men with the ne- cessary experience and qualifications (a) to undertake work in connection with the framing of economic policy and the study of economic problems and (b) to manage public enterprises in the field of industry or handle executive duties relating to the regulation and control of trade
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and industry. In the ranks of the subordinate and clerical personnel also there are gaps, but these are associated not so much with numbers, as with lack, of experience, lack of training and supervision and, to some extent, with faulty methods of work and Organisation.
15. The steps which hive been already taken for the Organisation of the Indian Administrative Service provide for trained administrative personnel for manning responsible posts at the Centre and in the States. As the functions of government expand, there are three directions in which it will be necessary to supplement the existing arrangements :
(i) for doing work which may broadly be described as economic policy and administration
(ii) for managing industrial enterprises belonging to the Central or State Governments; and
(iii) for work connected with development, land reform and food administration.
In the first two fields of activity the need will be primarily that of the Central Government , the third lies mainly in the States. Proposals for constituting an economic civil service have been made from time to time. Sometimes the expression is employed to describe personnel for work connected with economic policy and administration, sometimes for personnel required for the management of commercial and industrial enterprises undertaken by the government and sometimes also for staff required for economic and statistical intelligence. It is important to distinguish these three categories. So fir as the first category is concerned, the principal problem is to secure that the administrative services should have a sufficient number of officers with the necessary economic experience and background.
16. To achieve this object, we have three proposals to make. In the first place, individuals with high academic qualifications or special experience in the economic field should be drawn into the administrative service. There should be scope for drawing persons so equipped into the administrative service at age limits somewhat above those at which initial recruitment is made through competitive examination. In this connection, a higher age limit, up to 30 years, for instance, could be considered. Officers selected in this manner should first be put through the necessary administrative training. Secondly, a proportion of the junior officers of the administrative service should be selected at an early stage in their careers and given intensive training in the economic field within the Government, with suitable business houses and, if necessary, abroad. Thirdly, the practice already exists and could be further developed for obtaining for responsible senior positions individuals with special experience and knowledge from other fields such as universities, banking and finance and industry. For securing personnel in the second category, proposals for constituting an industrial management cadre are at present under consideration. Similarly, the question of finding personnel for economic and statistical intelligence is under consideration and proposals are expected to be formulated in the near future. The problem of obtaining personnel in adequate numbers for responsibilities connected with development programmes, land reform and food administration in the