Former GoI secretary Prof Prajapati Trivedi and his public administration award from ASPA

Prajapati Trivedi, an academic who served as secretary to the performance management department under cabinet secretariat during the UPA regime, has received the International Public Administration Award from the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA). The award, considered prestigious in the field of public administration, is given to an individual who holds citizenship in a nation other than the USA; lives and works mainly outside America and contributes significantly to the field of public administration as a scholar, practitioner or both, as demonstrated by publications, awards and honours etc. Prof. Trivedi is currently a…

There is hunger for reforms & reinvention in govt: Cabinet Secretary Seth

CAN government bodies change their very DNA so that they habitually innovate and continually improve their performance without having to be pushed from outside? In a government newsletter, India's top bureaucrat and cabinet secretary Ajit K Seth concedes that there are many more miles to go before the government achieves the vision  of David Osborne, father of the term “reinvention”. In the July edition of the quarterly newsletter called,...

Govt debates lateral entry into Indian civil services, UK crops up as example

THE government has begun the process of debating whether it should allow lateral entry of talents, from academia, research and private sector to join the civil services. It’s noticed that some civil servants with a time-bound career progress get lazy and lethargic which in turn damage the over-all efficiency of Indian bureaucracy.

“For all civil services, especially for the All-India Civil Services, lateral entry at different levels could be evaluated. The lateral entry would inspire competition among the civil servants,” a government-prepared background paper released on this year’s Civil Services Day writes.

The 56-page long background paper which formed the basis of a panel discussion on April 21 last, also gave the UK example where...

Ashok Chavan takes the Maha move to rank his departments' performance

THE Central government’s performance management division under the Cabinet Secretariat may not yet formally declare which departments or ministries met with 100 percent target in the first ever holistic evaluation system undertaken for three months beginning January 1, 2010, it’s now the turn of Ashok Chavan-led Maharashtra government to monitor the performance of each department in the state. In fact, Maharashtra is considered to be one of the better performing states, and many other state governments look forward to it for improving administration.

Chief minister Ashok Chavan on Thursday launched the Performance Monitoring and Evaluation System (PMS) to track performance of each department and make it more efficient. In fact, model is similar to what has been introduced by Dr Prajapati Trivedi’s team in the cabinet secretariat of the Centre as here too, each department would first set target and then try to achieve those. A special Delivery Monitoring Unit has been set up under the chief minister’s office for this purpose.

Hota committee on vigilance proceedings

A committee of experts under the chairmanship of former UPSC chairman PC Hota has been constituted to examine and suggest measures to expedite the process involved in disciplinary and vigilance proceedings. Former personnel secretary Arvind Verma and former Central Vigilance Commissioner P Shankar would serve as members of the committee.

Action and Appointments

a) The ACC has approved the appointment of Anil Kumar, a 1976 batch Nagaland cadre IAS and presently special secretary in the ministry of power as principal adviser in Planning Commission in the rank and pay of a secretary.

b) The ACC has approved extension of inter-cadre deputation of Sukhbir Singh, a 1988 batch Uttarakhand cadre IAS from Uttarakhand cadre to Punjab cadre by two months beyond July 2010.

c) The ACC has approved the proposal for premature repatriation of Amarendra Khatua, a 1981 batch IFS and joint secretary in the ministry of commerce, to his parent cadre.

d) Ms Gauri Kumar, a 1979 batch Gujarat cadre IAS, presently in the cadre has been appointed as additional secretary and financial adviser in the ministry of environment and forests against the newly created post.

e) The competent authority has approved that Ms Rita Sinha, a 1973 batch UP cadre IAS and secretary in the department of land resources will hold the additional charge of the post of secretary of department of drinking water supply under the ministry of rural development during the absence of leave of Ms Rajwant Sandhu, a 1975 batch HP cadre IAS from May 8, 2010 to May 23, 2010.

f) TV Somanathan, a 1987 batch Tamil Nadu cadre IAS has been appointed as joint secretary in the ministry of corporate affairs.

Meet this non-IAS secretary who wants to make senior performing IAS a lakhpati

SOUNDS odd, but a non-IAS officer Dr Prajapati Trivedi who has spent most part of his life in the World Bank working in no less than 25 countries around the world, is now on a mission to bring in efficiency of government administration, and introduce a performance bonus for employees working in various central government ministries and departments. Dr Trivedi, secretary of the performance management division under cabinet secretariat, has reportedly worked out a proposal under which senior administrators like secretary or additional secretary would get a bonus of no less than 20% of their salary provided his ministry meets 100% target and saves money from non-plan expenditure. That means, a secretary to a highly efficient ministry of the Government of India, who gets Rs 80,000 per month as salary may receive Rs 20,000 more, making him an instant lakhpati. The joint secretaries and other employees in Central government would also be major beneficiaries of this new proposal which has the blessings of cabinet secretary KM Chandrasekhar and understandably of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh. But if the performance of a department/ministry is 70% or less, the concerned officials won’t get a penny as bonus.

Significantly, the government has been toying with the idea of introducing a performance-linked payout to efficient government employees for the last 20 years, but has failed to deliver it so far. Even 6^th Pay Commission recommended a small portion of the government employees’ salary to be linked to performance, but that has not been implemented so far.

In fact, very few people in corridors of power now remember that Dr Trivedi as the economic adviser to government of India during 1992-94, worked closely with Dr Manmohan Singh, then finance minister, and Dr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, then finance secretary. A product of St. Stephen’s College in Delhi, Dr Trivedi is an MSc in economics from London School of Economics and a PhD from Boston University.