Why is Administrative Reforms needed?
- Technological change
- Advances in industrialisation
- Growth in the number and complexity of governmental activities
- Changes in social, political and economic spheres of life
- All above have created extraordinary strains on the traditional machinery of the government
- Obsolescence of institutions, roles, procedures and processes in the government
What are ways through which Administrative Reforms are done?
- There are three forms
- Traditional Approach: let the problem arise and then place a competent person to solve it. Aka Management process
- Committee Process: appoint ad hoc committee. Like the Hoover Commission in US and ARC in India
- Setting up O&M units
What are the types of reforms?
- Macro or micro (affecting the entire administration or a part of it)
- Procedural reform
- Behavioural reform
Functions of O&M office
- To assist line officials to improve management
- Help reduce costs, save manpower, simplify procedures, save materials, speed operations, improve organisation
- Chief functions are
- Comprehensive reviews of departments
- Planning new activities
- Research in O&M techniques
- Training O&M officials and employees
- Co-ordinating the work of different O&M units in government
- Undertaking ad hoc assignments to investigate and help solve particular problems
- Analysing organisation methods and procedures
- Developing management policies, handbook and other guidelines
- How?
- Research and Development
- Training
- Investigation
- Co-ordination of management improvement programme
- Information
- Publication
Nature of O&M
- O&M unit alone should not be responsible for effecting improvements in administration. It cannot be a substitute for management improvement. Efficiency specialists have an important place in government, but not efficiency engineer will ever solve the principal problems of government
- O&M is primarily a service function
- The role of O&M units is essentially advisory. It has therefore a line and staff function. Decisions should not be forced upon the department
- O&M should be recognized as a work improvement study and not a fault-finding mission. O&M man should not assume a superior position of a fault-finder or a critic
- It should not be presented as something too mysterious and technical
Advantages of O&M
- It provides a machinery for a constant attempt to improve the public administration
- It helps keep both the structure of government offices and the procedure adopted by them up-to-date in tune with the changing circumstances. Reduce time lag.
- Help to accumulate a wealth of experience which can be drawn upon whenever required
- A separate O&M department is needed because
- Time: Senior officials of an agency of government often have little time to examine the problems of organisation and methods
- Independence: Line officials lack the necessary perspective to look at problems of organisation and of office procedure
- Experience: The fact that the O&M work is undertaken by a body of officials, who specialize in this work, is the essence of this system.
O&M Techniques
- Management or Organisation Survey
- Inspections
- Work Measurement
- Work Simplification
- Automation
- Forms Control
- Filing System
E-governance
- The use of IT in governance is aimed at having SMART – Simple, Moral, Accountable, Responsive and Transparent – government.
Arora and Goyal
Administrative Reforms
- Involves enhancement in the capacity of an administrative system to achieve its assigned goals.
Why Administrative Reforms
- Only an administrative system that revitalises itself constantly can respond to the changing socio-economic environment
Some important committees on Administrative Reforms
- US: Haldane, Brownlow, First Hoover, Second Hoover, Fulton
- India: ARC 1 (1966-70), ARC 2 (2007-)
- 1947: Secretariat Reorganisation Committee (GS Bajapai)
- 1948: Economy Committee (Kasturbhai Lalbhai)
- 1949: N Gopalswamy Ayyangar Committee (recommended O&M)
- 1951: Planning Commission Report
- 1953: Appleby Report (Public Administration in India: Report of a Survey). Based on his report
- Indian Institute of Public Administration was set up
- O&M Division was set up in the Cabinet Secretariat
- 1954: Ashok Chanda (recommended more AI services)
- 1956: Second Appleby Report ( Re-examination of India’s Administrative System with Special Reference to Administration of Government Industrial and Commercial Enterprises)
- 1957: Balwant Rai Mehta Coommittee Report (introduction of the Panchayati Raj system)
- 1964: Santhanam Committee Report
- Strengthen vigilance organisations
- Adoption of a code of conduct for civil servants
- 1966: ARC 1 (Morarji Desai/K Hanumanthaiya) < Presented 20 reports between 1966-1970> Major recommendations
- Appointment of Lokpal and Lok Ayuktas
- Creation of full fledged department of personnel
- Performance budgeting
- Unified grading pay structure
- Introduction of specialists into senior and middle management positions
- 1973: 3rd Pay Commission
- 1975: Kothari Committee on Recruitment Policy and Selection Methods
- System of single examination for All-India Services was introduced
- 1978: Committee on Panchayati Raj Institutions (Ashok Mehta)
- Recommended setting up of Mandal Panchayats
- 1977-80: National Police Commission
- 1988: Sarkaria Commission
- Creation of inter-state councils
- 1989: Satish Chandra Committee on the Recruitment Policy and Selection Methods for All-India and Central Services
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Administrative Reforms in India
- Ancient Times: Mauryas and Guptas. Dharmashastra, Arthashastra and Thirukkural
- Medieval Times: Mughals
- British
- Creation of Civil Services (Cornwallis)
- Creation of Supreme Court and reforms in judiciary
- Creation of central secretariat
- Departmentalisation and consolidation of district administration under the Collector
- Urban local govt
- Rule of Law
- Institutionalisation of impersonal government
- Police system
- Establishment of Public Service Commission
- Personnel Administration
- Committees during British
- Committee on ICS (1854)
- Public Service Commission (1886-87)
- Royal Commission on Decentralisation (1907-09)
- Royal Commission on Public Service in India (1912-15)
- Tottenham Committee (1945)
- First Pay Commission (1946)
- After Independence
- More than 600 committees (Centre + State)
- Kerala ARC (1958), Andhra Pradesh Reforms Enquiry Committee (1960), Rajasthan ARC (1963), WB ARC (1963)
- Experts like Paul Appleby and Nicholas Kaldor have also written about Administrative Reforms in India
Major Concerns in Administration
- Efficiency and Economy
- Specialisation
- Role of the specialist has been increasing slowly
- Effective Coordination
- Administration and development of public personnel
- Integrity in public service
- Responsiveness and Public Accountability
- Decentralisation and Democratisation
- Updating administrative technology
Challenges
- Political resistance. Measures involving devolution of power face a lot of resistance
- At times, the govt that passed the reforms is different from the one implementing it. This may lead to improper implementation
- Vested interests
- Public apathy or antipathy
- Administrative inexperience
- Imposition from above
- Ambiguity about implications
- Inflexibility
- Adhocism
- Individualisation in place of institutionalisation
Success of Administrative Reforms will depend on
- Need of the system and its beneficiaries
- Public support and a feeling of sharing of reform-goals
- Timeliness
- Effective source of initiation
- Political will
- Administrative entrepreneurship
- Participation of key actors in the strategies for implementation
- Pragmatism and flexibility
- Effective reward and punishment system
- Continuing evaluation and appraisal
- Institutionalisation of reforms