Starts ‘Right-Sizing’ Exercise
Ajay Umat
Ahmedabad:The Gujarat government has planned a massive ‘right-sizing’ exercise for its 5.39 lakh employees. The state finance department has ordered formation of a new committee to analyze the administrative set-up across all 26 government departments as well as boards and corporations. The move is aimed at bringing in financial discipline and enhancing productivity.
“The present system is highly centralized, largely unaccountable and lacks quality skilled manpower. We need to decentralize, empower and make ‘karmayogis’ more accountable by plugging leakages and non deliverance of services in the system,” said a senior bureaucrat involved in the exercise. Preliminary estimates suggest that every middle-level officer in the secretariat costs the government more than Rs 1.5 lakh a month, which includes salary, phone, car and fuel bill, subsidized accommodation, medical benefits and the office set-up. The overall salary bill of the Naerendra Modi government is Rs 23,244 crore in 2013-14. Besides, the pension amount for the same period is Rs 6,799 crore.
The cash-strapped government is fighting to restore the health of its battered public finances, planning sweeping changes to cut down flab. The government has maintained a freeze on fresh hiring over the past several years and is increasingly depending on contract workers or outsourcing.
Besides, layers of bureaucracy have increased, mostly without any meaningful work while some crucial wings such as the health and education department face acute manpower shortage. For instance, the available strength of people in RTO department is same as at the time of inception of Gujarat state in 1961, when as the number of vehicles was much lesser as compared to today.
The five-member committee, headed by a retired all-India services officer, will be monitored by a high-power committee with senior ministers like Nitin Patel, Anandiben Patel, Bhupendrasinh Chudasama, Saurabh Patel and the chief secretary. The committee will review the strength of current set up and propose changes. It will also review work load, posts sanctioned, recruitment rules and calculate financial implications. The committee will have to submit its report within six months of the constitution.
In 1987-88, then chief minister Amarsinh Chaudhary had formed the Jashvant Mehta administrative reforms committee. Chaudhary had stopped recruitment after receiving the report. After 25 years, Modi has started the same process.
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