Kerala aims to make govt employees ethical with its new training policy

To focus on building a citizen centric, corrupt-free, transparent, efficient public service deliver

The Kerala government has come out with a new training policy to ensure excellence in governance and make about six lakh civil servants of the state competent, ethical and well-behaved.

The state's apex training body — the Institute of Management in Government (IMG) has started implementing the 'Training Policy 2017' with focus on building a citizen centric, corrupt-free, transparent and efficient public service delivery system.

According to a new circular issued by IMG Director Jacob Thomas, capacity building of government employees would be done from the cutting edge level to the highest level of policy making under the new policy.

To achieve the target, the agency would associate with institutes such as Indian Institute of Management, Indian Institute of Technology, National Institute of Rural Development and Indian Institute of Public Administration and so on for senior level of training programmes.

"The policy is aimed at creating a corruption-free civil service and make it more citizen-centric. At present, our government service is more bureaucratic and executive centric," Thomas, who took charge as the director of the institute last month, told PTI.

The Direct Trainer Skill Course (DTSC) of the Government of India would be made compulsory to undergo for trainers, he said.

An "accreditation process" similar to the one followed by the National Institute of Smart Government (NISG) and the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) would be adopted for accrediting resource persons in domain areas, the circular said.

The policy also envisaged setting up a formal network of all training institutes in the state with IMG as the nodal institution and developing a training portal/e-Group to exchange information related to their training, materials, training calendar, resources and annual reports.

A certification of trainers would also be conducted by the agency.

The programme committee of IMG would develop a comprehensive training plan covering every official of every department, utilising all the training institutions in the training network.

Thomas said IMG, as per the new policy, would play a key role in assisting departments in the process of shifting to a competency based framework and prepare an annual training plan for all cadres.

As the apex training body of the state, IMG would also coordinate the entire training activities and ensure that the employees acquire the requisite knowledge, skill and attitude to effectively perform their duties, he said.

To achieve this end, IMG may coordinate and handhold the training activities of all training institutions set up by the government under various departments, Thomas said.

"The agency would act as the thinktank to the (state) government, advice government on policy matters and support in the execution of government policies through capacity building, service and research," the former vigilance chief said.

Thomas said not just the grassroot level employees but those at the highest level of policy making would also be covered under the four-levels of capacity building programme -the operational level, supervisory management level, middle management and administration level and the top levels of the civil service.

All the promotees, above the level of under secretary and assistant director, should invariably attend training on 'leadership and governance' and its module would be developed and delivered by IMG in partnership with IIM-K, the circular said.

On IMG's new research outlook, Thomas said the agency's prospective plan is to devote 50 percent of the total faculty time for research studies.