Pay Panel Wants Ministries Recast

Going beyond the issue of wages and allowances, the fifth pay commission has called for major restructuring of the Union government including abolition of certain ministries and amalgamation of others.

The mammoth 2140 page report, submitted to finance minister P Chidambaram on January 31, has made far-reaching recommendations on the functioning of the Centre, and suggested merger of the department of administrative reforms with the cabinet secretariat, and that of inter-state council, Jammu and Kashmir affairs and official languages with the home ministry.

Seeking to define the role of the Centre, the commission recommended that the Union government should be limited to a few areas like defence, external affairs, currency and finance besides macro economic management, commission sources said and added that the government should gradually move out of economic activities to concentrate on social sectors.

While the chairman Justice S R Pandian and member secretary M K Kaw refused to interact with the media as the full report is yet to be released, sources said the commission recommended shifting of clerk-oriented bureaucracy to officer oriented one to impart efficiency and accountability.

It recommended that the government's presence in manufacturing services should be limited to only those areas which are of strategic importance, like storage of foodgrains by the Food Corporation of India for price management.

However, it questioned the government's presence in manufacturing bread, milk and condoms.

When asked if the commission had exceeded its jurisdiction in making suggestions about restructuring the Union government and on Centre-state relations, sources said we are not exceeding our terms of references. We have been asked to decide as to how to optimise the Union government machinery.

Emphasising that the commission had very wide terms of reference, they said this is the first time in the history of the commission that it got specific terms of reference, which included rationalisation, optimisation, reduction of paper work and automation.

Stressing that there was a revulsion against oversized governments all over the world, the commission called for drastic reduction in the government size, sources said and added that if all the recommendations were accepted, the number of secretaries in the Union government would be reduced by nearly one third to about 40 from over 60 now.

Propagating downsizing the government by 30 per cent in 10 years without resorting to retrenchment, the commission called for measures to ease out inefficient and corrupt personnel and recommended performance related increments.

If the existing rules are amended in tune with the recommendations, an employee could get a normal increment, or two increments on performance basis or could be denied any increment, sources said.

They added that the commission also recommended changes in fundamental rules 56 (J) to review performance and invoke compulsory retirement provisions.

Under the existing rules, the compulsory retirement provisions could be invoked only after reviewing whether the employee has reached the age of 50 and second time at the age of 55, while the commission has now recommended that review should be undertaken right from the day of joining.

The review should be conducted by a committee of senior officers for every five years of services, and if three successive reviews were found unfavourable compulsory retirement could be invoked without the matching benefits under the voluntary retirement scheme, sources said.

The commission is, however, silent on the issue of pension benefits if a person was forced into compulsory retirement before 20 years of service, sources said while stating that review would not only take into account the performance and integrity but also the reputation of the integrity.

The employees would have the right to defend their case, sources said citing the example of New Zealand where even the officers of secretary level are made to sign a five-year employment contract besides annual performance contract.

On the other hand, the prevailing system of annual confidence reports and performance review has not yielded desired results, they said adding that it was high time productivity and performance principles be upheld.