Civil servants rush to regulatory bodies as post-retirement jobs dry

When U K Sinha was appointed Sebi chairman in 2011, only six others were interviewed, now the race is between more than 50 people

Bureaucrats refuse to retire is how a top government official explained the rush for a regulator’s job. Indeed, 100 applications for the post of chairman of the Competition Commission of India (CCI), 55 for the top job at Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) and a few months ago as many as 77 aspirants to be the chief at Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) seem like a rush. Supplies are drying up — ex-bureaucrats are not being appointed as governors any longer, Planning Commission plum posts have disappeared, and many of the government committees are being manned by streams other than IAS, pointed out a retired civil servant who also has been a regulator. “In such a scenario, regulatory jobs have turned more attractive,’’ he said.

Besides the profile and power of a regulator, the financial compensation adds to the glamour quotient. A chairman’s position, whether at CCI, Trai, Sebi or any other, implies more than three times the salary that a top bureaucrat (read secretary) in any ministry draws at the end of his career. Compared to around Rs 1.6 lakh monthly compensation of a secretary, a chairman at a regulatory authority gets Rs 4.5 lakh. However, there’s no house and car provided to a regulator, unlike to a bureaucrat.

Many recommendations have gone to the Pay Commission that a differential of at least 3.75 times should be maintained between the compensation package of a government secretary and that of a chairman at a regulatory body (other than the Reserve Bank of India), a source said. The idea is to have a market-linked compensation for a regulator’s job in order to attract the best talent, rather than make it ''a parking place for a retiring bureaucrat''. According to former cabinet secretary KM Chandrasekhar, who’s headed many of the search committees in the past, however, thinks that compensation might not be driving one to the regulator’s job. “People who apply to these high positions are not particularly concerned about their pay package. There are a large number of non-monetary aspects that come into play.’’

  That said, the talent pool seems limited—a large number of candidates applying for CCI chairman had earlier tried for Trai chief’s post and then for Sebi top job. Chandrasekhar, however, believes that the same names trying their luck at various regulatory openings does not indicate dearth of talent. ‘’If a person satisfies the eligibility criteria for more than one position, there is no embargo on his applying for more posts. In fact, this applies not only to regulatory positions, but to all posts. A person applying for the civil service, for example, would also have applied to banks, public and private sector establishments, academic institutions and so on, depending on his qualifications and experience,’’ said the former top bureaucrat.

So far, ''not too much talent has come from outside the civil servants' ring,'' argued an official, who did not want to be named.

Also, while the numbers have gone up, some argue that regulator’s job always held promise. For instance, four years ago when a search committee was looking for a new CCI chairman, around 60 had applied for the job and former finance secretary Ashok Chawla made it. Chawla’s term comes to an end in January 2016.

The recent hunt for Trai chairman, after Rahul Khullar’s term ended, had in fact shown the “mad rush’’ for a regulator’s job for the first time. The selection process took months before former IT secretary RS Sharma was appointed Trai chairman in July 2015, following rounds of shortlisting from a total of 77 aspirants. When Khullar was appointed Trai chief in 2012, there were less than 10 candidates in race. Even when UK Sinha was appointed Sebi chairman in 2011, only six others were interviewed. Now, the race for Sebi chief is between more than 50 people.                         

Among those who’ve applied for the post of CCI chairman are Urban Development Secretary Madhusudan Prasad, former I&B secretary Bimal Julka, former RBI deputy governor Subir Gokarn, former deputy director general at WTO Harsha Vardhana Singh, and six CCI members — SL Bunker, UC Nahta, MS Sahoo, Sudhir Mital, Augustine Peter and GP Mittal.

Even as ''unemployment among retiring bureaucrats has risen in the current dispensation'', just about five to 10 per cent in any IAS batch has been able to make the cut to a post-retirement job over the years, according to another civil servant who's been through both the stints.