The bureaucracy fails when it comes to administering the mundane
#goodthoughts
How important is regulatory and inspectorial functions of government.
Some years ago, on Civil Services Day, I watched former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh present awards to young officers (most were from the IAS but there were a few from the other civil services), for something exceptional they had done.
It left me wondering what routine tasks each of the awardees had neglected in order to focus on some innovation they had sought to bring about. In all probability that innovation was transitory and ephemeral, yet blown out of proportion by a top bureaucracy that highlighted the needless-exceptional, while neglecting the mundane yet critical regulatory and inspectorial functions of government.
While in government, I had run systems that functioned well only when intensively monitored. I also often investigated frauds, and administered or reviewed punishments. Experience has convinced me that notwithstanding intrinsic corruption (the elephant in the room) all scandals in the public sphere and deficiencies in public services are caused by regulatory and inspectorial failures.
From small frauds, such as those that occur occasionally in post offices and bank branches, to the much larger ones such as Bofors, the Bhopal gas tragedy and the Nirav Modi scam, a trail can be established to track how regulatory and inspectorial lapses at various levels “created” them or made them possible.
The closure of the Sterlite plant in Thoothukudi, Tamil Nadu, is another case in point. If the regulators and the inspectors tasked with ensuring that the plant did not pollute the environment had held the management responsible at the first sign of deviation from norms, Sterlite would not have been closed today, destroying jobs and hurting families in their thousands. No one is asking why the regulatory and inspectorial systems that were always there failed to kick in in time, allowing matters to get so completely out of hand.
The Indian bureaucracy is terrific at rising to the occasion in an emergency but not when it comes to administering the routine. The consequence is something we experience daily — transformers in the middle of footpaths, uncollected garbage blighting our cities, cows and dogs running amok on our roads, those convicted for the Bhopal gas tragedy seemingly staying out on bail forever, and the likes of Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi fleeing. There is a steady deterioration in the way government departments and ministries as well as field formations function across the country. The officers of all elite civil services of the Government of India are at fault here for failing to get systems they are in charge of to function as well as they should, through better training, record-keeping, and a ruthless application of accountability.
Officers of the civil services constitute the maintenance crew of the government, primarily in charge of its regulatory and oversight functions. Everything else they do is secondary. It is when they, deliberately or otherwise, fail to recognise this role of theirs that things begin to go hopelessly wrong — often with horrific consequences all round.
How important is regulatory and inspectorial functions of government.
Some years ago, on Civil Services Day, I watched former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh present awards to young officers (most were from the IAS but there were a few from the other civil services), for something exceptional they had done.
It left me wondering what routine tasks each of the awardees had neglected in order to focus on some innovation they had sought to bring about. In all probability that innovation was transitory and ephemeral, yet blown out of proportion by a top bureaucracy that highlighted the needless-exceptional, while neglecting the mundane yet critical regulatory and inspectorial functions of government.
While in government, I had run systems that functioned well only when intensively monitored. I also often investigated frauds, and administered or reviewed punishments. Experience has convinced me that notwithstanding intrinsic corruption (the elephant in the room) all scandals in the public sphere and deficiencies in public services are caused by regulatory and inspectorial failures.
From small frauds, such as those that occur occasionally in post offices and bank branches, to the much larger ones such as Bofors, the Bhopal gas tragedy and the Nirav Modi scam, a trail can be established to track how regulatory and inspectorial lapses at various levels “created” them or made them possible.
The closure of the Sterlite plant in Thoothukudi, Tamil Nadu, is another case in point. If the regulators and the inspectors tasked with ensuring that the plant did not pollute the environment had held the management responsible at the first sign of deviation from norms, Sterlite would not have been closed today, destroying jobs and hurting families in their thousands. No one is asking why the regulatory and inspectorial systems that were always there failed to kick in in time, allowing matters to get so completely out of hand.
The Indian bureaucracy is terrific at rising to the occasion in an emergency but not when it comes to administering the routine. The consequence is something we experience daily — transformers in the middle of footpaths, uncollected garbage blighting our cities, cows and dogs running amok on our roads, those convicted for the Bhopal gas tragedy seemingly staying out on bail forever, and the likes of Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi fleeing. There is a steady deterioration in the way government departments and ministries as well as field formations function across the country. The officers of all elite civil services of the Government of India are at fault here for failing to get systems they are in charge of to function as well as they should, through better training, record-keeping, and a ruthless application of accountability.
Officers of the civil services constitute the maintenance crew of the government, primarily in charge of its regulatory and oversight functions. Everything else they do is secondary. It is when they, deliberately or otherwise, fail to recognise this role of theirs that things begin to go hopelessly wrong — often with horrific consequences all round.