Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s proposed reform of the appraisal process for senior bureaucrats addresses a grey zone in administrative appointments. The annual confidential report is meant to serve as a stringent check on a civil servant’s ability and execution of responsibilities. Over the years, however, the exercise has become increasingly ad hoc. At its worst, palpable politicisation has rendered the procedure an easy tool for the administration of the day to promote favoured bureaucrats and suppress others for reasons other than the strictly professional. At a relatively inadvertent — yet, equally destructive — level, apathy has leached out diligence and rigour from the entire procedure. In other words, lobbying and drift tend to guide the empanelment of high officials. This will, hopefully, change. As reported in this newspaper on Tuesday, by next month a panel of experts is likely to be at hand to assist the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet in assessing the performance of those in the running for the posts of secretaries, additional secretaries and joint secretaries.Bureaucratic reform has become something of a signature tune of the Manmohan Singh PMO. Rightly so. For all the ills attributed to it, the bureaucracy cannot be wished away. For lack of any alternative, it will remain the interface between policy and its implementation, between promise and its deliverance. It is, however, a prime candidate for reform if it is to be an effective interface. Imbuing the appraisal process with expertise and impartiality is thus a good start. But much else needs to be done speedily to restore the steel frame to even a semblance of its envisioned self. Suggestions are flying around these days, and some of these straws need to be plucked out of the wind. For one, this latest proposal, said to have originated from the prime minister himself, would acquire more substance if it dovetails with a cascade of appraisal processes. There is, for instance, the recommendation by the P.C. Hota committee on civil services reform that mid-career appraisals be made more meaningful. Ways and means of sifting the worthy from the incompetent and the corrupt must be evolved.Bureaucracies are endemically susceptible to hierarchies. To be viable and efficient, checks against the unwieldiness and inaction these gradations encourage need to be constantly upgraded. Take, for example, the bandobast in district headquarters reminiscent of the colonial days which distances the public servant from the people. Signals from the prime minister indicate that a comprehensive overview is on the cards. That would be all to the good.
