Dear Comrades,
| Landmark bills brought in to Tackle Corruption and Ensure Delivery of Services to Citizens in Time Bound Manner | |
The
Ministry of Personnel, PG & Pensions brought landmark legislations to check
corruption and to put in place measures for ensuring time-bound services for
citizens. Further measures were initiated to make bureaucracy accountable and
effective. Major
initiatives/achievements of the Ministry during the year are as under:
Lokpal
Bill, 2011
The
Government introduced in Lok Sabha the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Bill 2011,
aimed at setting up the body of Lokpal at the Centre
and Lokayuktas
at the level of the States. The proposed
autonomous and independent bodies, Lokpal and Lokayuktas, shall have powers of superintendence and
direction for holding a preliminary inquiry, causing an investigation to be made
and prosecution of offences in respect of complaints under any law for the
prevention of corruption. The Bill provides a uniform vigilance and anti
corruption road map for the nation, both at Centre and States. The Bill institutionalizes separation of
investigation from prosecution and thereby removing conflict of interest as well
as increasing the scope for professionalism and specialisation.
Grievances
Redressal Bill, 2011
The
Government recently introduced the Right of Citizens for Time Bound Delivery of
Services and Redressal of their Grievances Bill, 2011
in Parliament. Under the Bill every public authority is required to publish a Citizens
Charter specifying the category of goods supplied and services rendered by it,
the time frame within which such goods shall be supplied or services be
rendered; to establish information and facilitation centre for efficient and
effective delivery of services and redressal of
grievances and to designate Grievance Redress Officers (GRO) in all public
authorities to enquire into and redress any complaints from citizens. The Bill
provides for constitution of the State Public Grievance Redressal Commission and the Central Public Grievance Redressal Commission for respective appeals against the
decision of GRO and imposition of penalties in case of failure on the part of
designated official responsible for delivery of goods and services or GRO. The
designed authority at the grass-root level will have powers to redress most of
the grievances at the district and sub-district level.
Foreign
Bribery Bill
The
Prevention of Bribery of Foreign Public Officials and Officials of Public
International Organizations Bill, 2011 was introduced in the Monsoon Session of
the Parliament and is presently before the Department Related Parliament
Standing Committee.
According
to the proposed law, any person "holding a legislative, executive,
administrative or judicial office of a foreign country" found accepting or
giving bribe to secure a contract in India would be liable to be punished for up
to seven years in India. Even the "abetment" of such offences would be a
criminal offence under the proposed bill. The Bill “makes provisions declaring
the (bribery) as extraditable offence".
GoM
on tackling corruption
A
Group of Ministers (GoM)was
constituted by the Government in January, 2011 to consider measures that can be
taken by the Government to tackle corruption. The GoM
has submitted its First Report which has already been accepted by the Government
with some minor modifications. Action has been initiated by the Government
towards implementation of these accepted recommendations.
IPRs
of Group ‘A’ Central Service Officers placed in public
domain
It was decided by the Government
that the annual return of immovable property (IPR) as on January 1, 2011 of the
All India Services officers as well as all organized Group ‘A’ Central Services
should be placed in the public domain to bring transparency and accountability
in administration.
Guidelines
regarding grant of Vigilance Clearance of all the Members of Central Civil
Services/Posts have been revised. Vigilance clearance shall be denied to an
officer if he fails to submit his annual immovable property return of the
previous year by 31st January of the following year, as required
under the Rules.
Public
Grievances
The
Department of
Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances (DARPG) has taken major Citizen
Centric initiatives related to public grievance redress during the
year.
The Sevottam compliant
Citizen’s/Client’s Charter of DARPG was prepared and
published. Also guidelines for implementing Sevottam, were published in September. These documents are also made
available on the website of the Department (www.darpg.gov.in).
For strengthening the Centralized Public Grievances Redress and
Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) in all Central Government Ministries / and State
Governments, several initiatives have been taken during the
year:
· training was provided to officials of 62
Ministries / Departments / Organizations of Government of India on
CPGRAMS version 4.0.
· Number of field offices linked to CPGRAMS was increased from about
1500 in 2010, to about 6000 during 2011.
· The CPGRAMS with a local language interface was installed and made
functional in Government of Rajasthan in May 2011. Chief Minister of the State
Government inaugurated the system.
Workshops on Capability Building for Sevottam held
Two workshops on capacity building for Sevottam for all the Central Government
Ministries / Departments and two workshops for all States/UTs, were organised. Award
winning Best Practices that showcased excellence in public service delivery were
presented. These included, (i) PDS in Chhattisgarh,
(ii) Activity Based Learning in Tamil Nadu, (iii) Primary Health Centres in
Gujarat, (iv) ICDS in Karnataka, (v) Citizens Charter of Gram Panchayat with particular
reference to Kerala, (vi) MCA 21 in Ministry of Corporate Affairs, (vi) Sevottam Journey
in India Post, (vii) Accountability in Primary Education, (viii) Sevottam in CBDT
and (ix) Sevottam in CBEC. In all, 450 officers from Government of India
and State Governments / UT Administrations participated in the four
workshops.
Modernization
of Government Offices
During
the year DARPG released Rs.6.50 crore to nine
Ministries/Departments/Offices
for implementation of
the scheme fulfilling the target set in the Results Framework Document.
Prominent amongst these include release of Rs.1.74 crore to the Office of CCA-CRPF; Rs.1.34 crore to the Department of Personnel & Training; Rs.1.35
crore to the Ministry of Defence; and Rs.90.83 lakhs to the
Department of Economic Affairs. Regular
review meetings are held with beneficiary organisations along with CPWD/work agency to ensure
implementation as per timelines fixed.
Steps towards e-Governance
The
14th National Conference on e-governance was organised jointly by DARPG and of Maharashtra Government in
Aurangabad. Based on the theme of the Conference, ‘Rural e-Service Delivery: Status & Challenges’,
wide ranging and useful deliberations were held. National Awards for e-Governance were
also
presented
during the inauguration of this Conference.
National
Awards on e-Governance was presented to 22 initiatives in the 7 categories
during
the inauguration of this Conference.
e-Office is one of the Mission Mode Projects (MMP), under the
National e-Governance Plan (NeGP). The project is aimed at significantly improving the
operational efficiency of Central Government Ministries and Departments through
improvement in the workflow mechanisms and associated office procedure manuals.
To begin with the project was implemented at 3 pilot sites i.e.
As a second phase of e-Office implementation, DARPG identified 12
Ministries/Department for e-Office implementation during 2011-12 and conducted
necessary initial studies therein. A
Nodal Officer has been nominated for every Ministries/Departments and a Project
team is constituted under him for the purpose.
With a view to sensitize and to provide a platform for meaningful
interaction, doubt clearance and address of apprehensions, DARPG conducted two
workshops for nodal officers and their team members.
The
first edition of the Central Secretariat Manual of e-office Procedure (CSMeOP) has been finalized and is under print. The release
of the e-Manual will be a significant event, as it has a transformative
potential in making systems and procedures efficient and enhancing monitoring
capacity substantially. The ICT perspective in the e-Manual gives the officials
of the Central Secretariat an additional advantage of a new system facilitating
faster retrieval of files and documents from a huge data-base.
CAPAM
Leadership Development Programme
The Commonwealth Association for
Public Administration and Management (CAPAM) Leadership Development Programme was organized by the Department at Indian
Institute of Public Administration in 2011. The programme intended to enhance the leadership competencies of
the participants in the competitive world of today and based on experiential
learning methodologies, aiming at the development of self awareness, emotional
intelligence and strategic intent in decisions. Senior government officials
chosen by the Government of India from across the State Governments and the
Central Ministries and Departments participated.
Conferences
held
The
second annual Chief Secretaries’ Conference was held in February, 2011. The
conference institutionalizes the process of interaction, and serves as a
standing forum for exchange of views between the Centre and the States.
The third Conference of
Secretaries of Administrative Reforms of all States/UTs was organized in
September, 2011, with the objective of creating a national platform to share
experiences of the states in the field of reforms/initiatives undertaken by them
to improve public service delivery, make the administration effective,
transparent and accountable and to make the administration citizen
friendly.
International
cooperation
A
Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and
Singapore on cooperation in the field of Personnel Management and Public
Administration was signed in November, 2011. The areas of cooperation under the
MoU are; (i) capacity
building and skills upgrading; improved systems of public service delivery
[Customer oriented services, Total quality management, Citizens Charter
initiatives, Public grievance redress mechanism]; (iii) Human Resources
Management; (iv) Public Sector Reform and (v) Leadership/Talent
Development.
A
Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between
UPSC and Royal Civil Service Commission of Bhutan and the areas of cooperation
would include sharing of experience and expertise in Civil Service matters.
MoU was signed between the UPSC and the
Public Service Commission of Canada regarding sharing and promoting best
practices through bilateral exchanges.
Special
Drive launched to fill up backlog reserved vacancies
The
Government launched a drive to fill up the backlog vacancies of Scheduled
Castes, Scheduled Tribes and OBCs and Persons with Disabilities (PWDs). The
number of backlog vacancies is 57947.
The bifurcation is : SC- 15323, ST – 20301, OBC – 15323 and PWD – 7000. All
Ministries/Departments have been directed to fill up all the vacant posts in
these categories by March 31, 2012.
Recruitments
Syllabus
and pattern of the Civil Services (Preliminary) been revised from 2011 which now
comprises two compulsory papers of objective type (multiple choices) of 200
marks each and the duration is of 2 hours each.
UPSC
has launched with effect from February, 2011 on-line receiving of applications
for the Engineering Services Examination. The submission of application has also
been made on-line and the data is captured on real time basis resulting in
reducing the time cycle besides becoming more accurate in capturing of the data
since candidates are themselves filing in the required
details.
UPSC
have developed and implemented a system for offering detailed application form
to the successful candidates for the Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination
only through on-line mode under secured environment w.e.f. 2011.
Commission
has started sharing question papers for all exams immediately after the conduct
of such examinations. The information about marks obtained by successful as well
as unsuccessful candidates is provided to the individual candidates once the
evaluation process of the examination is completed.
The
Commission has recently developed user friendly software for generating e-admit
card which will be downloadable by the candidates themselves through the
Commission’s website. This system will be in operation
shortly.
During
the year, the Staff Selection Commission (SSC) has conducted nine different All
India Level Open Competitions Examinations. A record 19,42, 289 candidates applied for these examinations and
13,83,281 actually appeared at the examination. SSC has declared results and
recommended 67,861 candidates for appointments.
SSC
was asked to conduct the common recruitment for recruitment of about 53188 constables(GD) in CPOs. The SSC took up the challenge in a
very short time and conducted the recruitment process.
Miscellaneous
The Sixth Civil Services Day was
organized by the Department on 21st April, 2011. The day is celebrated as an
occasion for the civil servants to rededicate themselves to the cause of
citizens and renew their commitment to public service and excellence in work. On
the occasion, the Prime Minister presented the Awards for Excellence in Public
Administration for the year 2009-10 to five initiatives in three categories
viz., individual, group and organization.
Guidelines
regarding Official dealings between Administration and Members of Parliament and
State Legislatures – observance of proper procedure, have been revised after
consulting with the Privilege Committee of the Lok
Sabha.
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