The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

PERSPECTIVE

Making ministers, officers accountable
The Results Framework Document is an effective device for measuring the quality of governance and fixing accountability, says Rajan Kashyap

When does a government employee begin to draw pension?” The pithy answer, “The day he joins the service!” reflects a cynical perception that government servants in India are paid, not for delivery of results, but for merely attending office. That the quality and nature of their output is not called in question; that, in their official appointments, they are not accountable for what they do, or fail to.

Official documents are scathing in their criticism of the complacency that they observe in the administrative systems operating in India. In successive reports, the Administrative Reforms Commission has expressed frustration with an administration that is unable to reward or punish performance in a befitting manner. Central Pay Commissions review the salary structure of all government employees every 10 years. They have proposed the introduction of performance based incentives for officials. These excellent suggestions have remained on paper. The reason: the government’s failure to establish scientific arrangements to evaluate performance.

Is it at all possible to appraise the individuals’ productivity in the bureaucratic stream? According to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the answer is an emphatic “Yes!” The Government of India has introduced a mantra for adjudging performance, and for motivating Minister and official alike. This is labelled the Results Framework Document (RFD), to be rigorously implemented in all Ministries of the Government of India. Described as a Bill of Rights for government servants, the novel system for monitoring and evaluation of performance was announced in both Houses of Parliament by the President on June 4, 2009. On September 11, 2009, the Prime Minister directed all Union Ministers to formalise a unique memorandum of understanding with their respective Secretaries, binding themselves to achieve certain results. Every Ministry’s performance is measured twice a year by its ability to achieve specific measurable targets.

The government expects that the new arrangements will radically transform the administration. What explains the optimism? First, the RFD’s impact is not on the civil servant alone. It is a statement of intent and declaration of outcomes by the Minister and Secretary concerned. Both parties have jointly entered into a memorandum of understanding on what goals are to be achieved within six months, a year, and beyond. The RFD secures the commitment of the political boss even as it binds the bureaucrat to deliver.

Secondly, the targets themselves are not general, vague or nebulous. The document lists hard, empirically definite items that effectively gauge the end result of the efforts of the concerned officials. The Ministry of Surface Transport, for example, is not merely to mention financial outlays and expenditure on roads: the Ministry must indicate the completion of kilometers of fully functional road length by a specified date as also the increased usage of the new communication facility by different categories of users. Similarly, the Agriculture Ministry has to set its goalposts in respect of acreages to be physically brought under cultivation for specified crops, the yield expected and actually achieved, the spread of marketing facilities in every identified pocket in the country etc. Similar relevant parameters are adopted by other ministries.

The Minister and Secretary define their vision for the future and then answer the questions: “Why and how does their ministry exist?” and “what are the objectives and functions of the administrative set up?” The RFD specifies the actions for achieving the objectives and assigns relative weight to various indicators of success. Actual success can then be measured in empirical terms. The end objective: improved governance.

An in-built system of grading assigns marks for every level of achievement. The level of success is adjudged by comprehensive application of objective norms to all results of activity. In comparison with past achievement, the targets are deliberately high and challenging. Thus, cent percent achievement demands gigantic levels of application at numerous levels in the chain of command. It guarantees the concerned Ministry a grade of 90. Only in rare cases, where performance exceeds the stiff targets, can a Ministry earn grades higher than 90. Attaining less than 60 per cent of the designed target earns censure for the Minister and Secretary concerned.

Thirdly, any possibility of collusion between Minister and Secretary in the shape of a “Yes, Minister!” relationship is precluded. Each RFD is subject to continuing and regular scrutiny by a group of external experts, called an Advisory Task Force. This standing group includes former civil servants and also specialists of international eminence in various fields. The Cabinet Secretariat reviews and monitors each RFD formulation as also its implementation. The Prime Minister uses inputs from RFDs to evaluate the Ministries’ output.

By definition, the RFD is a record of intentions and outcomes. It is not merely a paper for internal use in office. Every document has to be placed on the official website, and is thus in the public domain. This openness provides an opportunity to the public to observe the government’s functioning. Such transparency serves as a strong democratic device for public accountability.

The nodal point of the new system is the Performance Management Division, a part of the Cabinet Secretariat. It is headed by a technocrat Secretary, Dr Prajapati Trivedi, a distinguished international economist, who resigned his Professorship at the University of Harvard, USA. It will rouse, invigorate and measure the success of the mammoth machinery of the Government of India. The RFD works on the premise that what gets measured gets done. The Cabinet Secretariat expects that the ongoing RFD exercise would become the basis for recording the Annual Confidential Reports of senior officers. In due course, performance-based incentives for deserving public servants will surely follow.

For ensuring data management for effective reporting and monitoring, arrangements for personnel training are in place. Senior and middle level officials are constantly under pressure to learn in workshops and camps. Ahmedabad’s Indian Institute of Management and several reputed international agencies collaborate with the Cabinet Secretariat, providing valuable inputs about best practices from the corporate sector, and also from experiments in governance abroad. At Mussorrie’s Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, all fresh entrants into civil service imbibe the RFD as a foundational credo for their career progression. The Academy instructs members of all services on RFD at midpoints in their career. A loud and clear message is sounded at every stage: “Perform or else!”

Driven by a clear mandate from the top, the new pattern for inducing accountability has taken root in Central Government offices. The governments of Punjab and Maharashtra have also taken the plunge and introduced RFD as an instrument for administrative reform. Working closely with the Cabinet Secretariat, the Punjab government has trained all senior officers in the preparation of their RFDs. In an exercise in September-October 2010, an Advisory Task Force of experts evaluated the RFDs of all departments in Punjab for 2010-2011. The “Report Card” in Punjab would be placed before the State Cabinet and displayed on the official website for critical appraisal by the public. In Punjab, the Mahatma Gandhi State Institute of Public Administration, Sector 26, Chandigarh, has been assigned the task of performance monitoring and evaluation.

Like all reform measures, the RFD, too, elicits doubts and misgivings. It is criticised for attempting to introduce a form of governance better suited to the corporate sector. It is implied that corporate systems may not fit the requirement of hands on administrative management. The doubters feel that the RFD ignores the realpolitik environment, dominated by non-measurable imponderables. Many decisions in administration, it is argued, are not susceptible to cut and dried mathematical formulation. It is feared that that key functionaries might be compelled to devote excessive time and energy in paper work, neglecting core activities.

However, it must be appreciated that even the United Kingdom has overhauled the administrative systems which we seem to have inherited, bringing in tough methods to induce accountability by the civil service. Most other governments in developed and developing countries (New Zealand and Kenya, for example) are serious about performance, incentives and punishment. A market driven democracy, as India claims to be, has to be answerable to the public for its use of financial and human resources. In the public interest, no stigma needs to be attached to applying management devices from the corporate sector in government-led activities.

In India, red tape is seen to have stymied the delivery of good governance. The RFD expects the same red tape to be unravelled and converted into equipment to measure the quality of governance. The RFD deserves to be given a chance.

The writer, a former Chief Secretary and Chief Information Commissioner of Punjab, is currently Adviser, Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Public Administration, Govt. of Punjab, Chandigarh

A mantra for governance

l The Results Framework Document (RFD), also described as a Bill of Rights, is a mantra for adjudging performance and for motivating Ministers and officials.

l Its impact is not on the civil servants alone. It is a statement of intent and declaration of outcomes by the Minister and the Secretary.

l It secures the commitment of the political boss even as it binds the bureaucrat to deliver.

l It helps actual success to be measured in empirical terms.

l It has to be placed on the official website and is thus in the public domain. This openness, in turn, helps people to observe the government’s functioning.

l It will become the basis for recording the senior officers’ annual confidential reports. This will ensure performance-based incentives for deserving public servants.

l It expects the red tape to be unraveled and converted into equipment to measure governance.

Russia in NATO: Two giants under one umbrella
by Swati Parwal

Russia’s invitation to the Alliance Summit in Lisbon has rekindled debate over its likelihood of joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). Its inclusion would expand NATO’s collective security umbrella to the entire Europe. NATO with Russia will be the most powerful security regime — the Euro-Atlantic security architecture — with three powerful players, the United States, the European Union and Russia joining hands.

On December 20, 1991, President Yeltsin declared NATO membership as “a long-term political aim” of the newly-emergent Russian Federation. On June 22, 1994, Russia entered NATO’s Partnership for Peace programme. Russian membership of NATO is feasible due to several changes in the international scenario. Russia-NATO relations have improved over the years because of improvement in the Russia-US relations. This tilt in their bilateral ties is also visible in the US opting for Russian route for their supplies in Afghanistan. Russia, too, had conceded the US request for the same.

The US needs Russian support in Afghanistan as well as Iran. Besides, NATO is no longer perceived as an enemy by the Russian Federation. With the end of the Cold War and disintegration of the USSR, the bipolar world order is gradually giving way to multipolar world order. Due to changing nature and definition of threats, both NATO and Russia are confronting common security threats from transnational non-state actors.

New threats such as piracy, drug trafficking in Afghanistan, security in Europe and missile defense call for new alliances. Not only this, NATO is open to have closer ties with Russia. In 2002, a “new era in NATO-Russia cooperation” was initiated by the signing of the Rome Declaration, “NATO-Russia Relations: A New Quality”, that has formally established the NATO-Russia Council. This new forum is meant to “serve as the principal structure and venue for advancing the relationship between NATO and Russia”.

Moreover, Russia too is realising NATO’s importance in maintaining peace and stability in the European continent. History amply demonstrates that stability and security of Europe can only facilitate Russia’s peaceful resurgence.

However, at the same time, Russian official stand rules out any further boosting of ties. Russia has not yet applied for NATO’s membership. The elite views stand divided on Russia’s admission to NATO. Many consider the idea of joining NATO as a ‘premature issue’. The reasons may be several. Russia, in the grip of ‘ex-super power’ psychology, refuses to be “one among the equals”.
Russia will, certainly, demand veto power on many issues. Russia considers that joining NATO would be a compromise with its sovereignty. Russia fears that accession to NATO will negatively influence its foreign policy options and choices and has been opposing NATO’s expansion in Post-Soviet space, particularly in Caucasian countries which it considers to be its exclusive zone of influence.

Russian military chiefs opine that integration with NATO would call for an upgradation of the Russian Army which won’t be possible in the near future. In plain words, Russia is not ready for joining the European security club. They are satisfied with the present level of cooperation and deepening of cooperation without formally joining it. They stress that the security concerns of Russia and alliance are not similar and cooperation is possible only on few particular issues.

Besides, there are clear differences between the two over Georgia. The recent visit of NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen to Georgia to inaugurate the NATO liaison office in Tbilisi will help facilitate Georgia’s entry into NATO. With strong political differences, it is apparent that Russia will not consider joining NATO till the border dispute with Georgia is resolved. Further, Russia insists on NATO abiding international law and abstaining from acting against the UN Security Council’s decisions. Russia hopes to see that NATO’s new strategic concept reflects its view and NATO’s role undergoes change from world policeman to a responsible global security organisation.

Russia’s accession to NATO will have far-reaching global implications. Most important, there would certainly be an attitudinal change in the global perception of existing NATO member states. The inclusion of Russia Federation will bring with it a new sensitivity in NATO’s approaches and actions. With Russia as a member, NATO will be the most powerful and defining regional security architecture. It will succeed in snatching away the sheen from the UN Security Council and would act parallel to it.

Notwithstanding NATO’s unchallengeable status, Russia can balance and control NATO’s reckless missions which are not in terms with the principles of the United Nations charter. The proposed expansion would make NATO far better equipped to deal with new transnational threats like terrorism, drug trafficking, etc. The threats emerging from the so-called ‘rouge’ states could be handled in a more efficient manner, i.e., with enhanced dialogue and co-operation rather than embargoes, confrontation or war.

Russia’s membership of NATO will have serious repercussions on Asian security architecture. Russia is very much part of Asia as it is of Europe. Its admission in NATO will bring NATO to China’s border. It will seriously affect the stability of Asian continent as China, an emerging giant and aspiring super power will view this as a threat to its own security.

On the positive side, the question of revival of new Cold War will not re-surface. ‘Russia in NATO’ will definitely augment confidence between the US and Russia and will underpin global peace, security and prosperity. Finally, whether inside or outside the European collective security framework, the Russian Federation is a very essential part of European security architecture.

The writer is Research Scholar, Centre for Russian and Central Asian Studies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

OPED

No panacea for poverty
Suicides in AP demolish the myth of micro-credit
by Sudha Ramachandran

A string of suicides in Andhra Pradesh in recent months has drawn attention to usurious interest rates and strong-arm debt recovery tactics used by microfinance institutions (MFIs) especially in rural India. It is alleged that companies like SKS Microfinance, Spandana Spoorty Financials and dozens of other MFIs have been charging borrowers up to 36 per cent interest on loans, driving around 60 of them in Andhra Pradesh to take their lives. A similar crisis in 2006 drove around 200 to commit suicide in the state.

Micro-credit’s devastating impact is not restricted to Andhra. The poor across India are suffering. However, with Andhra accounting for 28 per cent of all micro-credit loans, it is here that its impact has become most visible.

The stories coming out of Andhra demolish the myth that micro-credit is a panacea for rural poverty.

In a country where over 60 per cent of the population are denied access to bank loans because they lack collateral, MFIs were hailed for providing a lifeline to around 30 million households that were outside the banking system. The loans were mainly extended to women and this strategy was reported to contribute to their empowerment.

The reality on the ground has turned out to be quite different. Initially, it was non-profit groups that extended micro-credit. Smelling opportunity, private businesses, venture capitalists and the World Bank stepped in. The new breed of MFIs extended micro-credit for profit even as they claimed to be filling a social need.

The new MFIs were generous in lending money to the poor, even encouraging them to take loans but charged usurious rates of interest. The high cost of servicing tiny loans compelled them to charge interest, they said.

The new MFIs were not different from the traditional exploitative moneylenders. Only they enjoyed the halo of being agents of transformation and alleviating poverty in the country. In effect, MFIs have functioned as loan sharks with legitimacy.

To the poor, the MFIs came as a godsend. Some borrowed to start businesses and flourished. But these were a tiny minority. In most cases, the loans were not for income generating enterprises but for consumption. In the circumstances, they sank into a debt trap, taking one loan to pay off merely the interest on another. When they were unable to pay back loans, recovery agents abused and threatened them, took away things from their home and even held their children hostage until they paid up.

The MFIs have denied they are to blame for borrowers committing suicide. They deny that they have pushed the poor into indebtedness and desperation. Cases have been reported of agents encouraging borrowers to commit suicide as they hoped to claim the sum from the insurance company. All loans are insured. Not surprisingly, victims’ families are accusing agents of abetting suicide.

Women were supposed to be the main beneficiaries of micro-credit. They have become its worst victims. They are held responsible for defaulting on payment when it is the men who use it up for consumption purposes.

Self-help groups (SHGs) through which the loans were channelled were supposed to improve community cohesiveness. However, it has pitted one SHG member against another. When one member defaults others must bear that burden. It has worked against women’s solidarity. It has also deepened the dowry problem as men have increased their dowry demands knowing that women can access MFIs for loans.

Responding to the plethora of complaints against MFIs and the string of suicides, the Andhra Pradesh government has finally promulgated an ordinance that makes it mandatory for MFIs to register themselves with district agencies, besides providing details about the interest rates they charge. The ordinance also restricts MFI agents from visiting borrowers’ homes to recover loans or use strong-arm tactics to force repayment. Several social activists are pressing for a cap on interest rates, which the Central Government seems reluctant to impose as it goes against the interests of the MFI sector.

It is time the government intervened decisively on behalf of the poor rather than to protect the interests of the rich.

Analysts have pointed out that micro-credit by itself is not wrong. The poor need money to begin businesses. What is wrong is the aggressive pursuit of profit by MFIs, their obvious exploitation of the poor and the usurious interest rates they charge. For instance, Ela Bhatt, founder of the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), has pointed out that MFIs have increasingly ignored the fact that the poor need more than loans to be successful entrepreneurs. They need advice and training on investment, running a business and so on. Most MFIs have quietly shirked this key component of the micro-credit approach.

However, increasingly experts are questioning the very concept of micro-credit, the way it perceives poverty in extremely narrow terms as of cash income. It is based on an assumption that poverty is caused by lack of money alone.

The micro-credit approach does not see the need to challenge social inequalities and economic hierarchies that lie at the heart of poverty. It glosses over the structural problems that keep the poor, poor.

The micro-credit approach claims to be pro-poor. But it is based on the capitalist approach to development. Micro-credit advocates that what is needed to lift the poor out of poverty is to release their entrepreneurial spirit through loans which, in turn, will facilitate their climb up the capitalist ladder towards economic success. It ignores the fact that many of India’s poor cannot easily climb this ladder, not because they don’t have money but because they belong to marginalised castes.

The MFIs are not in the business to alleviate poverty. Rather their business thrives on keeping people poor. After all, if borrowers had the capacity to repay promptly, the MFIs would lose out on interest.

Years ago, when micro-credit became a popular buzzword in development circles it was described as small loans that bring big change. The unfolding tragedy in Andhra Pradesh indicates that these are micro loans that leave a macro mess.n

The writer is an independent researcher and journalist based in Bangalore

On Record
Use data for collective good, says Nag
by Neena Sharma

Dr Prithvish Nag

Bracing up to the challenges of the digital age, the cartographic institutions are keenly attuning themselves to the growing needs of a knowledge dominated society, offering a wide range of products and services. Taking this challenge forward is Dr Prithvish Nag, Director, National Atlas and Thematic Mapping Organisation (NATMO), Kolkata.

A former Surveyor General of India (SOI), Dr Nag is a firm believer in the use of information data for the collective good of the country. He believes that it is imperative for scientific research institutions to make their data accessible as also tackle the copyright issue vis-a-vis the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR). He speaks to The Tribune on the sidelines of the 30th Indian National Cartographic Association International Congress in Dehradun on a host of issues confronting the cartographers.

Excerpts:

Q: How far would the government scientific institutions such as NATMO go in lifting the “iron curtain” and making application-based information more accessible to the masses?

A: There is a notion among the general public that if public money is being used by scientific institutions for creating data or systems, information about these should be shared and government is looking at it from all possible angles, i.e. how best to address the issue within the next few months.The notification of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, forced institutions to look at the issue of copyright infringement, especially when maps are being increasingly digitised recently issued a notification. It will also lead to declassification of information. Besides, the country and its citizens too require digital data which cannot be put under lock and key forever especially when it is used for various purposes.

Q: Will you assure us greater transparency and more sharing of information in the coming days?

A: We are already assisting NGOs, state governments, urban local bodies, panchayats and other community-based organisations to meet their geo-spatial information needs. Now we need to forge a mutually beneficial arrangement with industries, but the government has to work out terms, financial arrangements and protocols.

If knowledge assets with public money have been created, they should be made accessible to public and should not remain in the realm of idea. Special data is a national asset and its use in several applications cannot be discounted. However, in the absence of sharing of basic data, a great deal of time is spent on preparing the base data. If existing data assets are readily and easily available, it will help in cost cutting.

Q: The data in your institution is more than 150 years old. You have also referred to the Great Trigonometric Survey. Does this data continue to hold relevance today?

A: Yes. The Great Trigonometric Survey can be considered as a foundation of all the topographical surveys with huge impact on the development of science and technology today. It is possible to claim that much of India’s infrastructural development, railways, national highways, telephone lines and power grids as well as defense, military and strategic needs could not have been met without the accurate maps which the measurement of the Great Arc made possible.

Similarly, we have wealth of data on glaciers, underground water etc. These will have to be interpreted. However, we are facing acute shortage of manpower these days. Outsourcing is an option, but the legalities will have to be worked out.

Profile
Krupakar, Senani first Asians to win Green Oscar
by Harihar Swarup

By winning the Green Oscar against such formidable contenders as Richard Attenborough, the two-member team of Krupakar and Senani has done India proud. The Pack which was nominated for the prestigious wild screen film festival and competed against noted film maker Attenborough’s Life and another film by the National Geographic channel bagged the award ahead of the world renowned filmmakers. Produced and directed by Krupakar and Senani, The Pack is the first film in Asia to be nominated to the prestigious film festival and win the Green Oscar award. With this, the filmmakers from Karnataka have become the first Asians to win the award.

The film is about a pack of the Indian wild dog known as dhole. It is an endangered species and has been slaughtered till the end of the 20th century because it was considered a vermin. Dholes live in Central Asia, Malay Peninsula and Sumatra. They are mostly rusty-red in colour and inhabit thick jungles. They live and hung in packs and feed on deer, antelopes and similar animals.

Set in Karnataka’s picturesque Bandipur Tiger Reserve, the film revolves around Krupakar’s quest to chronicle the life of one dog pack. His task was frustrated for five long years as he could get only fleeting glimpses into wild dogs’ lives; they are in the jungle most of the time.

Luck finally smiled on him when he befriends Bomma, a tribal elder and expert tracker. Together they set out to unravel the mysteries of the dogs’ lives, succeeding eventually.

The female of ‘Krupakar’s pack’ is named after Bomma’s favourite niece, Kamali. A veteran of many years, she often leads her pack on hunts. To film the intimate lives of the restless dogs, Krupakar and Bomma must first get to the pack to accept their presence. Certainly, it was not an easy task. Like most animals in India’s jungles, wild dogs have not had a comfortable history with humans and are naturally wary of them.

While it is possible to approach them within close proximity in a vehicle, it takes enormous patience and perseverance to get them to accept human presence on foot. Yet, it is this crucial breakthrough that enabled the filmmakers to record scenes never filmed before.

Krupakar too was anxious to film the dogs’ hunting behaviour. However, although he was able to film the electrifying early moments, the final kill eluded him. Twice he managed to be at the right place at the right time but luck failed him at the last moment.

A predator film cannot be completed without a kill. In Bandipur, as in many other Indian jungles, local people often follow hunting dhole packs and steal their kill. This practice has made dholes even more wary of humans, and they usually abandon the chase when humans are close by. It was through a combination of good fortune and their rapport with the dogs that Krupakar and Senani finally managed to capture an exciting kill.

One of the most exciting stories of Krupakar and Senani was their encounter with the forest brigand Veerappan. The bandit, then India’s most wanted, landed at their door steps one night in 1997. One of Veerappan’s informers had told him that they were government officials and he thought he could hold them hostage and wrest his demands from the government. What he wanted was clemency and money.

Krupakar and Senani, already famous as wildlife photographers, had ended up in the hands of a ruthless killer. Veerappan tied them up and herded them out into the forest. The next morning, he stopped a tourist bus and a forest department jeep, and kidnapped an agricultural scientist and two forest guards.

Krapakar and Senani have written about their hostage experience in a Kannada book. As you might expect, it is a thrilling caper. It comes to a happy end when Veerapan decided to release the two photo prodigies without harming them.