Second Administrative Reforms Commission

Second Administrative Reforms Commission

            The Government of India set up the Second Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC) on August 31, 2005 under the chairmanship of Shri Veerappa Moily to prepare a detailed blueprint for revamping the Public Administration System. The commission was asked to suggest measures to achieve a "proactive, responsive, accountable, sustainable and efficient administration for the country at all levels of the government. Further, unlike the first ARC, the commission of inquiry was asked to look into about. The commission consists of the following (i) Ramachandran - Chairperson, (ii) Dr. A.P. Mukherjee - Member, (iii) Dr. A.H. Kalra - Member, (iv) Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan - Member, (v) Veenita Rai - Member Secretary. Veerappa Moily resigned with effect from 1st April, 2009. V. Ramachandran was appointed Chairman. Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan resigned with effect from 1st September 2007. The Commission was to exclude from its purview the detailed examination of administration of defense, railways, external affairs, security and intelligence, as also subjects such as countries, state relations, and judicial reforms etc. which were already being examined by other bodies. The commission was however, be free to take the problems of this sector into account in recommending re-organization of the machinery of the government or any of its service agencies.

The Second Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC), government of India (GOI), completed its work by 31st May 2009 and presented the 15 Reports given below.

1. Right to Information: Master Key to Good Governance (9.6.2006)

2. Unlocking human capital: Entitlements and Governance – a Case Study (31.7.2006)

3. Crisis Management: From Despair to Hope (31.10.2006).

4. Ethics in Governance (12.2.2007)

5. Public Order: Justice for each … Peace for all (26.6.2007)

6. Local Governance (27.11.2007)

7. Capacity Building for Conflict Resolution – Friction to Fusion (17.3.2008)

8. Combating Terrorism (17.9.2008)

9. Social Capital – A Shared Destiny (8.10.2008)

10. Refurbishing of Personnel Administration – Scaling New Heights (27.11.2008)

11. Promoting e-Governance– The Smart Way Forward (20.01.2009)

12. Citizen Centric Administration – The Heart of Governance (30.3.2009)

13. Organizational structure of Government of India (19.5.2009)

14. Strengthening Financial Management System (26.5.09)

15. State and District Administration (29.5.2009)

“As per the terms of reference of the commission, the first item was on the organizational structure of the Government of India.” Instead the Commission submitted the first report on Right to Information as it is a Master Key to Good Governance. This report only explains/reviews the Right to Information Act, 2005 which was enacted just a few months before the setting up of the ARC. The Act is expected to have a radical change in governance culture. The report itself notes that one single law cannot change everything (without changing everything). The Commission attempted to provide a road map for the time-bound implementation of their recommendations for effective implementation of the Act by making amendments to a number of colonial Legislations which made the state authoritarian and undemocratic and the administration of the report is giving a share of all the people in the government of the utmost i.e. Master key to good governance. It empowers the poor and the weak, in the society and they demand for their welfare and the state administration serves them.

                   The second report on Unlocking Human Capital: Entitlements and Governance – A Case Study. This report examined one important legislation i.e. The National Employment Guarantee Act, which was also passed only in 2005. The report considered the act that cares for the most vulnerable population by guaranteeing 100 days of wage employment. The Act, if successfully implemented successfully, would uplift the rural economy by providing legally guaranteed work for 100 days whoever wants work. After going through the provisions of the act, the report made many recommendations for the successful implementation of the Act which leads to balanced and sustainable development of the rural regions

                  The third report on Crisis Management from despair to hope. As already stated that the issue of crisis management has been referred to a high power commission like ARC for the first time by the government. The main cause of the crisis, according to the report is due to negligence of our natural assets and environment. The Commission has carefully examined the existing structure of Crisis Management. The Commission has made an exhaustive study of different crisis situations like- drought, floods, epidemics, earthquakes, cyclones, tsunami, disruption of essential services, the aspect of relief and rehabilitation. But once again as in the previous report, it had examined the Disaster Management Act which was enacted only in 2005. The commission suggested playing a supportive role by the government of India, the major task of mitigating the disaster would be with the state government at the appropriate levels.

                           The fourth report on Ethics in Governance was submitted in January, 2007. This is the first time that the government of India felt the necessity for permeation of ethics in government. Previously, the Government expressed concern about the corruption in the public service and appointed Santhanam Committee in the early 1960s to suggest measures for the eradication of corruption. But it turned out to be a damp squib as corruption spread all over the country in every walk of life. That was the right time for the government to think about the prevalence of ethics in governance.

                          The fifth report on Public Order was submitted in June, 2007 with a beautiful caption, “Justice for each, peace for all”, with quite imaginative flying and nesting pigeon couple loving each other in peace and harmony. Former president of India, Dr. Abdul Kalam made a very meaningful statement, “If real criminals in our society are left without punishment for years because of delay in criminal justice for various reasons, it will indeed result in the multiplication of people taking to criminal acts”. It is quoted as the first two lines to preface, the commission was asked specifically to

1. Suggest a framework to strengthen the administrative machinery to maintain public order conducive to social harmony and economic development and
2. Capacity building and attendant issues related to the criminal justice system

                The sixth report on Local Governance as Inspiring Journey into the Future. The terms of reference of the Second (ARC) pertaining to local self government assumed special significance since the key areas of reforms in local governance. The terms of references are 

1. Improving delivery mechanism of public utilities and civil services with greater citizens and stakeholder involvement in such process, utilities like water health and sanitation, education etc.
2.  Empowerment of local self-government institutions for encouraging participative governance and networking.
3. To encourage capacity building and training interventions for better performance of local bodies.

The commission examined the issues of rural and urban local governance in three parts which are as follows:

(A) Common Issues: This part deals with issues of Rural and Urban local governance in three parts.

(B) Rural Governance: This part deals with issues related to rural governance.

(C) Urban Governance: This part deal with issues concerned with urban governance.

In seventh report on Capacity Building in Conflict Resolution had tried to examine the background and emerging facets of the many conflicts that plague India. These have been detailed in separate chapters ranging from left extremism to water related conflicts based or religion, regional disparities and social division (with a particular focus or the SC’s STs and the OBCs) as well as conflicts based upon political identity and ethnicity such as the militancy in the North East. The report thereafter looks at the extant operational and institutional arrangements for conflict management and how the capacity of these mechanisms can be strengthened so as to better manage and resolve conflicts in the country.

In the eighth report on Combating Terrorism, Protecting by Righteousness deals with the menace of terrorism and how India’s legal and administrative framework can be refurbished to tackle it. Accordingly, the commission had decided that it would deal with issues pertaining to terrorism in a separate report particularly since terrorism today has transcended pure crisis management or public order issues and is enmeshed in an intricate web of organized crime, illegal financial transfers and trafficking in arms and drugs, which poses a grave threat to national security. The existence of sleeper cells, the spread of modern communications and the increasing use of modern weapons, technology and tactics have enabled the merchants of terror to spread their tentacles far and wide subjecting the entire country to their nefarious designs. A multi-cultural, liberal and democratic country like India, given its geopolitical situation, is particularly vulnerable to acts of terror with statistics showing that Indians have suffered the maximum casualties at the hands of terrorists. The menace of terrorism is thus an unprecedented threat which requires extraordinary and multi-pronged action by all organs of government and society.

The ninth report on Social Capital, the commission had explored the evolution and growth of institutions that lie at the base of Social Capital in India, with particular reference to societies, trusts/charitable, institution works and endowments, voluntary organizations at the grass roots levels such as Self Help Group, Self-Regulatory Authorities and Cooperatives. The commission had examined these institutions in the context of their present legal underpinning their institutions designs, their interface with government and with other stakeholders, their respective sales and functional their strengths and weaknesses and the reform agenda that should be chartered us for these institutions. The recommendations made by the commission spell out the change required in the legal framework as well as in the administrative structure and government policies to bring about independence, integrity, transparency, credibility and dynamism to these institutions.

                                          The tenth report on Refurbishing of Personnel Administration – Scaling New Heights following aspects of administration are required

1. Review the policy relating to and all methods of recruitment, training and placement and suggest. Changes, if required.
2. Provide guidelines for enhancing performance of civil servants and its appraisal,
3. Improved methods of Cadre Management focus on career progression, motivation and productivity, enhancement,
4.  Strategies for up gradation of skills and competencies of Civil Servants and administrative Cadres and appropriate interventions for capacity building
5.  Linking of performance of Civil Servants and Government Personnel to Social and Economic objectives and outcomes

 The eleventh report on Promoting E-governance – The SMART way forward. The "E" in E-governance stands for electronic. Thus E-governance is basically associated with carrying out the functions and achieving the results of governance through the utilization of what has today come to be known as ICT (Information and Communication Technology). The reason why countries around the world are increasingly opting for 'E-governance' is that governance per se has become more complex and varied in the last few decades and more importantly, citizens’ expectations from the government have increased manifold. ICT facilitates efficient and strong retrieval of data, instantaneous transmission of information, processing of information and data faster than the earlier manual system, speeding up governmental process, taking decision expeditiously and judiciously, increasing transparency and enforcing accountability.

                       On the terms of reference in the Second Administrative reforms Commission Pertained to promote E-Governance in particular to the following aspects of this subject.

1. To reduce red-tape, delay and inconveniences through technology interventions including the use of modern tools, techniques and instruments of E-governance.
2. Promoting knowledge sharing to realize continuous improvement in the quality of governance.

The twelfth report on Citizen Centre Administration "The Heart of Governance", The concept of good governance and citizen centric administration initially connected citizen centrically with the aim of ensuring the citizen's welfare and citizen satisfaction of any government, local, state or national which aims to provide good governance.

As has been pointed out in the report the following are the pre-requisites of citizen centric governance

1. Sound legal framework.
2.  Robust institutional mechanism for proper implementation of laws and their effective functioning.
3.  Competent personnel staffing these institutions and sound personnel management politics.
4.  Right policies for decentralization, delegation and accountability.

Going beyond these necessary conditions the commission has outlined the following core principles for making governance citizen centric.

1. Rule of law-zero tolerance strategy.
2. Making institutions vibrant, responsive and accountable
3. Decentralization
4. Transparency
5. Civil Services Reforms
6. Ethics in Governance
7. Process Reforms
8. Periodic and independent evaluation of the quality of governance.

 Finally taking matters further beyond principles and pre-conditions the commission had tried to examine the finer details of how governance can be made a more citizen centric with reference to the strategies and processes, the tools and mechanisms, which can be usefully employed to make the administration citizen these are –

1. Re-engineering process to make governance citizen centric.
2. Adoption of appropriate modern technology.
3. Right to information.
4. Citizen charters
5. Independent evaluation of services
6. Grievances Redressal Mechanism Act citizens participations public private partnership

  The thirteenth report on Organizational structure of the Governance, the Commission, in its reports which were already examined, made recommendations on different aspects of Governance. In the thirteenth report, the commission was supposed to analyze and make recommendations for reforming the structure of the Government of India since the sustainability of the other reforms was closely interlinked with the creation of a pro-active efficiency and flexible organizational framework.

1. Reorganization of Ministries and Departments. Revisiting and redefining the role of the Ministries and Departments in the context of evolving role of governance and need for greater collaboration.
2. Manpower planning and process re-engineering
3. Suggest ways to position the administrative services in the modern context of global integration, emergence of markets and liberalization.
4. To examine if the system of governance was optimally suited to the environment of that time.
5. To suggest a framework for possible areas where there is a need for governmental (regulations) and those where it should be reduced.
6. To strengthen the framework for efficient, economical, sensitive clean objective and agile administrative machinery

The fourteenth report on Strengthening Financial Management Systems, the recommendation of the Second Administrative reforms Commission were:

1. Strengthening Financial Management System. Capability building in the financial management system at all levels of governance, to ensure smooth flow of funds for programmers, project, proper maintenance of account and timely furnishing of necessary information documents for this purpose.
2.  Strengthening of internal audit systems to ensure proper utilization of funds for the outcomes for which they have been provided and checking that the unit cost of delivery/outcome is as per benchmark developed for this purpose.
3. Institutional method of external audit and assessment of the delivery and impact of programs.

  The fifteenth report on State and District Administration, the Administration at the State level is the cutting edge of the public administration system in the country – Be it the issue of ration or electoral identity cards, procurement of food grains, implementation of employment guarantee schemes, supply of drinking water, mutation of land records, furnishing of primary schools and health care centers or control of epidemics in the countryside, it is the instrumentalities of the State and District administration with which citizen have to interact. The institutions of the State and District administration exist primarily to provide these services to the citizen. There are laid down rules and procedures for every aspect of the government's functioning and its interaction with the common man but due to weakness of the bureaucracy, growing complexities of administration and absence of commitment and responsiveness, a wide gap has emerged, between "Government and Governance".

In this background, the terms of reference of the Second Administrative Reforms Commission identified the following issues on which the commission had been asked to make specific recommendations. Steps to ensure effective administration of the state level.

1. Progressive reorganization and transformation of district administration form and content keeping in mind the centrality, thereof in regulating, facilitating and delivering services at the grassroots level.
2. Bringing about systematic changes to refuse and sustain vibrancy and responsiveness.
3.  Streamlining and fine-tuning a comprehensive and accessible public grievance.
4.  Streamlining and fine-tuning a comprehensive and accessible public grievance handling and redress mechanism.
5.  Greater devolution and delegation of functions and resources to the local lends.
6. Examine the coordinating and leadership role of the district officer in development activities and enlisting people's participation therein.