Author: Shishir Gupta
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: December 28, 2003
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/archive_full_story.php?content_id=38120
For babus who perhaps do not understand
the meaning of the term, ''conflict of interest,'' this New Year may not
bring good tidings.
Cabinet Secretary Kamal Pande has
decided to crack down on the rampant practice of high-profile bureaucrats
wangling lucrative foreign assignments with international bodies connected
with the ministries they are working in.
Sources said the Ministry of Personnel
is proposing a two-year moratorium for All India Services (that includes
IAS and IPS) bureaucrats before they can apply for foreign assignments
or consultancies related to their departments.
Simply put, a Health Ministry bureaucrat
will now have to wait for two years after finishing his tenure before the
babu can apply for deputation to an organisation like the WHO.
This proposal has been forwarded
to the Ministry of External Affairs for approval. It will become a rule
after being cleared by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet.Bad news
The decision to bring this key reforms
in officialdom was taken after it was found that once on foreign deputation,
several bureaucrats were found to be using their babu network to ''lobby''
for the international organisation for which they were working.
As a pointer of things to come,
Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Pande refused permissions to two
senior secretaries, one with Ministry of Finance and other with Food Ministry,
for getting a consultancy from international organisations this year.
Even though the government is all
for encouraging Indian representation in UN bodies, it is against bureaucrats
going on three months' leave for foreign consultancy in a bid to make a
fast buck.
The officialdom currently is replete
with instances where an IAS or IPS bureaucrat has managed a foreign posting
in the same subject that the person was dealing with in the government.
For instance, a former joint secretary
in the Health Ministry wangled a two-year deputation in the WHO. A former
joint secretary in the Civil Aviation Ministry has got a job with an international
body dealing in the same subject. A private secretary with a former Industry
Minister is now with the UNIDO. Similarly, another former PS to a Cabinet
Minister is now with the IMF.
