Editorial
Politicisation of administration
Long-term effect will be to undermine civil service
With the general election approaching fast, 'politicisation' of the civil administration has seemingly picked up pace. Already, there has been a series of promotions, appointments and transfers, many of which have come under fire, having been allegedly made under 'political considerations'. Despite having requisite qualifications, some 200 aspirants amongst 378 senior assistant secretaries have not been promoted as deputy secretaries and it has been reported that another spate of large-scale reshuffle is just around the corner.Control has been so centralised with the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) being the nerve-centre of the administration that sometimes even ministers are kept in the dark, not consulted with respect to the appointment even of secretary to the ministry, thus hampering smooth running of ministerial affairs. Signs of politicisation are widely read. Not an appointment or promotion is made without consideration of the political impact, contractual appointments have risen to a dizzying 240, and by the same token, those who are deemed insufficiently loyal are either overlooked in matters of promotions or sidelined as officers on special duty (OSD). The obvious negative consequences of politicisation are two-fold. The first is that this kind of stacking of the deck is only going to lower the efficiency of the administration and thereby make the day-to-day governance suffer. And second, any blatant politicisation of the civil administration will give a strong indication that the government is uninterested in a level playing field and add fuel to the controversies now raging. The administration can only be crippled by politicisation. It has a demoralising effect across the tiers of bureaucracy and, of course, the overall performance will suffer immensely. For the sake of the smooth and effective running of the administration it is imperative that the standard norms that have guided the bureaucracy for so many years be adhered to. Pulling down the bureaucratic edifice that has been the corner-stone of good governance will hurt everyone in the long run.
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