Lobbying for top govt jobs is passé

Merit and integrity were the keys to appointments in the Modi government, the ministry said in a report. Speculations related to transfers and postings in the higher levels of government had been checked with IT being used to bring in transparency in the system, it added. 

A multi-source stakeholder feedback, also known as 360 degree approach, was being followed for selecting officers for senior-level appointments, the ministry said in a booklet titled, 3 years of sustained HR initiatives: 

Foundation for a New India, released in a function attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently. The deciding factor for postings was “right person for the right job”. 

This had led to placements becoming more representative, with 120 non-IAS officers from services like the IPS, IFS, IRS and Indian Audit and Accounts Service currently placed as joint secretaries, it said. The total number of joint secretaries is 291. Earlier, for empanelment to the posts of joint secretary and above, an experts’ panel would scrutinise the marks of the annual performance appraisal reports of the officer for the past 10 years and aggregate the scores for every year. 

This led to a situation where most officers were graded as outstanding without any differentiation on the basis of specific aspects of their performance and character, the ministry said. 

“Now, a robust system has been instituted which weeds out officers with an ambiguous record. This has been institutionalised by implementing a system of obtaining multi-source stakeholder feedback by the expert panel for officers under consideration for empanelment,” it said. 

“Similarly, the scope for lobbying associated with the posting of PSs and OSDs to ministers has been eliminated. The focus on merit, integrity and objectivity in senior placements has ushered in better work culture,” the ministry said.