How to strengthen the bureaucracy
about rules, procedures and compliance. In other words, disciplining the workforce.
Accountability in public sector institutions in Pritchett’s framing is fundamentally about the account. Institutions function when the account of the individuals that people them align with the goals of the institution. In India this alignment is broken. The account of our frontline bureaucracy is shaped by two factors. First, the attraction of government jobs as a source of mobility and power rather than the achievement of professional goals. This is the primary driver of the account of frontline actors. But this account is complicated by the lived experience of being a bureaucrat in a rigid and hierarchical organisation. Rather than harness a professional identity, within the constraints of the dynamic set by the status of government jobs, by building a sense of professional worth around the goal of teaching, improved health care for instance, the hierarchies of the bureaucracy privilege rule following and paper compliance reducing the idea of performance to responsiveness to rules and orders rather than service delivery goals.
In this context accountability sought through accounting will at best ensure on-paper compliance to rules — ensuring anganwadi workers fill their 18 registers, for instance, but will never enable the achievement of service delivery goals like improving nutrition. It is against this backdrop that the PM’S samvad gains significance. Carefully crafted interactions like this could serve to alter the “account” by building a professional identity and instilling a sense of pride in the job officials perform. But for this to take root, a concerted effort will need to be made for building institutional spaces that break down hierarchies and encourage dialogue across the political and bureaucratic hierarchy. The PM certainly has the rhetorical skills to initiate this change. What’s missing is the will and vision..
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Yamini Aiyar is president and chief executive, Centre for Policy Research The views expressed are personal