Who will bell the cat?

As expected the Government has decided to implement the 6th Horror (Pay) Commission Report enhancing the salary of the Central Government Staff.

"The hike will add Rs 12,561 crore to the Centre’s salary bill of Rs 53,497 crore taking it to Rs 66,058 crore. Add to this Rs 18,060 crore in arrears as the hike will be effective from January 2006 and Rs 1,365 crore towards higher pension..........In return, the taxpayer cannot expect anything because there are no performance guarantees" - India Today

This is not taking into account the additional cost incurred by the States when the pay revision is obviously extended to the State Government Employees.

Now, you might ask why shouldn't the government employees get higher wages keeping pace with the times. There are many reasons why they shouldn't.

This bureaucracy has long since stopped functioning for the benefit of the people. It serves only itself and its political masters. This was a monster created by the Raj to serve their ends which we inherited and pampered.

The bureaucracy is corrupt to the boot and the reasoning that they need a pay rise to keep pace with the inflation is laughable, for as everyone knows the income they receive from bribes is many times that they receive as salary.

Contrary to sound management practices, this pay rise (nor the previous ones) is not linked to efficiency and productivity. To pay someone more without any counter obligation is ridiculous.

Nearly 50% of the Income Tax Collection will go towards paying the salaries of the Central Government Employees. That means half the blood, sweat and toil of 375 million people who are Income Tax assessee's goes towards making the life of 45 million Central Government Employees more comfortable. Quite unfair when you think that the 375 million doesn't get anything in return for this.

The inflation is at a high now. Implementation of pay commission report will further add to inflationary pressure

I can go on and on..........................

But what is the solution?

Numerous Commissions have recommended the downsizing of the bureaucracy,but the Government is afraid to take on this monster for fear of repercussions. Increasing the salary leads to more people being attracted to government service, which is the last thing we want. Hold the pay revision, make it performance linked and you will see people drifting away from Government jobs over a period of time which will lead to downsizing.

Outsource various government services in a phased manner. Let the people pay for the services (anyway they do as bribes). For example, activities like Birth and Death Registration can easily be done by the private sector. Ditto for collection of building and land taxes. Why even issuance of driving license can be outsourced. It will be definitely better than the current rotten system.

Implement e-governance in a big way. The one time investment will be less than the outlay for the pay increase of 3 years. Encourage people to use technology to get things done from the government. This shall reduce the transaction cost, speed up the processes while encouraging people to study so that they can get better jobs in the new system that shall have a better pay based on qualification and skill.

The last is drastic. Freeze recruitment into government services for a decade. This will lead to automatic downsizing when people retire and increase the workload of the current staff who will be forced to handle the work hitherto done by the retired employees.

Last but not the least, do a massive crackdown on corruption. Put the fear of god into people who take bribes. Suspend them or dismiss them. Papers may not move for a few days. Anyway it doesn't, but it will create a culture where corruption will be taboo.

But who will bell the cat?