This is high time that we brought the required transparency into our system of selecting people who are to deliver administration to the public. They are the ones who are at the cutting edge of all kind of public services be it executive or judicial.
Presently the system is actually selecting bidders from amongst the eligible candidates who pay the highest bid rather than being the most competent out of the lot as only those who are willing to pay substantial amounts as bribes or very well connected get the nod while the rest keep quite accepting it as their fate and only a minuscule minority challenge the established system via judiciary but these also receive a verdict when half of their useful life and age is spent waiting for a favourable judicial verdict or response.
Now what has to be done to stem the rot. The aim should be to immediately change the procedure to reduce subjectivity, have an expert /technical committee evaluate a candidate separately and have them interview the candidate for minimum 10 to 15 minutes to at least gauge/ evaluate the candidate properly and not give a short shrift to the procedure with only one or two members attending and that too spending two to five minutes on an average on the interview process. Video graph and let the video record be part of public domain for RTI seekers. Then let the PPSC members interview the same candidate and take out an average of both because we now know that PPSC is not doing the assigned job properly hence the need to intervene immediately. Let the competent stand up and be counted and stop the incompetent not be herded through the back door.
Time has also come to have a re look and change the method of selecting the selectors i.e. the members and the Chairman. The nomination is not the correct way to go about of appointing persons to such posts. When you have a search committee to select a VC of a university than what stops us from a similar procedure to select the members of the commission from amongst the public. Mind you there are competent people who are on the margins of our society waiting to participate in honest functioning of such public institutions. They may not hang around the powers that be.
Presently the system is actually selecting bidders from amongst the eligible candidates who pay the highest bid rather than being the most competent out of the lot as only those who are willing to pay substantial amounts as bribes or very well connected get the nod while the rest keep quite accepting it as their fate and only a minuscule minority challenge the established system via judiciary but these also receive a verdict when half of their useful life and age is spent waiting for a favourable judicial verdict or response.
Now what has to be done to stem the rot. The aim should be to immediately change the procedure to reduce subjectivity, have an expert /technical committee evaluate a candidate separately and have them interview the candidate for minimum 10 to 15 minutes to at least gauge/ evaluate the candidate properly and not give a short shrift to the procedure with only one or two members attending and that too spending two to five minutes on an average on the interview process. Video graph and let the video record be part of public domain for RTI seekers. Then let the PPSC members interview the same candidate and take out an average of both because we now know that PPSC is not doing the assigned job properly hence the need to intervene immediately. Let the competent stand up and be counted and stop the incompetent not be herded through the back door.
Time has also come to have a re look and change the method of selecting the selectors i.e. the members and the Chairman. The nomination is not the correct way to go about of appointing persons to such posts. When you have a search committee to select a VC of a university than what stops us from a similar procedure to select the members of the commission from amongst the public. Mind you there are competent people who are on the margins of our society waiting to participate in honest functioning of such public institutions. They may not hang around the powers that be.
This blog of mine got published on THE INDIA POST of 26 MAR 2011
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