HOW TO ENCOURAGE HONEST OFFICERS

Wiser after #2gScam ?

 

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Economic Times ( 18 Dec ) carries following news report :

“ Ex-PMO Official Deposition Sealed Ex-Coal Secy’s Fate “

In the coal scam case , CBI court awarded 3 year sentence to ex coal secretary , H C Gupta , saying :

·         He actively , deliberately and consciously , concealed facts from the then Prime Minister

·         Neither was it alleged by the prosecution nor any such evidence was available to show that Gupta obtained allocation of a coal block for the accused company by any corrupt or illegal means

·         Prosecution is required to prove only that in order to obtain either for himself or for any other person , any valuable thing or pecuniary advantage , the public servant abused his position

{  Astute readers would find subtle similarities in the observations made by the CBI Court this afternoon , in its 1582 page verdict , acquitting all accused in the 2011 , 2G Scam ! }

While pressing for a lenient sentence, Gupta said that as per the prosecution case itself , there has been no allegation against him of any nature whatsoever that any financial gain was obtained by him

The news report carries quotes from Anil Swarup ( HRD Secretary ) and Parmeshwaran Iyer ( Sanitation Secretary ) , talking highly about Gupta being an honest officer

Earlier Amitabh Kant ( CEO – NITI Aayog ) had voiced similar sentiments about Shri Gupta

All this is “ water under the bridge “ !  Irreversible  !

But , if the government wants to encourage honest officers to take “ Bold / Out of the Box “ policy decisions, without being afraid of “ getting their necks chopped off “ , then it should waste no further time to implement my following suggestion :

( - and without waiting for the Government to advise them , what is holding up Central IAS Officers Association , to initiate this, on their own ?  )

Friday, 20 June 2014

To err is human

To forgive is divine ( provided it was a honest error )

All of us keep making errors , all the time

But rarely same " mistake " twice

Often , decisions taken at a point of time , turn out to be " poor " , with passage of time

Reasons are simple :

*  We never have all the information - relevant to the problem we are trying to solve –

    available with us , at the time of taking a decision

*  Even when most of such relevant info is available , we may not have the capacity /

    competence to " process " such info

*  As humans , we have our biases / prejudices , based on our previous experiences ,

    which influence our decisions

*  Quite often , and often against our own better evaluation / judgement of a given

    situation , we are wrongly influenced by our peers / bosses / subordinates or even

     voters - all of whom have different expectations / vested interests !

*  Additional - and more relevant - information surfaces , AFTER we have taken a

    decision ( happens all the time  !  )

To encourage Babus and Ministers to take FAST decisions , Shri Narendra Modi must insist that they carefully " Record " on the files :

*   What info / data he wished was available for a better decision

*  What different " views / opinions " were presented to him for consideration

*  What " Data / Views " he would have obtained if he had more time

*   Who all , the decision might offend

*   What is the likely " Cost " of postponing that decision

And finally a declaration :

* This decision is not likely to benefit any of my near relatives / friends , directly or

   immediately

After all of this , if the decision appears to be " Wrong " in hindsight , it must be " forgiven " and treated as an honest error

To err is human  !

21  Dec  2017

www.hemenparekh.in / blogs