With a veritable alphabetical soup of special panels — from the ever-lasting Liberhans Commission to others appointed by the UPA — taking up most of the government and PSU buildings in the national capital, the Thirteenth Finance Commission (TFC) has been hardpressed for the past few months to find suitable office space. Finally, after hunting high and low, the panel has got a floor for itself, on a private property — the Hindustan Times Building.The panel that is constitutionally required to make recommendations on the distribution of tax revenues between the Union of India and the states was earlier located on the top floor of Janpath’s Jawahar Bhawan. However, Arjun Sengupta’s National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector (NCEUS), whose tenure ends this September, now occupies it. Notified on November 14, the TFC worked out of two rooms in North Block for a month. Even as a hunt for premises was on, around mid-December, the Commission started operating out of a 5,000-sq-ft office in LIC’s Jeevan Bharti Building in Connaught Place as soon as it was vacated by the Interim Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA).The PFRDA was expected to move to a new office in South Delhi by August 2007, but civil work hold-ups delayed the shift till December 16. A huge board emblazoned with PFRDA’s name still lies next to the entrance to the Commission’s temporary office. “Earlier, finance commissions found space in government/public sector buildings easily. But with a number of special bodies around, such as the NCEUS, the Administrative Reforms Commission, the Economic Advisory Council to the PM and the National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council (the last three are in the Vigyan Bhawan campus), we couldn’t find enough space in a single location. We didn’t want our officers to shuttle between different buildings,” a TFC official told The Indian Express. Since TFC Chairman Vijay Kelkar was eager to begin work as soon as possible to meet the October 2009 deadline for making its recommendations, a flurry of action is visible on the current temporary premises despite the lack of space and infrastructure. Though the body already has 35-odd officials (expected to have a full staff strength of over 100), it has only half the number of computers, for instance. “While we have begun purchasing furniture and computers, a lot of it is also coming in from the Sixth Pay Commission’s office as it is winding up its work. But the Commission’s work has gone ahead full steam — it has held seven meetings already. All states and cabinet ministers have been written to, public comments invited online have already started coming in,” the official stressed. With paperwork for the new office about to conclude and civil work about to begin, the Commission may move into its fixed address by April. However, unlike typical government offices with expansive rooms, the Commission is expected to have an open ‘cubicles-and-partitions’ format office. Apart from being constitutionally mandated, the Finance Comission is unique in several ways. It’s appointed every five years and is usually given two years to submit its report. But as soon as it submits the report, it ceases to exist. “From the staff to the computers and the furniture, everything is moved out. Except for a nodal officer placed in the Finance Ministry, the Commission, its chairman (who enjoys cabinet minister’s rank) and members (with a minister of state rank), have no further role,” the official explains. Till a file is moved again in the Finance Ministry that it’s time to constitute another Finance Commission, and the hunt begins — for staff, members, chairman and, most importantly, office space.
