Labouring the point

The project for computerisation of accounts at the EPFO is now at risk. The removal of the EPFO commissioner, Ajai Singh, who had put the project together and was going full steam ahead to gather support for it from all quarters, including the PMO, and the transfer of the second man in command of the project, A. Vishwanathanan, to a regional office by the labour ministry were harbingers of bad news for the project. “Reinventing EPFO” was a brave attempt at overhauling a system which is beset with inefficiency, delays, bad administration, poor service and poor accounting. Fifty-two years after its creation, the system still suffers from a single entry book keeping system. In a presentation to the Planning Commission, that was published by The Indian Express, Singh said the project had no champion and the PMO must step in to make sure that the EPFO is reformed. Unfortunately the presentation was seen as too bold. How could the man in charge of the EPFO, which came under the labour ministry, say that the labour ministry was not good enough to look after the EPFO, and that the PMO should intervene!

It now seems that what Ajai Singh said was perhaps more true than we could have imagined. Why should there be an attempt to scuttle a project to clean up records and computerise the EPFO? Why should a public organisation handling over Rs 1 lakh crore of people’s money not open itself to scrutiny and transparency? When a company defaults on the payments of provident fund contributions for its employees, the EPFO has the power to attach the assets of the company. This gives tremendous power to the inspectors at EPFO. As long as the records of EPFO are not computerised, this power can be misused. It is possible for compliance officers to misrepresent accounts. This is in the interest of neither account holders, nor trustees. Transparency that comes with computerisation will hurt only a small section of officers that may have any intentions to gain from the lack of transparency. When the whole country is moving towards computerised modern systems, when railway reservations have been able to weed out touts and black-marketeers, is there a case for scuttling the project for computerisation of EPFO?

The PM may have thought it wise not to intervene when the EPFO commissioner was shunted out. He may have thought it wise not to improve governance and transparency if it meant a fight with the labour ministry. He may have thought it wise not to interfere to appoint a new commissioner until now. But now it would no longer be wise for the PM not to interfere and let the computerisation project be scuttled. The EPFO should be brought directly under the PMO or the finance ministry and get it out of the pressures and limitations of the ministry of labour.