Not all babus retire: Four are back to help govt select its top rung

The retired bureaucrats who are likely to be drafted for this job are former Ambassador to US Abid Hussain, former Civil Aviation Secretary A H Jung, former Disinvestment Commission chairman G V Ramakrishna and former Kerala Chief Secretary V Ramachandran.

The Prime Minister, it is learnt, cleared the names of the former administrators last week.

The idea is to let the panels provide additional inputs to the empanelment committees, setting in motion one of the first radical moves to usher in administrative reforms. Two separate panels, of two retired officials each, are to be formed and are expected to start functioning shortly. While one panel will scrutinise Annual Confidential Reports (ACRs) of Joint Secretary level officers, the other will look at the reports of Additional Secretary level officers.

Although the original proposal was to involve a rank outsider, probably someone from the IIMs, in the ACR scrutiny panel, the Government finally decided to go for only former administrators.

The format and composition of the scrutiny panel was decided after a series of lengthy discussions between top officials of the PMO, the Cabinet Secretariat and the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT). The former administrators are expected to function from the Cabinet Secretariat and will hold periodic meetings to pore over the files.

Meanwhile, the Government is writing to state governments to ensure that the system of writing ACRs is done in a systematic and time-bound manner. The DoPT is also busy in another process: henceforth, it will ensure that qualifications of senior bureaucrats match with their on-the-job experience and areas of specialisation.