Panel of ‘outsiders’ to help pick top bureaucrats

By next month a three-member panel of experts will be in place to assist the Appointments Committee of Cabinet (ACC) in picking Secretaries, Additional Secretaries and Joint Secretaries.

Sources say that the committee will comprise a management expert, probably a former or serving head of an Indian Institute of Management, a retired secretary to the Government and a former chairman of the Union Public Service Commission.

The idea is said to have come from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who has now given his approval for its composition.

The expert panel will scrutinise ACRs of senior bureaucrats who are in line to be empanelled and will thus provide a second opinion to the ACC before key appointments. The ACC presently comprises four secretaries to the Government.

Sources say the motivation for setting up the group was the concern expressed by the Prime Minister over the manner in which ACRs of senior bureaucrats were prepared and handled. While ACRs of several officers in contention for important posts were found to be incomplete, some were found to be missing altogether.

After a series of meetings in the Cabinet Secretariat, the names of the two former officials have been finalised and two management experts have reportedly been sounded off for the third position on the panel.

The panel is expected to function from the Cabinet Secretariat and will hold sittings every month. Officials say the preference is for a management expert who does not belong to Delhi so that he is away from the jockeying that goes on for the top posts.

The appointment of the expert panel follows the setting up of a three-member committee consisting of Cabinet Secretary B K Chaturvedi, Prime Minister’s Principal Secretary T K A Nair and Personnel Secretary A Tewari to streamline the ACC appointments and look into complaints of officers above the rank of Joint Secretaries.