Regular administrative inspections of subordinate units
Non-compliance leads to dismal performance, inefficiency
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Apr 2: Almost all the Administrative Secretaries and Heads of the Departments have been flouting the explicit directives of the Chief Secretary about regular inspections of subordinate units, which otherwise are imperative to bring accountability and efficiency in the functioning of the offices at various levels.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that vide Circular No.18-GAD of 2010 dated September 9, 2010, the then Chief Secretary had observed that administrative inspections of the subordinate offices, as required under rules, were not being conducted regularly leading to lack of administrative control over the subordinate offices and below mark functioning of the majority of the offices at the field level.
Accordingly, the Chief Secretary had advised all the Administrative Secretaries and HoDs to ensure conduct of regular administrative inspections at least once in a year of all the subordinate units and the progress is continuously reviewed at the apex level. These instructions were reiterated by the Department of Administrative Reforms, Inspections, Trainings and Grievances vide Circular No.1 of 2011 dated August 8, 2011.
Through the circular even mechanism of administrative inspections was conveyed to all the Administrative Secretaries and Heads of the Departments for strict compliance. Moreover, they were asked to devise suitable formats of their respective departments in view of their requirements and also nature of their working.
As per the mechanism, Administrative Secretaries are required to conduct inspection of all Heads of the Departments and all autonomous/corporate units at State and Divisional level. Similarly, Heads of the Department/Corporate Office are required to conduct administrative inspection of all provincial level offices and provincial level officers are supposed to conduct inspection of district level offices. Moreover, the district level officers were directed to conduct inspection of all block and tehsil level offices.
“Initially, the instructions of the Chief Secretary received due attention at all the levels in the State administration but with the passage of time majority of the Administrative Secretaries and Heads of the Departments started considering the explicit directives as trash”, sources said while disclosing that during the past several years administrative inspections in respect of most of the departments have not been conducted.
Due to this, the Administrative Secretaries and Heads of the Department have made it clear that bringing accountability and efficiency in the functioning of the offices at various levels doesn’t carry any importance for them, sources said, adding “due to non-implementation of directives particularly by the public dealing departments like Revenue the poor performance of the officials at the field level and subsequent inconvenience to the common masses have remained unchecked”.
“Because of absolutely no focus on regular administrative inspections, majority of the Administrative Secretaries and Heads of the Departments are even not aware about the implementation status of the Jammu and Kashmir Public Service Guarantee Act (JKPSGA)”, sources further said.
In the circular of September 9, 2010, special emphasis was also laid on quarterly reconciliation of receipts/payments, watching of expenditure within the budgetary provisions, watching of re-appropriation of funds, regular verification of drawals from the treasuries, rendition of replies to audit reports of Principal Accountant General and Directorate of Audit and Inspections, settlement of draft paras and timely rendition of accounts to various quarters.
“However, these aspects are also not receiving due attention of the majority of the Administrative Secretaries and Heads of the Departments and recent communication of Accountant General (Audit), J&K to the Chief Secretary B V R Subrahmanyam whereby serious concern has been expressed over huge number of pending Action Taken Notes (ATNs) from almost all the departments is the testimony of the same”, sources pointed out.
They further said, “there is no change in the situation which was prevailing at the time of issuance of circular instructions by the Chief Secretary in 2010”, adding “if the Governor’s Administration really wants to improve functioning of the Government offices at various levels steps should be taken to ensure regular administrative inspections otherwise people will continue to face difficulties in obtaining different services from the Government departments”.
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