SOUNDS odd, but a non-IAS officer Dr Prajapati Trivedi who has spent most part of his life in the World Bank working in no less than 25 countries around the world, is now on a mission to bring in efficiency of government administration, and introduce a performance bonus for employees working in various central government ministries and departments. Dr Trivedi, secretary of the performance management division under cabinet secretariat, has reportedly worked out a proposal under which senior administrators like secretary or additional secretary would get a bonus of no less than 20% of their salary provided his ministry meets 100% target and saves money from non-plan expenditure. That means, a secretary to a highly efficient ministry of the Government of India, who gets Rs 80,000 per month as salary may receive Rs 20,000 more, making him an instant lakhpati. The joint secretaries and other employees in Central government would also be major beneficiaries of this new proposal which has the blessings of cabinet secretary KM Chandrasekhar and understandably of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh. But if the performance of a department/ministry is 70% or less, the concerned officials won’t get a penny as bonus.
Significantly, the government has been toying with the idea of introducing a performance-linked payout to efficient government employees for the last 20 years, but has failed to deliver it so far. Even 6th Pay Commission recommended a small portion of the government employees’ salary to be linked to performance, but that has not been implemented so far.
In fact, very few people in corridors of power now remember that Dr Trivedi as the economic adviser to government of India during 1992-94, worked closely with Dr Manmohan Singh, then finance minister, and Dr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, then finance secretary. A product of St. Stephen’s College in Delhi, Dr Trivedi is an MSc in economics from London School of Economics and a PhD from Boston University.
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