The quality of government services has deteriorated in the last 20-25 years. Nothing moves in the government sector without constant follow-up and without greasing palms.
Government employees put in far fewer hours than private sector employees, and the productivity of the former is much lower than that of the latter. Given these facts, the Union government should reconsider the approval it has given, following the recommendations of the Seventh Pay Commission, to hike pay and benefits for central government employees and pensioners. Just look at the output of a public sector bank employee and that of a private sector bank employee, and you will see the difference. The government should give pay hikes in accordance to the output.
It’s being said that this move will somehow boost the economy by putting more money in people’s hands. On the contrary, the pay hike is laudable only from the standpoint of government employees, not from a public interest perspective. Government employees already enjoy job security and are well taken care of, and yet the country and its people benefit little from their output.
Rather than a pay hike with no strings attached, the government should tie the issue to upgrading the skills of its employees and boosting their productivity. In the absence of these requirements, all that the pay bonanza will do is make them more complacent and lazy.
Government’s use of technology in most departments is abysmal, mostly because its employees haven’t kept up with technological change. The government must make it mandatory for its employees to upgrade their skills, it should set a number of working hours and targets, just as in private organisations, and there must be feedback mechanisms to evaluate them on a regular basis, and pay hikes tied to these. Additional emoluments must be linked to performance.
Sure, these pay hikes are great social security for many, but given the burden they put on public finances – after all, it’s our hard-earned money that we pay as taxes to the government -- the government must link the pay hikes to improvements in the services it delivers.
At the end of the day, pay must be linked to productivity to ensure that everyone benefits from government spending, not just government employees.
(D. Muralidhar is former president, FKCCI)
