If the mission and values are well defined and the young officers are aligned with those values, it would inspire them to be proactive and positive

A paradigm shift relating to training is essential to ensure vision, mission and value alignment for the probation period during training in LBSNAA at Mussoorie. A clear vision mission and value statement should be projected before the young recruits and that should be inculcated in their mind.

At present the subjects generally taught in the classrooms of the academy are Indian policy, law, constitution and public administration etc. But no step has been taken to keep subjects like value statements, vision and mission ideals for the civil servants so as to align them to these values to give their best.

A vision statement like ‘Service before self, so as to bring smiles on the faces of people and to take the nation on the path of a holistic and inclusive growth’ would project the goal in a clear fashion. Similarly, the mission statement may be pronounced as’ to boost the trajectory of growth with equitable distribution being pro-poor, pro-people and positive officers with the qualities like honesty, integrity and alacrity and always committed to the development of nation and the constitution of India’.

Value statement can be defined as ‘to be pro-poor, positive officers with democratic way of development. Strive to stick to the cardinal principles like honesty, integrity, sincerity, alacrity and devotion towards the nation. Always to keep the dignity and prosperity of the nation above everything else.’

If the vision, mission and value statements are well defined and the probationers are aligned to those values, automatically it would inspire them to be proactive and positive and give their best for administration and governance keeping service to people before self-interest. The bureaucracy is giving way under pressure because of deviation from these values as mentioned above. Moreover, complacency is also one of the undoings of bureaucracy.

The implementation of these vision, mission and value statements and huddle and bottlenecks thereon should be taught and young minds should be imbued with thoughts of purity. These should constitute a subject and be given maximum focus in the academy so as to bring out the best in the young officers with instruction to perform as per the guidelines. Another thing that should also be thought of is that promotion should not be an automatic and routine affair for civil servants so was to curtail the complacency apparent. At each level of promotion, a committee (taking retired bureaucrats and academicians etc) should rigorously find out the eligibility of the officer for promotion keeping in view his performance and his commitment to vision, mission and value statements all through. This would energize the not-so-active bureaucracy to spring into action so as to deliver as a proactive and positive unit.

These ideas may not be taken happily by laggard officers accustomed to a life of comfort and unethical rewards, but the harsh reality is that some steps like these as mentioned above can transform the bureaucracy and metamorphose the scenario to achieve the most difficult task and start a glorious period.

(The author is a superannuated senior IAS officer. Views expressed are personal)

Concluded