Despite the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) ordering the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) — the nodal agency for managing the highway network in India — to have permanent recruitment four years ago, it is still functioning on staffers, mostly on deputation.
Given the rules that prevent a Government organisation from running with employees on deputation in perpetuity, the DoPT with the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions had set a two year deadline, ending on October 31, 2012 for recruiting staffers. Even two years hence, the NHAI is managing its staff strength mostly on deputation from other Government departments and by appointing consultants.
Until present day, the ratio of persons on deputation to regular employees is 83:17. The DoPT had asked the NHAI to reform its structure and form its independent cadre through direct recruitment and absorption of all those on deputation. But till date no progress has been made. Only recently, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in its report also rapped the NHAI for being slack in recruiting permanent staffers.
“It is a slow process and changes cannot happen overnight. If one were to ask the person on deputation to revert to his parent cadre, a lot of organizational memory is lost,” an NHAI official maintained adding “We are trying to constitute a permanent cadre but it will take time. We have informed the ministry of roads and transport about our limitations.”
“When NHAI was formed, it was worked out that the organization could make do with staff on deputation. The logic was officials were required to oversee specific project implementation of building roads for 3-5 years at the most and then move back to parent cadres,” said an official from the ministry of roads and highways.
“Now, NHAI has moved to public private partnership (PPP) mode, with concessions ranging from 20- 30 years, and hence the demands for experienced people in handling various aspects of such projects, has also increased,” he said.
With complaints of favoritism and advantage to a select few at NHAI mounting, and allegations of unfair hiring on deputation flying thick and fast, there is an increased need to have a permanent cadre, sources said.