Why lateral entries into Civil Services to remain controversial

Based on the recommendations in three-year Action Agenda of NITI Aayog and the recommendations made by Sectoral Group of Secretaries (SGoS) in its report submitted in February, 2017, Government decided to undertake lateral recruitment of ten Joint Secretaries for identified Ministries/Departments, on contract basis, in order to achieve the twin objectives of bringing in fresh talent as well as augment the availability of manpower. UPSC was entrusted with the responsibility to undertake the selection process.

Lateral entry was recommended by the Administrative Reforms Commission and various other expert groups. As the bureaucrats build specific domain expertise quite late in their careers, the need for bringing in the subject experts with industry-academia interface and managerial talent that governments must bank on has been behind the idea of lateral entry.

The concerns echoed against the lateral entry has been lack of transparency, honesty and political interference in the selection process. The assessment of the performance of a secretary to the government being difficult due to the complex nature of the job, it would be difficult to measure the performance of lateral entrants. Further, the selection being destined to be politically motivated in India, it may degrade the system.

The UPSC published a final list of 9 private sector specialists who will be given the position of joint secretaries in the Government of India. The specialists have been chosen under the lateral entry scheme announced by the Modi government last year. It was part of the government's efforts to bring in private sector talent in 10 ministries.

The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) had last year advertised for 10 joint secretary positions, but there were no takers for the Department of Revenue in the Ministry of Finance. The step is unparalleled as the joint secretary posts have normally been occupied by civil servants, mostly IAS officers.

The selected candidates are Kakoli Ghosh for the department of agriculture cooperation and farmers' welfare, Amber Dubey for the civil aviation ministry, Arun Goel for the commerce ministry, Rajeev Saksena for economic affairs, Sujit Kumar Bajpayee for the environment, forest and climate change. Saurabh Mishra has been appointed as a joint secretary for financial services, Dinesh Dayanand Jagdale for new and renewable energy, Suman Prasad Singh for road, transport and highways and Bhushan Kumar for shipping.

The selection process has been mired in controversy since beginning over charges of nepotism, political appointments, favouritism and lack of transparency. Over 6,000 candidates had applied for the 10 positions before the UPSC sought additional details from the candidates. Only 2 percent of candidates were shortlisted for the interview.

The lateral entry scheme was boasted as a civil service reform by the Modi government. Though the move is unprecedented, bureaucrats both serving and retired have expressed their reservation over the move.