In an effort to reform the administration machinery, the State Cabinet on Wednesday decided to cut the salaries of latecomers (officers/employees), besides initiating stern action against them.
Addressing presspersons after a Cabinet meeting here, Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs T.B. Jayachandra said the Congress government has completed six months and it has been decided to simplify governance to ensure timely delivery of services. Despite introducing the biometric system in the State Secretariat and multi-storied building, a large number of officers/employees were coming to office very late. “Surprise checks have revealed that 1,622 employees come to offices very late in a week.”
Their tardiness has hampered the functioning of government departments and “we have decided to adopt certain reforms implemented by the Union government in our State also”, he added.
Files pending
Mr. Jayachandra said the average file-clearance percentage was around 45.55 per cent. There were 74,814 files, which were less than one year old; 27,030 files that are one year old; 11,085 files pending for two years and 18,392 files that have been pending for more than three years.
It was found that Secretaries clear only one file a week. If a Minister asks for one file, it will take at least a week to reach him as it has to pass through five to six officers.
The government has decided to give focus to speedy clearance of files. All the files received between April 1, 2013 and October 30, 2013, which are pending before the Ministers/secretaries would be cleared in six months, he said.
The file disposal rate is 76 per cent in the Home Department, 61 per cent in Water Resources, 55 per cent in Kannada and Culture and 55 per cent in the Law Department, he said.
Reforms on the anvil
The Minister said a committee, headed by him, has recommended many administrative reforms, such as Ministers should mandatorily stay in Bangalore for three days a week to dispose of pending files and to meet the public.
Officers at the level of secretaries have to monitor, once a week, the number of files received and the number of files disposed of in that month, he said.
Reduce burden on DCs
He said, at present, deputy commissioners are burdened with heading more than hundred committees and they do not have the time to look into disposal of files. The government had decided to reduce their burden by fixing responsibilities on others to do the work of deputy commissioners. This would go a long way in the disposal of files at the district-level.
No affidavits required
Mr. Jayachandra said citizens would no longer need to give affidavits to get certificates from the taluk or block development office as self-declaration document was enough. The government has relaxed the rule after seeing hundreds of people waiting near those offices to collect the certificates.
