The Hindu : New Delhi News : New system to evaluate Ministers' performance

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 23, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

New system to evaluate Ministers' performance

By Sujay Mehdudia

NEW DELHI, FEB. 22. Concerned over "sluggish" performance of certain Ministers and the failure of their departments to maintain the growth path, the Delhi Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, today indicated that a new "Cabinet scrutiny system'' to evaluate the performance of the Ministers would be put in place by this month-end. The new system will help the Chief Minister in preparing the "report card'' of each Minister to help her take "appropriate action'' in future.

"My hands are full. I am busy giving shape to various projects to be undertaken during the next few years. I keep on reviewing the performance of various departments and I am not supposed to follow each and everything happening in various departments of these Ministers. In order to bring about a sense of accountability and transparency in the functioning of the departments, it had been decided to adopt this new system from this month-end,'' Ms. Dikshit informed.

The Chief Minister said it had been decided that every last Cabinet meeting of the month would be left for scrutiny of the performance of various Ministers. "Each Minister will have to come prepared to the meeting to make out his case and give us a clear picture of what has happened, what has not worked and why it has not worked. The officials of the concerned departments would also be asked to be present during the meeting." Interestingly, while each Minister will take turn to stand scrutiny, the other five apart from Ms. Dikshit would pose queries about the works relating to his departments and try to figure out the pace of work in various sectors. "This will help them not only in keeping a tab on the working of various departments but would also ensure that they are updated on what was happening around them. The outcome of this scrutiny would be used to prepare a report card of the Ministers and order to judge their performance levels,'' she remarked. The effort of the exercise is not to run down anybody but to ensure constant monitoring of the various works and schemes so that there is no laxity in their implementation.

Interestingly, this exercise will also ensure that the Ministers also do some homework about the working of their departments as usually during the Cabinet meetings it is the officials concerned who generally make the presentation. However, in this case the Minister concerned would have to make the presentation. This could sound an alarm for the lethargic and unprofessional lot among the Council of Ministers.

There are already complaints about Ministers remaining absent from office for the large part of the day or not coming to office at all. In some cases, the Minister does not visit the Delhi Secretariat for two to three days at stretch and in some cases, the Ministers turns up in office for only two hours spending the rest of the day out of office without any valid reason. It would also make the Ministers to pull up their socks and become less dependent on their personal staff or secretaries that presently is the case with many of them.

"There has been a general impression that this particular Council of Ministers with the exception of the Chief Minister has not only failed to perform but is also is less assertive and more dominated by the bureaucracy unlike the case with the last Council of Ministers. Either this situation has to change to the Ministers would have to be changed,'' a Congress observer remarked.

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