RATING THE performance of bureaucracy is not the easiest thing to do, yet a Hong Kong based Political and Economic Risk Consulting Ltd has managed to do it. Quite a shame, it has rated the Indian bureaucracy 9.21 out of 10 on the inefficiency scale, the worst in Asia. In what could the biggest embarrassment, Indian administrators fare inferior to countries like Vietnam, Malaysia and China.

“It is a shame for us and exposes the depth of our system which is tarnishing due to their incompetence,” said a retired bureaucrat from Indian Railways. “They are supposed to connect the government to people, but I think there are loop holes in their training system,” added an Indian Engineering Service Officer.

When asked, a recently recruited IAS officer reacted sharply and said, “I would like to give thumbs- up to this survey; it is our reservation system which is the main culprit. If you go to IAS academy, there will be 50% candidates from reserved category who lack knowledge on Indian subjects, forget about world. How do you expect these people will be your administrators?”

Actually in India, the present system of selecting civil servants is based on old British methods, which are outdated and reservations in every sphere make selection system tough for intelligent individuals. Bureaucrats are hardly held responsible for inconsistent assessment and challenging them in case of disagreement is tremendously difficult task. Corruption is biggest problem and private sectors are also to be blamed for this. It is surprising no one raises eyebrows and nobody ever wins arguments against them. Tax and other environmental laws are contributing factors. Only recently, Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of administration in Mussoorie, which trains country’s best mind tied up with Indian subsidiary of the American Society for Quality, to train civil servants in better systems’ management and efficient administrators’. The need of the hour is to change current system which has several self alliances of deceitful bureaucrats.