Taking serious note of the “Railgate” cash-for-postings scandal, the government now plans to totally overhaul the process of appointing top bureaucrats, and will soon come out with a comprehensive policy. Highly-placed sources said the government is extremely concerned about the political fallout of “Railgate” and wants to use this as an opportunity to clean up the system of transfers and postings of senior officials.
One of the key proposed changes, sources said, is that ministers will no longer enjoy the discretion of picking and choosing officers for key positions. They can at best only suggest names, but will not have the final word. The government plans to put in place two separate screening committees to finalise names for key appointments.
At the first level, names will be screened by a committee comprising senior ministers and secretaries of major ministries. Once they finalise a name it will go to the second level: the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet, headed by the Prime Minister. While even now the ACC has final authority, there is no proper screening of names prior beforehand. At present, the department of personnel and training simply prepares a panel of names and informally discusses the names with the relevant minister before sending it to the ACC, which invariably approves the name recommended by the minister. All this is now set to change.