Comments on lateral entry

One of the concerns expressed about the proposal we made on lateral entry into the IAS is that the entry conditions are too stringent as to make it unattractive to the best among prospective candidates. Instead, it is suggested, that lateral entry should include contract tenures for five years or so.

As a preface, it is useful to draw the distinction between lateral entry into the bureaucracy and appointments of technocrats into ministerial positions. All the standout successes belong to the latter category. We should also make the distinction from contract appointments for five year tenures to specific posts. I have argued in favour of such appointments and have covered them in an earlier article here.

This proposal is for an institutionalised system of lateral entry into the bureaucracy. It therefore stands to reason that it has to follow the bureaucratic rules of the game of a parliamentary democracy. A proposal to cherry-pick the bureaucratic features of a Presidential system (the federal bureaucracy in the US) and incorporate them into a Parliamentary system only reveals a profound lack of understanding of different political systems.

For a start, I am not willing to buy the argument that the lateral entry as proposed will not be able to attract the best and brightest. For example, the likely candidates could include at least some of the following, and they are likely to be a fairly significant number

1. Private sector professionals who have made their money and experience a mid-career urge to serve the country
2. People with passion and commitment who chose a career with non-government agencies and have risen to leadership positions there
3. Government employees who have excelled in their careers and have exhibited leadership skills for greater responsibilities.

Second, it is very unlikely that lateral entrants, barring rare exceptions, can come straight from outside the government into positions of Secretary to Government of India and the like and succeed to any reasonable degree. The learning gap will be very steep and not easily bridged in a short time. 

Most lateral entrants would need exposure to not just field conditions, but also understand the dynamics of decision-making - negotiations with diverse stakeholders, trade-offs associated with a political system, engagement with states, co-ordination with other departments, navigating the bureaucracy, extracting work in public systems, being effective in systems with scarce resources and weak capacity, and so on. In this, there is no substitute for a few years of field experience. This is also the biggest differentiator between the IAS and the rest, including from the other civil services.  

Third, the proposal is to recruit bureaucrats and not Ministers. Their role is to plan and execute. Professional competence is just one of the desirable attributes. An arguably more important attribute is the ability to administer and navigate a formidable decision-making labyrinth to get stuff done. Experience can be invaluable in this regard. 

Four, an arrangement where some outsiders are able to cherry-pick their posts and be governed by a different set of administrative rules governing their postings, leaving the regular bureaucrats to be satisfied with the remaining posts, is not just untenable but also plain unfair. It would distort the cadre management within the IAS.

Five, high-profile lateral entrants are unlikely to be willing to rough it out to gain this experience. It is unlikely that they would be able to sub-ordinate themselves to their Ministers and play by the rules of a bureaucracy. They are better off being Ministers themselves.    

Six, I am inclined to believe that these criticisms are unlikely to disappear even with a five year contract. For there will still remain the uncertainty associated with postings and tenures. After all, even in the most optimistic scenarios, the tenure of a Secretary would be less than three years. Would the best lateral entrants be willing for a bargain which could run the risk of glamorous and unglamorous, and with uncertain tenures to boot?

Finally, the belief that outsiders, in general, can parachute in for a few years and make a significant enough dent on the complex development challenges of India betrays a very high degree of naivety. Lateral entry into the IAS has to be introduced without doing more harm than good in a complex political and administrative system. There are rarely any simplistic solutions to such complex development challenges.