DFFT
Scheme
The Domestic Funding of Foreign Training
(DFFT) Scheme is a programme introduced by the Government of India in the year
2001 with an objective to upgrade the knowledge & skills of the Government
officers as well as to provide exposure to international best practices by deputing
them to different long and short-term training programmes abroad. The long-term programmes are mainly in the
fields of public policy, public management and public administration. The areas covered under the short-term
programmes are leadership, executive development, fiscal decentralization, tax
analysis & revenue forecasting, project management, corruption &
anti-corruption, health sector reforms, public administration, infrastructure,
public finance management, environmental policy, etc. The entire cost of
participation of officers in training programmes under the DFFT Scheme is met
by the Government of India. The officers
can also avail partial funding under this Scheme for pursuing higher studies if
they secure admission in universities/colleges abroad on their own. Since 2001, the DFFT Scheme has become the
main source under which officers are now sent for foreign training.
Critical
Appraisal of the DFFT Scheme
Did
the DFFT Scheme achieve its stated objectives? Did it actually upgrade the
knowledge & skills of the Government officers? Did the DFFT Scheme result
in introducing the international best practices in India? If not, what are the reasons for its failure
and what can be done to improve it? A
critical analysis of the functioning of the DFFT Scheme has been done here,
which revealed some really disappointing and discomforting facts. A study of all the short-term and long-term programmes
funded under this Scheme and the officers who attended these programmes in
recent years gave some insight into the actual functioning and utility of the
DFFT Scheme.
I. Short-term Programmes at Harvard
University, the USA funded by DFFT Scheme during 2014:
S.No.
|
Name
of the Programme
|
Number
of Officers Selected
|
Services
to which the Officers belong
|
1
|
Leaders in Development: Managing
Political and Economic Change
|
6
|
6
IAS
|
2
|
Infrastructure in a Market
Economy: Public-Private Partnerships in a Changing World
|
6
|
5
IAS
1
IDAS
|
3
|
Senior Managers in Government
|
6
|
3
IAS
2
IRS
1
ICAS
|
4
|
Innovation in Economic Development
|
6
|
6
IAS
|
5
|
Driving Government Performance:
Leadership Strategies that Produce Results
|
6
|
6
IAS
|
6
|
Leadership for 21st
Century: Chaos, Conflict & Courage
|
6
|
6
IAS
|
7
|
Creating Collaborative Solutions:
Innovations in Governance
|
6
|
5
IAS
1
IFS
|
8
|
Leadership Decision Making:
Optimizing Organizational Performance
|
6
|
6
IAS
|
II. Short-term Programmes at Cambridge
University, the United Kingdom funded by DFFT Scheme during 2014:
S.No.
|
Duration
of the Programme
|
Number
of Officers Selected
|
Services
to which the Officers belong
|
1
|
September 20-27, 2014
|
25
|
22
IAS
2
IIS
1
IES
|
2
|
October 4-11, 2014
|
25
|
23
IAS
1
IRS(C&CE)
1
IA&AS
|
3
|
November 8-15, 2014
|
25
|
23
IAS
1
IFS
1
CSS
|
III. Nominations for some of the other Short-Term
Programmes during 2014-15:
S.No.
|
Name
of the Programme
|
Number
of Officers Nominated
|
Services
to which the Officers belong
|
1
|
Basic Management Programme,
Manila, Philippines
|
12
|
1
IAS
4
SCS
6
CSS
1
IOFS
|
2
|
Urban Environmental Management,
Bangkok, Thailand
|
6
|
2
IAS
1
CSS
3
SCS
|
3
|
Budgeting and Financial Management
in Public Sector, Duke, USA
|
6
|
3
IAS
1
IDAS
1
IES
1
ITS
|
4
|
Tax Analysis and Revenue
Forecasting, Duke, USA
|
6
|
4
IAS
1
IRS
1
ITS
|
5
|
Executive Development Seminar:
Leading Change, USA
|
12
|
8
IAS
1
IRSEE
1
IDAS
1
ITS
1
ICAS
|
6
|
Collaborative Leadership Seminar,
USA
|
12
|
9
IAS
2
SCS
1
IFoS
|
7
|
Management in the Public Sector,
Paris
|
4
|
1
IAS
1
IOFS
1
IDAS
1
ITS
|
8
|
WTO, International Trade and
Development, Geneva
|
6
|
3
IAS
1
IRS
1
IOFS
1
IDSE
|
9
|
Structuring and Negotiating Legal
Agreements for PPP Concessions, Washington, USA
|
4
|
2
IAS
1
SCS
1
IRSME
|
10
|
Finance, London School of
Economics, London
|
5
|
5
IAS
|
IV. Short-term programmes at Harvard
University, the USA funded by DFFT Scheme during 2013:
S.No.
|
Name
of the Programme
|
Number
of Officers Attended
|
Services
to which the Officers belong
|
1
|
Driving Government Performance:
Leadership Strategies that Produce Results
|
6
|
5
IAS
1
IRAS
|
2
|
Leadership for 21st
Century: Chaos, Conflict & Courage
|
6
|
6
IAS
|
3
|
Creating Collaborative Solutions:
Innovations in Governance
|
6
|
6
IAS
|
4
|
Leadership Decision Making:
Optimizing Organizational Performance
|
6
|
6
IAS
|
A plain observation of the above tables will lead to
the following inferences:
1. The IAS officers are nominated for
the bulk of the training programmes.
2. All most all the slots for training
programmes in the USA and Europe are allotted to IAS officers.
3. Only some slots for training
programmes in Asian countries are given to non-IAS officers.
4. Even the slots for specialized
training programmes like “Tax Analysis and Revenue Forecasting – Duke, USA” are
filled mostly by IAS officers.
5. The top universities like Harvard,
Cambridge and London School of Economics are the exclusive privilege of IAS.
6. The same trends have been found to
be true for even the long-term training programmes funded by the DFFT Scheme.
This analysis shows that the DFFT Scheme has not been
functioning as it was envisaged in the first place. The Scheme has become the
scheme of funding of foreign training for IAS officers in exclusion to the bulk
of the other Civil Services. This Scheme
has not resulted in implementation of international best practices in India
because even the specialized training programmes are cornered by the IAS
officers in preference to the other relevant Service officers. The Scheme also did not upgrade the knowledge
and skills of the relevant officers. So, the stated objectives of the DFFT
Scheme have never been achieved over the last 14 years during which the Scheme
is in operation. What could be the
reason for this sorry state of affairs? Who is responsible for this criminal misuse
of the tax payers’ hard earned money? What should be done to improve the
situation?
Reasons for the Failure of
the DFFT Scheme
An
attempt has made here to identify the real reasons for the failure of the DFFT
Scheme and its skewed selection process, which favoured a single Service (IAS) at
the cost of the other Services. The
following observations emerge as the primary reasons for this carefully planned
and deliberate misuse of the DFFT Scheme:
I. Unjust
& Unfair Eligibility Criteria:
A
perusal of the eligibility criteria prescribed for applying to the training
programmes funded under the DFFT Scheme reveals glaring injustice reminiscent
of the apartheid era segregation in South Africa. The eligibility criteria are as follows:
(1) Service
consideration – the following services are eligible to apply:
a)
Indian Administrative Service (IAS),
Central Secretariat Service (CSS), State Civil Services (SCS) and Central
Secretariat Stenographers Service (CSSS).
b)
Indian Police Service (IPS), Indian Forest
Service (IFS) and other organized Group ‘A’ Central Civil Services only when
they are on deputation under the Central Staffing Scheme (A recent order of the
DoPT has made IPS & IFS eligible even when they are not on deputation under
the Central Staffing Scheme).
(2) Minimum
Service –
a)
9 years of service for non-IAS officers for
both short-term and long-term training programmes.
b)
9 years of service for IAS officers for
short-term training programmes.
c)
7 years of service for IAS officers for
long-term training programmes.
d)
9 years of service as Deputy Collectors for
SCS officers.
e)
5 years of service as Under Secretaries for
CSS officers.
(3) Upper
Age Limit – 45 years for long-term and 52 years for short-term programmes. However, no age limit for short-term
programmes at Harvard and Cambridge.
4)
Officers on deputation with the Central
Government under the Central Staffing Scheme should have completed one and a
half years of service on Central Staffing before the date of commencement of
the long-term programmes.
These
eligibility criteria make the DFFT Scheme, 2001 introduced by the Government of
India look like the ‘Reservation of Separate Amenities Act 1953’, an apartheid
era legislation in South Africa. The DFFT Scheme also resembles the British
imperialistic legislations in India before 1947, which eliminated Indians to
the advantage of the Europeans in higher Civil Services. The eligibility criteria for applying to
funding under the DFFT Scheme were so deliberately and unjustly designed by the
IAS lobby so as to eliminate competition from the non-IAS officers. The IAS is
an All India Service and the IAS officers are allotted a state cadre where they
work for the most part of their career. Some of them work for the Central
Government under deputation (through Central Staffing Scheme) for a brief
period. The IAS officers are eligible to apply for training under the DFFT
Scheme even though they are not under deputation to the centre. Whereas the other Group ‘A’ Central Civil
Services are eligible for funding under the DFFT Scheme only when they are on
deputation under the Central Staffing Scheme.
This is the heights of injustice which even the British Raj in India
didn’t think off. The Group ‘A’ Central
Civil Services which work for the Central Government all their life are not
eligible for the centrally funded DFFT Scheme ordinarily but the IAS, which
works for a State Government is eligible even when they are not working for the
Central Government. Even the State Civil
Services, which work exclusively for State Governments are eligible when not on
deputation to centre.
What
is the logic of having a minimum service of only 7 years for IAS when it is 9
years for other Services to be eligible for funding of long-term programmes under
the DFFT Scheme? Is the IAS a twice born service and the IAS officers dvijas?
Are all the non-IAS officers belonging to the lower varna of the Civil Services
society? This minimum service qualification promotes the ancient varna system
in the Civil Services society. Further,
officers on deputation with the Central Government are required to complete one
and a half years of service on Central Staffing before the date of commencement
of the long-term programmes. All these
four eligibility criteria will ensure that most of the non-IAS officers are
eliminated automatically. I would like
to explain this with the example of IRS.
An IRS officer is eligible for funding under DFFT Scheme only when he is
on deputation under the Central Staffing Scheme. Most of the short-term
programmes are for the officers of the Joint Secretary/Additional
Secretary/Secretary level. An officer
can be appointed under the Central Staffing Scheme only when he is
empanelled. How the empanelment process is
rigged in favour of IAS was explained in another article by the author on his
blog (satyaprasantp.blogspot.in). Currently the junior most batch of IRS
empanelled to be appointed as Joint Secretary to Government of India is 1986,
whereas the 1995 batch of IAS is already empanelled to be appointed as Joint
Secretary. So, officers who are eligible
from IRS for short-term training programmes under DFFT Scheme are those
belonging to 1986 batch and above who are actually working under the Central
Staffing Scheme. This number is a
miniscule 1% of the total cadre of IRS.
Even among these IRS officers working as Joint Secretary and above under
the Central Staffing Scheme, how many will be under the age of 52 years as
prescribed. The average age of
candidates entering Civil Services is around 29 years now. This means the officers of 1986 batch and
above of IRS will be around 55-60 years of age.
Only a miniscule number will be below 52 years of age. So, the requirement of being on deputation
under the Central Staffing Scheme and a maximum of 52 years age limit will
eliminate 99.90% of senior IRS officers from the DFFT Scheme, whereas 100% of
all senior IAS officers get the eligibility.
So it is a competition between 100% of IAS officers and 0.10% of IRS
(read 0.10% of non-IAS). How are the
young non-IAS officers eliminated from the competition? There are very few short-term programmes for
the young officers (Deputy Secretary & Director level). When it comes to the long-term programmes,
the IAS officers are eligible after completion of 7 years of service and
non-IAS officers after 9 years of service.
An IRS officer is eligible for DFFT Scheme after completion of 9 years
of service, has to be appointed under Central Staffing Scheme, should have
completed one and half years of service on Central Staffing before the date of
commencement of the long-term programmes and should be below 45 years of
age. So an IRS officer recruited at 29
years should have completed eleven and half years of service for applying under
DFFT Scheme. So, he gets eligibility after reaching 41 years of age. Since the
upper age limit is 45 years, an IRS officer gets eligibility for a brief period
of 4 years (between 41 and 45 years of age).
During this brief period of 4 years, he has to get appointed under
Central Staffing Scheme. But the young
IAS officers will get a long period of 9 years (between 36 to 45 years of age)
to apply for DFFT Scheme. They need not
be appointed under the Central Staffing Scheme either. So, here again 99% of
young IRS officers are eliminated from competition. So, it is a competition between 100% of IAS
officers and 1% of IRS (read 1% of non-IAS).
The IAS officers corner all most all of the training programmes under
the DFFT Scheme and they also benefit from some training programmes funded by
their respective State Governments. This is a case of ‘all for one and none for
others’.
II. Skewed
Selection Process:
The
selection process for training programmes under the DFFT Scheme is highly
skewed in favour of the IAS. The Central Establishment Board (CEB) makes
recommendations for deputing officers on foreign training. The CEB consists of the Secretary (Personnel)
as its Chairman, the Establishment Officer as Member Secretary and three
Secretaries to the Government of India.
All these five Members of CEB are usually IAS officers. So it is anybody’s guess as to why only IAS
officers get recommended for most of the training programmes under the DFFT
Scheme. Most of the 1% non-IAS officers
who get eligibility for applying under the DFFT Scheme will be overlooked by
the IAS dominated selection board (CEB).
So it’s like so near yet so far for this highly eligible and deserving
1% of non-IAS officers group. So, it is very clear that non-IAS officers are simply
trampled by the IAS lobby when it comes to funding for training programmes
under the DFFT Scheme through the highly deliberate and skewed process of
selection.
Recommendations for
Improvement
There is an urgent need to amend the
DFFT Scheme Rules to end this apartheid being followed by the IAS lobby. The following steps are needed to be taken
urgently to really meet the stated objectives of the DFFT Scheme and to make it
meaningful:
1) The
DFFT Scheme has to be decentralized immediately. The Training Division of the Department of
Personnel and Training (DoPT) administers the DFFT Scheme for all the Services. This is the biggest reason for its
ineffectiveness. Every
Department/Service has its own requirements of training. Every Service has to be given freedom to
select courses that suits their needs.
The cadre controlling authority has to be given complete freedom to
choose courses and the officers who should attend them. The long-term programmes currently covered
under the DFFT Scheme deal with either Public Policy or Public Administration. But a Service like IRS may be better off
having courses on taxation, international taxation, tax policy, accounting
& finance, capital markets, international trade, transfer pricing, economics,
business administration & management, etc. Similarly Indian Trade Service (ITS) officers
should be able to take courses covering international trade, international
business, export & import management, etc. An Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer will
be efficient with courses on political & international studies,
international relations, global governance, diplomacy, international trade,
international public policy, etc. Similarly
courses on police administration, police management, criminology, criminal law,
trafficking, terrorism & anti-terrorism, etc will be suitable for an IPS officer. The Indian Forest Service
(IFS) should be having courses covering topics like environment, environmental
policy, ecology, sustainable development, conservation leadership, climate
change, earth sciences, etc. So, to upgrade the knowledge and skills of
officers and to expose them to the international best practices, the various
Services should be allowed to select courses/programmes suitable to them rather
than the IAS dominated DoPT imposing its choices. The cadre controlling authorities should be
completely independent of the DoPT in the selection process. For example, the
Central Board of Direct taxes (CBDT) should be allowed to select the training
courses/programmes for IRS officers. The
CBDT should also be completely independent in nominating IRS officers for these
training programmes. Fair and objective
criteria should be designed by the various Departments for selecting officers
for these training programmes. All IRS
officers should be eligible for these training programmes decided by the CBDT
without any requirement of the appointment under Central Staffing Scheme. These
training programmes are in addition to the mid career training programmes.
2) The
DFFT Scheme being administered by the DoPT should continue but in a different
form. This Scheme of the DoPT should
offer courses in general areas like public administration, public management,
public policy, management, economics, finance, law, development studies,
business administration, business management, leadership, politics, public
health, e-governance, urban development & planning, etc. But the eligibility
criteria should be made fair and just. The
minimum service requirement should be the same for all Services. All Services should be made eligible for
applying under the Scheme irrespective of whether they are on deputation under
the Central Staffing Scheme or not. If
at all any criteria is required, it should be that all the officers currently working
for the Central Government should be made eligible for funding under this
centrally funded Scheme. This will make all the Central Group ‘A’ Civil
Services automatically eligible and the All India Services and State Civil
Services only when they are on deputation to the centre. The State Governments
may be asked to fund for training of officers working for them whether they are
All India Service officers or State Civil Services officers. If this is not acceptable for All India
Service officers and State Civil Services officers, then make all Services
eligible irrespective of whether they are on deputation under the Central
Staffing Scheme or not. The DoPT should only lay down the broad principles
regarding the in-service training programmes.
3) The skewed selection process being undertaken
by the Central Establishment Board (CEB) should be scrapped. A new selection
board should be formed containing even outside experts for the modified DFFT
Scheme run by the DoPT. No two members
of this board should belong to the same Service/Department. A selection board containing the following seven
members should be constituted for selecting officers for programmes under the
DFFT Scheme:
a)
Chairman (ex-officio) – Secretary
(Personnel)
b)
Members – Two/three cadre controlling
authorities (Secretary/Special Secretary level) & three outside/industry
experts (on rotation basis for a period of one calendar year)
c)
Establishment Officer – Member
Secretary/Secretary
No
two members of this board should be from the same Service or from the same
industry/field. If the Secretary
(Personnel) is an IAS officer, then Establishment Officer can only be a
Secretary but not Member Secretary. If
the Establishment Officer is the Member Secretary then the board can have two
cadre controlling authorities as members and if the Establishment Officer is
only a Secretary then the board can have three cadre controlling authorities as
members. The outside/industry experts can be Directors/Professors of premier
educational institutions like IIMs, IITs, National Law Institutes or retired
CXOs of major private registered companies/industries/entities. This selection board should be for the
purpose of selecting officers for training programmes under the DFFT Scheme
administered by the DoPT. The selection boards for the respective
Services/Departments for their chosen specialized courses are different and should
be formed under the Chairmanship of the respective cadre controlling
authorities.
Conclusion
British Raj has long gone and India
achieved independence but the erstwhile white supremacy in different forms
refuses to die down in modern India. The IAS hegemony is one such ill. Even the
apartheid in South Africa ended in the 90’s.
However, inequalities in various forms persisted in India. We still
fight each other in the name of religion, race, caste, sex and place of birth. The
Indian Civil Service (ICS) of the British India was a steel frame over which survived
the British imperialism. Today’s IAS has its roots in the ICS. But the role of
IAS has changed from that of the imperial ICS - from one of a ruler to that of
a servant of the people. Much nonsense has been written about a single ICS
officer riding around his district on a horse back, dispensing justice to the
ever grateful and submissive Indian peasantry, settling cases before breakfast,
correcting land records before lunch, shooting a tiger before dinner and
writing a book before taking a cold bath and retiring to camp bed. Such
propaganda was part of the British strategy to rule over India. Some of the sections of the modern IAS still
harbour such imperialistic ambitions of the erstwhile godly ICS and lives in eternal
denial mode. What this section fails to understand is that the modern IAS is
not the only successor to the ICS. The ICS was a generalist Service that did
everything. As the administration of the Government became more complex,
specialized Services like the IRS, ITS, IIS, ICAS, etc. took birth. All these Services have their roots in the
erstwhile ICS. No Service in modern
India can claim to be the sole successor of the British ICS and no Service in
modern India is superior or inferior to the other Services. Every Service is important and every Service
has its defined role. No Service in
modern India is a master. Every Service is a servant of the people. If at all
there is a Service which does not have a clear cut role and responsibility,
thereby less and clouded responsibility, it is IAS and it deserves to be
abolished completely sooner than later. Among
the various forms through which the IAS tries to maintain its hegemony over
other Services, the DFFT Scheme is one such unjust thing.
The
National Training Policy, 2012 has been formulated by the Government of India
and is in operation now. As per this
Policy,
“1.5. For transforming the civil service, it is
imperative to move to a strategic human resource management, which would look
at the individual as a vital resource to be valued, motivated, developed
enabled to achieve the Ministry/Department/Organisation’s mission and
objectives. Within this transformational process, it is essential to match
individual’s competencies with the jobs they have to do and bridge competency
gaps for current and future roles through training.
……..
2.1. Competencies encompass knowledge,
skills and behavior, which are required in an individual for effectively
performing the functions of a post. Competencies may be broadly divided into
those that are core skills which civil servants would need to possess with differentlevels of proficiency for different functions or levels.
Some of these competencies pertain to leadership, financial management, people
management, information technology, project management and communication. The
other set of competencies relate to the professional or specialized skills,
which are relevant for specialized functions such as building roads, irrigation
projects, taking flood control measures, civil aviation, medical care, etc.
2.2. A fundamental principle of the
competency framework is that each job should be performed by a person who has
the required competencies for that job.
2.3. Training has usually been based on the
duties that are to be performed in a particular post. There has been no
comprehensive review or classification of all posts in accordance with
functions that are to be performed and the competencies required thereto. Thus,
the issue of whether an individual has the necessary competencies to be able to
perform the functions of a post has not been addressed. For moving to a competency-based approach, it
would be necessary to classify the distinct types of posts and to indicate the
competencies required for performing work in such posts. Once the competencies
are laid down, an individual’s department can be more objectively linked to the
competencies needed for the current or future jobs. Career progression and
placement need to be based on matching the individual’s competencies to those
required for a post. The training plan of each Ministry/Department/Organisation
needs to address the gap between the existing and the required competencies and
provide opportunities to the employees to develop their competencies.”
Even
the National Training Policy, 2012 envisages specialized training to civil
service officers. It’s high time the necessary changes are brought in the DFFT
Scheme as suggested above to bring out the best from the civil servants,
thereby leading to an improved administration.
The capacity building of the civil servants is of utmost importance for
an efficient and effective administration. Training at regular intervals of
their careers will improve the functioning of the civil servants and make them
align their goals with the broader goals of the Government. The new Government
is making right noises and what better way to start than to modernize the Civil
Services and civilian administration.
Even after 66 years of independence India still reels under acute
poverty, unemployment, diseases, floods, violence, natural calamities, food
shortage, fuel shortage, power shortage and many more ills. One of the primary reasons for this sordid
state of affairs of the country is its ill-equipped and self serving
bureaucracy. The IAS leads the way for
this mess and is one of the major reasons for it. The inefficiency and ineffectiveness of the
Indian bureaucracy is a direct outcome of the narrow minded, self serving and
self aggrandizing attitude of a section of the IAS. The IAS refuses to reform itself; it scuttles
any reform in administration, it prevents any reform in the Indian polity and
it revels in Indian backwardness as these measures will maintain its superior
position at the cost of the country and its people. It is time to abolish IAS and promote greater
specialization in Indian administration and bring in greater responsibility and
accountability among the civil servants.
The DFFT Scheme has to be scrapped in the present form or drastically
modified to bring it in tune with the modern principles of fairness and
justice. The DFFT Scheme has to be
modified in a way that it can really contribute for the development of the
country through up-gradation of the knowledge and skills of the Government
officers and implementation of the international best practices in India.
The DFFT Scheme in its present form is a criminal waste
of the public money; only contributing to the pleasure trips of some self
serving and undeserving IAS officers. The DFFT Scheme in its present form also
violates the Right to Equality enshrined in Article 14 of the Constitution of
India. Prejudices like these only demoralize the civil servants leading to
lower productivities. The civil servants of this great country only hope that
this apartheid being practiced by the IAS lobby ends and better sense
prevails. A comprehensive analysis and
suitable modification of the DFFT Scheme is the need of the hour and it will go
a long way in improving the administration of the country. Hopefully the 7th
Central Pay Commission understands the unjust and unfair design inherent in the
eligibility criteria and selection process of the DFFT Scheme, which favours
IAS over the other Civil Services and makes suitable recommendations to modify it
to bring it in tune with the objectives for which it was actually started.
The writer is an Indian Revenue
Service (IRS) officer currently posted as Deputy Director of Income Tax
(Investigation) at Hyderabad. The views expressed here are those of the writer
and not that of the Government. The writer can be reached at prasantpsirs1@gmail.com........Keep on Blogging
Source:- http://satyaprasantp.blogspot.in
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