istrative ability 5b5o4u

istrative ability

Public istration and ability • There seems to be a paradox in the development of the democratic welfare state. As the state grows more and more powerful in order to serve the people, paradoxically more and more people feel that they have been pushed into the background by the growing powers of the social service sate. As the public istration machinery expands and becomes more complex, the need for holding it properly able is more acutely felt.

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• In a democratic government, the assumption is that the civil servants work in the government for the people. Therefore, the problem of locating ability becomes acute because of the nature of the job performed and exercised by the public officials.

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• istrative ability means making the civil servants answerable for their actions. istrative ability has to be understood in relation to making of public policies and their implementation. It means ability of those s who in some ways or the other contribute to the decision making process. And this ability is to the political system as a whole.

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In general, the public officials are found to be guilty of 3 kinds of breaches means that civil servants have not -Nonfeasance

done what law or custom requires them to do owing to laziness, ignorance or want of care for their charges or corrupt influence. • -Malfeasance means that a duty is carried out with waste and damage because of ignorance, negligence and technical incompetence. • -Overfeasance occurs when a duty is undertaken beyond what law and custom oblige empower---it may occur out of dictatorial temper, vanity or genuine public spirited zeal. • The public officials must be held able for any of these three activities. 5

The concept of istrative ability has multiple dimensions. ability can derive from the 3 branches of government: • 1. Executive ability: The istration in a democratic state is able to the political executive in the first instance. If ability of any individual is to be insured, the practice is to criticize the political executive to whom he is attached. The bureaucracy’s main functional role is to act as advisors to the political executive on matters connected with policy execution and policy formulation.

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• By virtue of their enormous expertise they gain through long period in office and specialised training the bureaucrats know better about the subject matter than the political executive does. The political executive is able to the legislature but the is politically able to the political executive. 7

• 2. Legislative ability: The dimension of istrative ability becomes larger if we take into the parliamentary institution of interpellation. It is the basic right of the of parliament to ask questions about the state of public istration. When the minister is asked to answer a question put by MP, the questions are really directed to the department concerned. Every top knows that whatever policy decision his department takes is likely to be questioned in parliament.

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• The principal function of questions in parliament is not to inform ministers of public reaction to policy but to discipline istration. istrative responsibility therefore indirectly means ability to parliament. In modern times, every legislature has developed the practice of functioning through its various committees. 9

• Apart from standing committees, public s committee and public estimates committee, there are host of other committees like committee on subordinate legislation, committee on government assurances etc where the government officials have to meet the queries made by the legislators. istrative ability becomes very much meaningful in the proceedings of these committees as public s are put hard to defend their policies and actions on grounds of laws, rules and their own perception of public interest.

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• Judicial bility: • In a democratic political system, citizens are provided with the necessary legal means to challenge the policy decisions as well as istrative decisions of the government. In most democracies the machinery of public istration includes organisations for adjudicating on disputes between citizens and the istration in matters like taxation and compensation. If dispute still persists, citizens can approach regular courts of law challenging the decisions of the government.

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• In Bangladesh, for example, Supreme Court and high courts can issue a variety of writs challenging the decisions of the government. The public s, therefore, have to advise on policy formulation and policy implementation keeping in view the probable reaction of the court, if and when their policies or actions are challenged in the court of law. 12

Besides, a quasi-judicial institution, like the ombudsman, has been rendering useful service for insuring istrative ability in a large number of democracies. The ombudsman is basically an agent of parliament for defending the public interest and public morale against any sort of deviational behaviour of public servants. This institution can successfully defend the public interest by enforcing istrative for policies and

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