Nearly 7.3 lakh central govt jobs vacant: Pay Comm report

The central government has seen a decline in personnel in all its 56 ministries and departments with a shortage of around 7,28,870, according to a report of the Seventh Central Pay Commission. This can be attributed to the guidelines issued by the Department of Personnel and Training in May 2001 for the optimisation of direct recruitment to civilian posts.

As per the guidelines, fresh recruitment was to be restricted to one percent of total civilian staff strength and with three percent of staff retiring each year, the manpower reduced by two percent per annum. These guidelines were in operation from May 2001 to March 2009. The report also says that the motive behind this move was to achieve a reduction of 10 percent in staff strength in five years.

Even the Sixth Pay Commission had asked for a revision of Annual Direct Recruitment Plan (ADRP); it argued that the ageing government staff did not have the technical know how to use modern technology. According to the Seventh Pay Commission, of the 33.02 lakh persons in position as on January 1, 2014, 29 percent of the staff was between the age group of 50 and 60 years. While only 22 percent from the age group of 20 to 30 constituted the overall Union staff. This was the reason why the guidelines were discontinued in 2009.

Overall, there is a 19 percent shortage of staff in the central government with 8 ministries having at least 40 percent vacancies and a staggering 21 ministries having at least 30 percent vacancies. A report in the Mint newspaper says that even the Ministry of Employment has a shortage which has greatly affected its work.

Due to a shortage of manpower, there has also been a rise in the acquiring of manpower on a contractual basis. According to Mint, in 2012-13, the centre paid Rs. 300.49 crore for contract and temporary workers.

The Railway Ministry, which was 2,35,527 personnel short, spent around Rs. 34.94 crore in 2012-13, while the Indian Audit and Accounts Department spent nearly Rs. 28.47 crore in the same year and the Health Ministry spent Rs. 26.90 crore for temporary and contract workers.

The report also shares its concerns on the hiring of temps.

"While the expenditure incurred on contractual manpower is relatively small compared to expenditure on salaries of personnel serving in the government, they are in their own right significant and also likely to increase in the coming years," the report says.

The Commission feels that there is a general consensus that administrative jobs like data entry and maintenance can be outsourced. But it also asks for "a clear guidance from the government on jobs that can and should be contracted out."

Also, it says that retiring officials can lead to huge loss of skills to the ministries and hiring a new person can add to costs in training. In such situations, it recommends the "utilisation of retiring personnel with suitable skills" on contractual basis to cut costs. For this it asks for a database of retiring personnel which should be available with the Government.