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CVC suggests mentorship scheme in govt depts
For now, the recommendation is for the newly inducted officers of all-India services like Indian Administrative Service, Indian Police Service, Group ‘A’ officers and their equivalents in other organisations, public sector undertakings and public sector banks.
The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) has recommended that all government departments and ministries adopt a formalised and well-constituted mentorship scheme where a senior, as a mentor, acts like a “friend, philosopher and guide” to the newly inducted officers, people familiar with the development said.
For now, the recommendation is for the newly inducted officers of all-India services like Indian Administrative Service, Indian Police Service, Group ‘A’ officers and their equivalents in other organisations, public sector undertakings and public sector banks. Guidelines for this have already been issued to all the departments/ministries, people cited above said.
According to the apex vigilance body, the ‘mentor’ in government departments can help the mentee (new officers) with the correct public service attitude, impart key professional skill sets, and provide guidance on expected norms of personal conduct in public life through experience sharing.
This, the CVC feels, would elicit better emotional responses to challenges in service and support officers to achieve their potential in contributing as public servants. Also, the new officers will know the procedures and functioning of their department.
“The Commission is of the view that for a new entrant in service, the guidance, support and positive orientation provided by senior can go a long way in developing personal and professional traits, which ultimately result in the development of leadership qualities, improved performance at the workplace, and the capability to face professional challenges,” said an official, who didn’t want to be named.
There are approximately 31.1 lakh regular central government civilian employees, according to the data of the ministry of personnel, public grievances and pensions. There is no centralised data for the number of officials who join the central government every year, but it runs into thousands.
Former Oil and Natural Gas Corporation chairman R S Sharma termed the step “extremely laudable”. “This is an excellent idea and extremely laudable. What happens at present is that new inductees aren’t aware of the systems, procedures and culture of their organisation (s) concerned. Direct guidance from the immediate senior will not only increase the efficiency but also lead to better coordination,” Sharma said.
Sharad Kumar, former acting CVC, agreed. “Senior government officials — be it IAS, IPS or others — used to act as mentors earlier, but lately it was noticed that either seniors do not have time for the new inductees, or they don’t want to share their knowledge and experience. Having a mentor-mentee relationship will go a long way in achieving the targets in public service”.
The CVC has also recommended ‘attitudinal change’ in government employees, for which they need to be exposed to good practices through induction and mid-career training programmes.
To achieve this, the CVC has finalised a five-day exposure visit module for induction training and a three-day exposure visit module for mid-career training of government officials.
Further, to expose the government employees to village life, the Commission has involved rural self-employment training institutes or RSETI set up by the department of rural development.
The village visit will include interaction with farmers, self-help groups, primary health centres, and village panchayat, and familiarisation with the village scheme, a socio-economic survey by the participants, etc., said another officer cited above.
