Bureaucrats make beeline for private sector jobs

Firms wanting quick clearances are offering them astounding compensation

NEW DELHI: Bureaucrats are increasingly opting out of government jobs to seek greener pastures in the private sector. A senior government source told DNA that the trend has gained ground over the past year with about 30 IAS officers either quitting or seeking permission to go on deputation to private firms.

The Maharashtra cadre has taken the biggest hit. According to the source, nearly 10 officers have made the switch, or are doing so. Two principal secretaries, A Ramakrishna and Sudha Bhave, resigned early this year.

The third, Rajiv Ranjan Sinha, quit last December. The fourth, Sanjay Narayan, a joint secretary in the Union civil aviation ministry, put in his papers some weeks ago. Others are awaiting necessary clearances from the state and central governments to join their new employers.

Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Gujarat are some of the other cadres from which requests have been made for permission to leave. The Union Territory cadre’s most celebrated case involves Rajiv Talwar, a 1978 batch officer, who recently quit the service to join DLF as group executive director.

Talwar was reluctant to admit that his decision was driven by a sense of frustration. Rather, he said the rapid expansion of the private sector had created new job opportunities for all, including civil servants.

“The government used to be the main employer. That’s no longer true, thanks to economic reforms,” Talwar said. “It’s now possible to do big things in the private sector and I feel I can be more creative and productive in my new job.”

Irrespective of the motivation that is spurring officers to leave, the steady haemorrhage within the ranks has set off alarm bells in the government, prompting the Prime Minister’s office to hold back a set of proposals further liberalising deputation rules for the civil service.

But it’s a losing battle. “How can we stop people from going to the private sector? If we deny permission for deputation, they have the option of resigning,” a senior government source said. “The offers they have are so good that we can’t hold them back.”

Bureaucrats are coy about exact figures, but they say pay packets being offered by private companies start at Rs50 lakh per annum and go up to Rs2.5 crore. It’s a far cry from what they earn in government, perks included. Moreover, the compensation offered by the private sector is several times higher than the civil services’ retirement benefits, making resignation an easy option.

Officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, put the trend down to the intensifying involvement of private firms in large infrastructure projects, specifically SEZs, and in new agro-based initiatives. They said the projects have created huge demand for personnel with experience in these sectors, who also know how to work the levers of power to overcome bureaucratic hurdles and delays.

This evaluation is borne out by the type of companies that are seeking out IAS officers. The firms include Mahindra & Mahindra (for its infrastructure development division and a new agricultural project), Reliance Industries Limited (for its Navi Mumbai SEZ project and the proposed Trans-Harbour Communication Link), GVK’s Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL), and GMR’s Delhi airport modernisation project.

Jayant Kawale and Prabhakar Karandikar, both Maharashtra-cadre officers, have sought permission to join the Mahindra Group while Mahesh Pathak, also from the state government, has gone to MIAL.

In addition, one of the country’s leading public-private partnerships, Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services, is proving to be a major employer of bureaucrats. Five of its top executives, Pradeep Puri, Pradeep Singh, L Krishnan, Dinesh Mittal, and RCM Reddy, are ex-IAS officers. The latest entrant is former CIDCO managing director Sonia Sethi, who is on deputation from the Maharashtra government.