Within a day after of receiving the report of the Staff Rationalisation Committee headed by retired IAS officer S. Audiseshiah, the Tamil Nadu government on Friday informed the Legislative Assembly that it would implement its recommendations.
Though the government had, in its February 2019 government order, termed the committee the ‘Staff Rationalisation Committee’, in the State Budget Finance Minister O Panneerselvam referred to it as ‘Expenditure Rationalisation Committee’.“I expect that the implementation of the recommendations of the Expenditure Rationalisation Committee will enable the government to substantially enhance productivity of government departments and thereby free up more resources for development programmes,” he said.
The Committee had submitted its report to the Chief Minister on Thursday. “Through the implementation of the Integrated Financial and Human Resources Management System (IFHRMS), by modernising budget formulation and fiscal risk management, securing expert advice and consistent efforts within the government, I am confident the finances of the State will be even better managed in 2020-21,” he added.
Noting that Tamil Nadu continued to see sustained increase of its revenue deficit, the Deputy CM said the lag effect of the implementation of the 7th Central Pay Commission was among the reasons.
“Salary and pension-related expenditure shows a consistent increase. The government is committed to find ways to contain the overall level of non-development expenditure and find additional resources to finance growth-oriented expenditure,” he said.
The Staff Rationalisation Committee was one of the measures to assess the quality of revenue expenditure and to improve the expenditure profile by enhanced allocation to growth-oriented expenditure as well as to rationalise revenue expenditure.
A source said that the Committee had recommended the redeployment of additional staff to departments where there is a shortage. “That way, the expenditure might come down,” the source added.
The Tamil Nadu Government Employees’ Association president M. Anbarasu however, told The Hindu: “The very fact that the report was submitted on Thursday and government decided to implement it the following day shows it wants to outsource people for government work.”
While several lakh youth were waiting for employment and about 4 lakh posts in the government were lying vacant, the decision only showed the government wanted to reduce the number of permanent staff, he felt. He also pointed out that the IFHRMS was handled by a corporate major.