Holding additional charge of a portfolio directly hits a bureaucrat’s efficiency because he is not able to dispose off the files before him by giving his undivided attention. Also, frequent transfers of government officials before three years also proves counter-productive to speedy disposal of matters.
A total of 13 senior officers of the Goa government are holding additional charge, six from the senior and seven from the junior scale. While some hold two or more additional charges of different departments, some hold additional charges of departments besides their own. This gives them insufficient time to study the exigencies of the department and the problems which need to be redressed.
The inescapable conclusion means that the Goa government has either not recruited an adequate number of officers for their different departments or not promoted them from lower scales. Hence, by increasing these officers’ workloads without concomitantly increasing the staff to help them “ is counter-productive. There have been examples where Mamlatdars and Joint Mamlatdars have heard mutation cases and then been transferred abruptly after concluding arguments have been heard.
This would result in the new Mamlatdar having to hear contested mutation cases all over again, called de novo in legal parlance. This results in sheer waste of time, money and energy of lawyers and the incoming Mamlatdar who will have no clue about the facts of the case.
To remedy this situation, the Goa government can issue circulars to the Mamlatdars concerned, directing them to prepare signed orders in contested mutation cases when final arguments have been heard. Like the Mamlatdars and Joint Mamlatdars, the deputy directors of panchayat and additional directors of panchayat have quasi judicial powers so they can pass reasoned orders after concluding arguments. But in the office of the directorate of panchayats too, quite often after arguments have dragged on interminably, the deputy director of panchyats has been transferred to some other post.
A casual survey will show that when dates are fixed for hearing, quite often, the Mamlatdars and Joint Mamlatdars do not sit due to exigencies of holding additional charge. Sometimes, a meeting has been called in the office of the Collector and the Mamlatdar has to rush there so that next dates are given for all the cases listed on the board. This is not a rare occurrence.
Clafasio Dias, the MLA from Cuncolim constituency has pointed out that a few village panchayats do not have full-time secretaries and there is no deputy collector. The secretary in the village panchayat is a direct recruit of the Goa government whereas the sarpanch is the elected representative and does not directly come under the Goa government. Dias pointed out that chief minister Manohar Parrikar had concentrated all powers in his hands so that even recruitments could not be done during the absence of Parrikar which affected the overall functioning of the state.
There are 157 officers in the Goa civil service out of which 77 are in the senior scale and 80 are in the junior scale. There are 28 out of the 77 senior scale officers who hold additional charge whereas 48 out of the 80 junior scale officers are holding additional charge of different departments so that less than half of the non-IAS civil servants hold additional charge. These 77 officers have to travel if some of them hold additional charge in departments which are not contiguous. This is bound to reduce their effectiveness which in turn affects productivity and quality of reasoned orders while disposing off contested mutation cases, cases of illegal construction and other adversarial complaints which require legal acumen and application of mind.
Lawyers have pointed out it is easy to dispose off cases without proper application of mind, but disposing off cases is one thing and rendering justice to the common Goenkar is another thing. Ironically, extended child care leave or maternity leave also affects disposal off cases.
The affable Neetal Amonkar who is the under secretary in the home department also has additional charge of being an officer on special duty in the special legal cell. Sudhir Kerkar, the deputy collector and sub-divisional magistrate at Pernem holds additional charge as SLAO of the Tillari irrigation project and deputy commissioner of the City Corporation of Panaji. He has to travel back-and-forth every day with a mounting workload and responsibility which makes it difficult to evaluate such a conscientious officer who has been given a workload which should be handled by two other officers.
