New Delhi: The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has pulled up all cadre controlling authorities (CCAs) — ministries that are responsible for managing the cadres of different services like the IPS, IFS, IRS, etc — for not carrying out cadre reviews, which would allow the government to undertake changes like doing away with ‘dying’ services, introducing new posts in cadres or merging certain cadres with each other.

In an office memorandum (OM) dated 12 February, accessed by ThePrint, the DoPT asked all CCAs to appoint a joint secretary-level nodal officer, and ensure the cadre review is done expeditiously. 

“It has been observed that despite repeated reminders and regular meetings with the CCAs, the prescribed periodicity of cadre review is not followed,” the OM states. 

The exercise of cadre review, although a routine one, is imperative for the government to trim down the bureaucracy, remove redundant services, and merge the ones that can be merged. In a cadre review, the authorities concerned take a relook at the manpower of their respective cadres, rationalise them, plan for further recruitment, etc.

“The main purpose of a cadre review is to restructure a cadre in such a way as to remove the deficiencies which might be existing at the time of the constitution of a service or have crept in subsequently and ensure that the cadre structure satisfies the functional, structural and personnel considerations,” a DoPT official explained.

“Cadre review provides an opportunity to overcome various bottlenecks, remove existing distortions and bring about rationalisation of cadre structure so as to improve the efficiency and morale of the cadre officers and thereby enhance the effectiveness of the Service in the fulfilment of the objectives for which it has been established,” the official added. 

According to the OM, the objective is to “get one round of cadre review completed in 5 years for all the services, this department has issued a calendar in year 2018 and 2019 for strict compliance”.

“However, various CCAs citing one or other reason (which includes Covid pandemic) defaulted on the prescribed timeline laid down in the Calendars.” it further states. 

ThePrint reached the DoPT spokesperson through a text message and call for a comment, but there was no reply.

The DoPT communication comes at a time when there are massive vacancies across government services, officers of several services have been complaining of delayed promotions, and the government has thrown its weight behind the idea of a leaner bureaucracy.