Enhancing Efficiency
MINISTER for Industry, Commerce and Supplies Mahesh Lal
Pradhan asked the chiefs of different public enterprises under the Ministry of Industry to
enhance their efficiency and improve quality. At a meeting with the chiefs of the public
enterprises the other day, Minister Pradhan said that since the objective of the present
government is to ensure efficient administration and swift services to the people, the
public enterprises also need to change their working styles and provide better services to
the people. At a time when performances of many public enterprises have not been
satisfactory, the remarks and instruction of Minister Pradhan carry special significance.
It is beyond any shade of doubt that the performance of the public enterprises has been
very poor. Some public enterprises have not even been able to pay the salaries of their
employees. There are several reasons behind the poor performance and failure of the public
enterprises. One of them is political intervention. There are instances that politicians
often misused their authorities to turn the public enterprises into a recruiting ground
for the workers of the party in power. Loyalty to the party or person in power was made
the basic criteria for the appointments of chiefs in the public enterprises. In such a
situation, it was not possible to expect good performance and results in the organisation.
Gone are the days of monopoly. This is the age of competition and every enterprise must
compete and accordingly survive. But public enterprises have not been able to compete with
the private enterprises. If you fail in competition you cannot survive. Thus, our public
enterprises must also be competitive. In order to survive in the competition, performance
must be enhanced. His Majesty's Government has adopted the policy of economic reform
package which promotes competition in the economic sector. Under the policy of economic
liberalisation, the government has decided to privatise some public enterprises in order
to improve performance and raise productivity. Against this background, Minister Pradhan
has also asked the chiefs of some sick public enterprises to prepare a detailed report and
frame necessary strategy for reforms and improvement of their performance. One of the
major tasks the chiefs of public enterprises need to do is to check the leakage and
corruption, and the most important job that the government needs to do is to discourage
unnecessary political intervention. Merit and qualification must be promoted and
encouraged. This would definitely lead the public enterprises in the right direction.
Other Story
|
