Break from tradition: Non-IAS services may get more than one secretary

After a long time, non-Indian Administrative Service (IAS) divisions may get more than one secretary-level appointment in the central ministries, thus, breaking a long-standing barrier. 

The government this month empanelled four officers from the Indian Audit and Accounts Service, Indian Forest Service, and the Indian Revenue Service to become secretaries. They join a batch of 41 IAS officers also empanelled for secretary and secretary-level posts in October this year. The empanelment of IAS officers for secretary-level posts is routine. Many of those on the list have already got posted as secretaries, in charge of various departments.

The interest is about six additional vacancies at the secretary-level that would come up at the end of December. It is possible that at least one of the four non-IAS officers will be appointed to those. Being empanelled means the officers have been given clearance to be appointed to substantive posts — in this case, secretaries. In the government administrative apparatus, secretaries are in charge of departments and are the highest posts to which an officer can aspire to in his/her career.  

The only non-IAS officer holding the post of a secretary at the Centre now is Anuradha Mitra. She is secretary, official languages. There are non-IAS officers heading the Department of External Affairs, Post, Railways, Science, and Technology. But those are understood as specialised departments and are outside the purview of the IAS. However, the same logic does not apply to the revenue secretary, where no tax officer has ever been appointed. 

In the early 2000s, two officers from the Indian Audit and Accounts Service were appointed secretaries at the Centre. Dhirendra Swarup became secretary, expenditure, while A H Jung became civil aviation secretary. But after that, there was a long gap, till Mitra was appointed this year. She is from the Indian Post & Telecommunication Accounts and Finance Service.  

There are about 100-odd secretaries in the central government. There are about 100 more that are considered equivalent to that of a secretary in terms of pay like the managing director of Food Corporation of India. Non-IAS officers have often been posted to those. But those are not the positions wherein one gets to determine the policy of the government. 

The possibility of breaking the long-established trend of only appointing IAS to the posts of secretaries would mean a significant shift in how the central government runs its business. While IAS officers bring in a wealth of administrative experience because of the assignments they hold at various stages in their career in states and at the Centre, the non-IAS officers bring in a more specialised knowledge of sectors to which they are appointed to at the beginning of their career. 

Over the past few years, the government has been ushering in changes in its administrative set-up, such as allowing lateral entrants at the joint secretary-level in the economic sectors and recruiting specialists at lower levels, to assist the ministries. 

The Department of Personnel & Training has empanelled non-IAS officers for these posts for more than a decade. None of them has got picked up as secretaries though they have all been posted to positions considered equivalent to that of a secretary. It could be different this time for Prem Kumar Kataria, Prashant Kumar, Sanjay Kumar Mishra, and Shefali Shah.