The (real) scandal of government employment

By Amita Kanekar

 

So Goa is among the states with the highest number of government employees per capita of its population – as per the census report of government employees from the state government’s department of planning and statistics. The finding was reported by the press in shocked tones. There is one government employee, they said disgustedly, for every 25 residents in the state.

But what’s actually shocking about this? If government jobs are the best-paying and best-regulated jobs in the country, doesn’t it make sense to have more of them? It’s become the norm to sneer at Goans for wanting government jobs – with one of the biggest sneerers being the Chief Minister of Goa. Pramod Sawant regularly comments disparagingly on how Goans “hanker” for government jobs, which is ironical since he holds the top government position in the state himself, and shows no intention of giving it up. Goans should be more self-sufficient, declares the man whose whole existence – from lavish residence and plush car, to expanding entourage – is paid for by the Goan people. But, he insists, it is just not possible for everyone to have a government job.

Why not, is what we would like to know. If it is okay for him and others to be on the government payroll, why is it impossible for everyone else as well? Surely there is plenty of work that needs to be done in Goa. Almost everywhere one turns, you can see under-staffing of institutions, and overloading of existing employees, even in life-and-death situations like at the GMC and the other government hospitals. So why not create more jobs?

Because the government has no money, is the usual answer. But why doesn’t the government have the money?

What Sawant will never admit is that a big reason for why the government doesn’t have money is because of the way the government wastes money. An infamous example is the swearing-in ceremony of his own government which, according to the RTI enquiry filed by Aires Rodrigues, blew up an unbelievable Rs 9 crores of public money on just the one single event. Another area of waste is incessant, lavish, and unnecessary construction projects – like the recent decision to build a new Raj Bhavan, the ghastly ‘beautification’ of Miramar beach, etc. But perhaps the biggest problem, because it is a regular and ever-expanding one, is the cost of the current employees – and not all employees, but particularly the fattest of the fat cats on the government payroll. A good example here is how Sawant’s predecessor, Parrikar (celebrated in the press as a ‘good administrator’) hiked the government payment to Goa’s then attorney general, Atmaram Nadkarni, to up to Rs. 8 lakhs per month, making him the highest-paid state attorney general (serving the smallest state), earning more, apparently, than even the President of the country.

Parrikar’s largesse (at public cost) was not restricted to Nadkarni, but extended to all the MLAs, ministers, governor, and himself, given the fact that he presided over two massive pay rises for all these worthies. Just to give one example. Goa’s governor saw a salary rise from Rs. 13.20 lakhs per annum in 2015-16, to 28.2 lakhs in 2017-18, i.e. more than double. To this was added Rs. 67 lakhs for travel, including 10 lakhs for foreign travel. Along with this were discretionary grants of Rs 20 lakh, up from Rs 5.45 lakh in 2014-15, i.e. a hike of nearly 400% in 3 years. All these figures will have climbed much higher by now. Add on all the other big earners – MLAs, ministers, judges, IAS officers, directors of government bodies, etc, etc, not to forget the attorney general – and you understand why the Goa government has to regularly borrow money for salaries.

This kind of spending is especially disgusting when there are thousands of people struggling to make ends meet in Goa, despite working full-time and more. They even include government employees – except that the government does not consider them as employees. Working in government institutions as anything from gardeners, cleaners, watchmen, to clerical staff, librarians, and even professors, these employees earn less than half the official salary, or even less than that, depending on whether they are on contract, or daily wages, or hourly rates. Thus, for the same hours of work, a professor on permanent tenure might earn over Rs 2 lakh a month, a professor on contract might earn 60,000, a clerical employee on permanent tenure might earn 30,000, while a cleaner on contract might earn 10,000 – all in the same college. How can such huge differences in pay be justified?

What is even more interesting is that it is the people earning the most, the Grade-A category, who decide the salaries for everyone, including themselves. That is why there are regular pay commissions for the permanent staff, which have taken Grade-A salaries to astronomical heights; the Goa government has admitted that one reason for its financial debt is the last (7th) pay commission. But the same commissions provide nothing for the non-permanent.

With the government itself running this kind of top-heavy, discriminatory, and exploitative employment system, it is hardly going to ensure anything better in the private sector. That’s why nobody listens to Sawant when he advises Goan youth to look for jobs in the hospitality sector, where, he claims, two lakh jobs will be available over the next two years. Two lakh jobs paying what salaries? Offering what conditions of work? What dignity? Employment conditions in the private sector are so poor and unregulated for most employees that many prefer contract jobs in the government, hoping to one day become permanent.

So, there is no need to feel ashamed about the high percentage of government jobs per capita in Goa. In fact, this high percentage, along with remittances from NRI Goans, is surely what makes Goa a comparatively well-to-do society. And there is no need to castigate Goans for wanting government jobs either. They are not aiming to earn as much as Sawant does, nor to live in the lap of public-funded luxury. All they want is to earn enough, and with dignity, to make ends meet.

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A shorter version of this article was published in O Heraldo, on 15 October 2022.

The Defectors and the Details: Understanding the Recent Exodus from Goa Congress to the BJP

By THE AL-ZULAIJ COLLECTIVE

The recent defection of ten MLAs from the Congress party in Goa to the BJP has sent shock waves not just through the political establishment in Goa, but throughout the country. For those who believed that one could not plumb the depths of cynical politics any further, the Goan defection indicates that there is always further disappointment waiting. But, while most commentators were appalled by the situation, they have, unfortunately, failed to recognize the importance of caste in the recent political maneuverings, with all its implications.

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A Much-Needed Ferment

By AMITA KANEKAR

India, said The Economist famously some years ago, is a ‘continent-sized embarrassment’. The description, which attracted outrage from sections of India’s ruling establishment, is actually a mild one, if you go by the recently-published book ‘The Ferment: Youth Unrest in India’ (Macmillan, 2019) by Nikhila Henry. The book paints a picture of contemporary India that is at once both depressing and inspiring. Depressing because it relentlessly and meticulously confirms the suspicion that must haunt every thinking Indian today: this country is just not working. Henry’s book interviews diverse young people across the country united by their involvement in protests of one kind or another, trying to find out just why they are angry. And, from almost all the vantage points she presents, the country resembles less a functioning republic and democracy than a disaster zone; a disaster zone in which millions of the weakest, poorest, most vulnerable of its citizens are trapped in poverty, violence, hierarchy, patriarchy, illiteracy, criminalisation, you name it, most of it based on caste, and with no freedom in sight.

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In Life and Death: Politics and Politicians

By DALE LUIS MENEZES

In Goan politics, the politician is an indispensable cult figure, one whose image is more important than his or her ability to discharge his or her public responsibilities. The unexpected presence of the ailing Pandurang Madkaikar, Cumbharjua MLA, for the first time in public in 11 months, at the floor test of the BJP government, a few weeks ago is a case in point. Madkaikar, who suffered a brain stroke last year, has been away from public life all this while. Despite his ill health, Madkaikar contributed, or was forced to contribute, to the cutthroat power struggles, even though he has not discharged his public responsibilities and was dispensed from his minister’s post since last year.

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Fragile Political Alliances in Goa

By DALE LUIS MENEZES

The political developments in the last 30 days may have surely given Goans a sense of déjà vu. With BJP’s Laxmikant Parsekar appearing to revolt, and two Congress MLAs joining the BJP, Goans may have remembered the decades of political instability from the 1970s. The logical question to ask, therefore, is why has Goa witnessed such fragile political regimes? Is there something deeper than merely opportunism and avarice in Goan politics?

 

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Pastoral Letters and Indianness

By DALE LUIS MENEZES

 

Over the last couple of years, pastoral letters written by various bishops in India have led to national furore over their contents. While the writing of pastoral letters is routine, these letters found themselves in the eye of the storm largely because they were written around the time of elections and referenced the problematic political conditions affecting minoritized caste and religious groups. The most recent of such pastoral letters to have received the attention and ire of Indian media is written by Anil Couto, the Archbishop of Delhi. But if one considers all the recent statements together, a particular pattern emerges – one that concerns the health of the Indian polity. Let us proceed chronologically.

 

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Jharokha Darshan: The Visible Political Power

By DALE LUIS MENEZES

 

That a politician was compelled to make a public appearance despite ill health tells us something about the political culture in India. Manohar Parrikar’s rather dramatic entry at the budget session of 2018 should make us not only enquire into the short-term machinations in contemporary politics, but also the culture in which the visibility of the ruling authority is of paramount importance. For one thing was crystal clear in the political spectacle surrounding Parrikar’s sudden appearance at the budget session: the importance of his visibility for colleagues, allies, and the masses.

 

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