Knowledge-sharing initiative remains on paper only
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, May 24: Despite lapse of more than two years, most of the departments of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir have still not established “Excellence Groups”, which otherwise is a novel governance initiative aimed at fostering knowledge-sharing and continuity of thoughts in order to achieve tangible results of programmes conceived from time to time.
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“Transfers in an administrative setup based on tenure system are a routine affair necessitated many a times either by administrative exigencies or Government priorities and interests. However, these transfers should not break continuity and flow of set organization goals and priorities”, official sources told EXCELSIOR.
Moreover, continuity of ideas and best practices is a key ingredient of administration and so is knowledge-sharing and a robust feedback mechanism especially involving those who have prior experience of working in a particular department, they further said, adding “it is a common observation that consequent upon transfers of Administrative Secretaries and senior officers from various departments, departmental priorities get re-aligned and hence initiatives conceptualized/initiated by the outgoing Secretary or a senior officer, which may not get materialized during their tenure, sometimes remain unattended thereby not yielding the desired outcome visualized by the outgoing officer”.
Recognizing the significance of such ideas/initiatives and to ensure continuity of thoughts, it was decided to establish “Excellence Groups” under the concerned Administrative Secretaries in all the departments of the Government of Jammu and Kashmir. The objective was to facilitate exchange of ideas and concepts among Administrative Secretaries and other senior officers, who have held the charge of the department or office in the past and the present incumbents of these departments or offices.
It was further observed that this will not only ensure materializing of fruitful ideas/initiatives but would also foster value-addition in the governance structure converting an idea into tangible outcome.
Accordingly, the General Administration Department vide Circular No.14-JK(GAD) of 2023 dated May 9, 2023 enjoined upon all the Administrative Secretaries and Heads of the Departments to established these “Excellence Groups” and make them vibrant by organizing discussions while inviting senior officers, who have previously worked in these departments/offices.
“This would foster knowledge-sharing and continuity of thoughts and this kind of forum for argumentation would be an aid to achieve tangible results of the initiatives/programmes conceived from time to time. These discussions should be instituted as an embedded feature of the overall working of the departments”, the General Administration Department had mentioned in the circular.
However, even after the lapse of more than two years, most of the departments have not established “Excellence Groups” in utter disregard to the directives of the Government, sources informed, adding while the directive was welcomed in principle, actual steps towards setting up these groups have not been taken in a majority of departments.
Not only establishment of “Excellence Groups”, the departments were also supposed to compile the lists of former officers for convening meetings and holding consultations with them, said officers of different departments, on the condition of anonymity, when contacted, adding “due to lack of follow-up action the novel governance initiative has remained confined to the papers only”.
When contacted by EXCELSIOR, the officers of certain departments fanned ignorance about any such circular from the General Administration Department while as others said, “we will take steps in this regard”.
Had Excellence Groups been established soon after the issuance of circular by the General Administration Department much head-way would have been made in achieving the objective of novel governance initiative, sources said. Former bureaucrats, when approached, said that idea of “Excellence Groups” was commendable but without execution, it’s just another well-intentioned policy on paper.
They stressed that General Administration Department should issue fresh direction to all the departments so that “Excellence Groups” are established without further loss of time.
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