Procedural Simplification

7.3 Procedural Simplification

As explained earlier administrative delay is one of the major causes of
corruption. Therefore to reduce or control corruption it is necessary to eliminate
such delays. For that it is essential that office procedures should be simplified
and levels of hierarchy reduced. In the Indian situation the persistence of archaic
structures has played havoc with the developmental initiatives. After
Independence the country framed an entirely new political and economic agenda
and this required new, matching structures for effective implementation, as the
old administrative and legal systems clashed with the substance and spirit of the
new agenda. And it is this mismatch between politico-economic agenda on the
one hand and the administrative and legal structures on the other which is
primarily responsible for the poor performance of the government.
Instead of the present system in which official files take rounds of several
offices before a decision is taken, new pattern of decision-making, which is
transparent and simple, needs to be evolved. This requires reorganisation of

government departments so as to reduce from nine to four the levels through
which a case is processed today (Gill 1998). Such simplification and
rationalisation is specially necessary with regard to all developmental projects in
the infrastructure areas because inefficiency and corruption in these areas
makes the whole socio-economic system unstable. There is need for singlewindow-
decision system for all industrial projects, both in manufacturing and
service industries. Official forms have to be brief and simple so that unnecessary
complications do not hamper time-bound implementation of projects. Latest
management techniques and methods need to be incorporated into the
functioning of all public services and public sector projects so that their efficiency
and productivity keeps up with their social obligations.