several other parts of the world. While from time to time it keeps pointing out problems during reviews (take the health project scandal for instance) and suggesting corrective measures, it is also known to engage in a bit of self praise occasionally by making complimentary observations about the endeavours made by the governments using its financial resources.
In the specific context of Orissa, any comment on any assessment by any agency of the government's economic and administrative reforms programme should be made only after a dispassionate analysis of the achievements made. And one can be reasonably sure that the achievements on these fronts are nothing much to crow about in the state.
The so called financial discipline or the austerity measures as they are called have been aimed more at pruning the perks and privileges of the lower level bureaucracy than the senior officers who continue to have the best of everything. They not only enjoy their uncut salaries, they can still use government vehicles at will as they know one hundred ways of justifying the expenditure being incurred by them.
It is the lower level government servant who is actually feeling the pinch. Right from downsizing to the tightening of its purse strings by the government, he continues to suffer in all respects.
The freeze on fresh recruitments was perhaps the biggest blow to him and then came the decision to do away with the loss making PSUs and corporations though it was the top level bureaucrats and politicians who were responsible for these bodies getting into the red.
Bad financial management and rank corruption has been the bane of most of these organisations but the government has found the easy way out of the mess without bothering about the future of hundreds of employees for whom VRS remains the only option.
Even man management of the government has been faulty. Putting a blanket ban on recruitments proved to be counter-productive and the government was forced to review the decisions in crucial areas like health and policing.
The shortage of medical and para-medical staff in remote areas led to a crisis situation when epidemics broke out and the government was forced to recruit doctors on contract. It was more or less the same kind of crisis which forced the authorities to deploy more men in naxal-infested areas where law and order situation has plunged alarmingly.
This is not to suggest that reforms have not yielded any good results at all. The cuts have led to increased savings and the state's debt burden is expected to go down in the coming days.
Better financial management has also ensured that welfare schemes of the government keep going without any hitch. However, the report card on the whole is nothing much to write home about and there is no reason absolutely for anyone to gloat over what the reforms have achieved.
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