DoPT issues 'Competency Dictionary' listing qualities in ideal bureaucrat

NEW DELHI: It’s probably time for the bureaucrat to take a crash course in cracking jokes. A new training manual for civil servants lists the ability to defuse stressful situations with humour as a high level of competency. So, humour may become a desired quality one day for coveted posts.

The 37-pagemanual, called Competency Dictionary and framed by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) along with the United Nations Development Programme, also lists other desired qualities in the ideal bureaucrat.

It asks officials to be upright in giving that unwelcome feedback to their masters, politicians. While this may be difficult, it tells bureaucrats to do what some of them may not be practising at present. “People first” should be the mantra, the document says, while asking officials to be approachable and empathetic.

“Empathy is about understanding thoughts, feelings and concerns of others, even when not made explicit.” The document is developed as part of the DoPT’s aim to transform the current administrative system based on rules and seniority to a competency-based structure. According to the DoPT, all ministries, departments and training institutions should utilise the document for capacity development of civil servants to ensure each job is performed with a required competency.

The Competency Dictionary is divided into four main attributes – Ethos, Ethics, Equity and Efficiency. It tells officials to acknowledge lack of information instead of bluffing, publicly credit those who have performed well, and communicate the “big picture” effectively to clarify complex situations.

Explaining “self-control”, it says the bureaucrat is supposed to identify his “emotional hot-buttons” so that he out-maneuvers situations that cause emotional responses.

It expects the skillto operate successfully in a variety of political environments and wants the bureaucrat to be well-versed with politics of the day, including hidden agendas in today’s coalition politics and knowing who the real master is.

Former Cabinet Secretary Naresh Chandra is sceptical about the success of the programme, though he welcomes the idea to professionalize the civil services. “In actual practice in government offices, unless you first fix problems like inefficiency, which invariably goes unpunished here, much of this document will only be a jargon,” Chandra told ET.