In a significant move, Minister of Finance, Dr Haseeb Drabu, today announced that the J&K Government is going to conduct a human resource audit of the Civil and Police departments of the State as a measure to improve the efficiency in the administration.

The Minister said this at a high-level meeting convened here today to take stock of human resource management in the State. The meeting was attended by the Chief Secretary, B B Vyas, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, Rohit Kansal, Principal Secretary Finance, Navin K Choudhary, Commissioner Secretary, GAD, Khurshid Ahmad Shah and Director Codes, Mohammad Rafi Andrabi.

The Finance Minister said the audits, to be conducted by independent human resource firms which will be hired by the General Administration Department (GAD), will provide the State Government a database of the human resource presently employed with Police and various Civil administration departments.

Two firms will be hired through a proper tendering process to run separate audits of Police and Civil Administration departments, Dr Drabu said, adding that the audit will  determine the needs of the Departments and compile a database of officers.

“The audit will provide exact details on the employees presently working with the J&K Government and the manpower requirements of various Departments. It will go a long way in streamlining the functioning of the Government and ensure that professionals from various fields, who enter the Government service, are deployed in their respective areas of specialization,” he said.

The Finance Minister said the General Administration Department should assume the role of Human Resource Department which assists the Government in building competencies and set a new benchmark for recruitment.  He said many Departments and posts at various levels in the state have become redundant due to the changing structures of governance.

“For example, the Commercial Taxes Department should become a tax advisory department under the GST regime. Similarly, the KAS officers will be placed for certain time with certain Departments to build their competencies and wherever they perform upto the mark, they will be deployed in such departments permanently. It will minimize the political interference in transfers and put the system on an auto-mode,” he said and added that some Departments which have purely technical functionality need to be de-linked from the Combined Services to groom them on professional lines.

The Finance Minister also instructed the officers to expedite the process of regularization of causal laborers, daily wagers and need-based employees engaged by various State departments.

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