The Deputy Director General (A), All India Radio, Akashwani Bhavan, Parliament Street, New Delhi.

Sub: Proposal of Cadre review in r/o of All India Radio & Doordarshan. Subordinate Administrative Cadre

Sir, Enclosed please find herewith two sets of proposal suggested by the National Council of Akashvani Doordarshan administrative Staff Association pertaining to the cadre review of subordinate cadre of Administrative Staff for further necessary action at your end. With regards. Yours faithfully, Encl.: As above

(SANGAM THAKUR) General Secretary

ADASA
MEMORANDUM
SUBMITTED TO

CADRE REVIEW COMMITTEE

CONSTITUTED BY

PRASAR BHARATI

The cadre review of the Administrative employees in All India Radio and Doordarshan was last done in the year 1991-92 which submitted certain proposals. After that no further review was conducted even though there are instructions that cadre review must be conducted every 5 years. In the meanwhile the organization has undergone a change. In the light of the change in the structure of the

organization the following proposals are submitted in the interest of strengthening the administration as also to improve the career prospects of Administrative employees.

I.

BACKGROUND

In All India Radio and Doordarshan, at the Apex level there are Directorates of All India Radio and Doordarshan which function as attached offices of the Ministry of I & B and at the field level there are All India Radio stations (around 200) and Doordarshan Kendras numbering around (60) and the related

administrative offices numbering around 275 spread all over the country. The total number of employees working in All India Radio and Doordarshan numbering around 45000 and there are more than a hundred cadres. The total budget of the organization is in the range of 2000 crores. Doordarshan is around 1150 crores. The annual revenue of AIR and

The Administrative employees in All India

Radio and Doordarshan are working in the Stations / Kendras / Offices at the field level and are performing the core functions in Personnel and Financial

Administration.

In personal administration from recruitment to retirement, all the aspects covering the career of the employees are looked after by the administrative employees. Maintenance of establishment, i.e keeping watch over the sanctioned strength, creation or abolition of posts, cadre Management of over 100 different cadres, giving promotion and other service matters of the employees, settling the retirement benefits of the employees are all looked after by them.

-2-

In financial Management entire accounting functions are done by the administrative employees. The total budget of the Prasar Bharati is in the range of Rs.2000 crores per annum. Keeping a watch over the payments to see whether the expenditure and payments are made according to rules and Directorate

instructions, accounting them and sending periodical returns to PAO, Directorate etc. are done by the administrative employees. Moreover after coming into being of Prasar Bharati cash is transferred to all the field units instead of LOC system and this has put more responsibility and burden on the administrative cadres in financial Management.

II.

NEED FOR CHANGE IN APPROACH

After the conversion of Akashvani and Doordarshan into Prasar Bharati, increased emphasis is given to revenue generation. generation is in the range of around 1150 crores. Presently the revenue

However there is a big gap

between the revenue earned and revenue realized which shows that revenue recovery mechanism is to be strengthened.

Moreover with the conversion of AIR and Doordarshan into autonomous body the method of bookkeeping has undergone a change. Commercial accounting system has been introduced in tune with the changing needs of accounting and this calls for new skills among administrative employees and the work burden has also increased. The management of funds at the apex level as well as at the Station / Kendra / Offices shall be major task of Administration.

As far as the two Directorates are concerned they function as Headquarters of Akashvani and Doordarshan respectively. As long as the media organizations

were Government departments both the Directorate functioned as attached offices of the Ministry of I & B with a similar cadre structure. organic link between the Directorate and field offices. As a result there is no

However with the coming

into being of Prasar Bharati there is no need to maintain a division/distinction

-3-

between the Directorates and the field offices in the matter of cadre structure and posting of employees. Rather a unified cadre structure and interchanging of

employees between Directorate and field offices shall be beneficial for the department with the employees working in field offices having first hand knowledge and feel of the nature of work and problems can contribute to the efficiency of overall administration. Already posting of administrative employees on

experimental basis both in the Directorate and the Prasar Bharati Secretariat have yielded satisfactory results.

It is a known fact that in the last few years with the entry of many private players in the Broadcasting functions, the Broadcasting scenario in the country has radically changed. This aspect has changed the way these departments have been functioning so far. With enhanced stress on revenue generation and financial

discipline, there has to be matching effort and support from the Administrative employees as well. Thus the key to fulfilling the objectives of the organization lies in creation of properly structured administrative cadres with attractive pay packages that would motivate them to perform competitively.

III.

NEED FOR CADRE REVIEW

Additionally it is also to be stated that in order to improve the career progression of employees, which is a vital element in the cadre management it is laid down that the departments have to order periodical Cadre Review. However, the policy of cadre review has not been followed uniformly by all Ministries/ Departments.

Particularly in All India Radio & Doordarshan the cadre review for the Administrative employees has not been conducted so far. This has created

distortion in Cadre structure in this department. Therefore in the light of the factual positions and principles enunciated above the proposals for cadre restructuring are submitted below. -4-

The present cadre structure of administrative employees in Prasar Bharati was devised decades ago, common to all central Government departments. The

sanctioned strength in each cadre was also decided at a time when this media organization had a nominal presence and was in the process of of growth. But even after AIR and DD attained their peak growth in terms of infrastructure spread, area coverage and resultant increase in functions the cadre structure and strength of administrative employees have not been reviewed. Therefore there is an urgent

need to restructure the cadre to suit the current needs of the organisation.

IV.

PROPOSALS FOR CADRE-RESTRUCTURING:

A. The LDC is the starting cadre in the administrative hierarchy. It may be mentioned here that the cadre of LDC is proposed to be phased out in the proposed cadre structure for the following reasons:

The cadre of LDC has outlived its utility in the modern day administration set up. When the LDC cadre was introduced, only certain basic functions were

entrusted such as dispatch, typing, diarizing, maintaining certain registers etc. which needed very minimum skill and capacity. However with the growth of

organization the need for more personnel competent enough to perform complex, onerous and multifunctional work increased.

However with constraints in creations of posts the requirements was met with entrusting such jobs to LDC also. The current thinking is that the LDC cadre can be done away with and at the same time the strength of the immediate higher cadre, i.e the level of UDC may be increased. This is the position even in major Departments such as Postal, Income Tax etc. While even in Govt. Departments

which normally function on bureaucratic lines the situation is like this, it is needless to say that in the Electronic Media organisations like AIR and Doordarshan which has to function on commercial principles in a highly competitive atmosphere, the need to improve the quality of staff component is very high. It may be pertinent to

-5-

mention here that a majority of the incumbents in the post of LDC are graduates and above. are placed. In the light of the reasons mentioned above the following proposals

a) that the post of UDC may be redesignated as Asst.Manager and granted the revised pay scale corresponding to the scale 5000-8000 pre revised. The educational qualification may be fixed as Degree with computer skills.

b) that the cadre of LDC may be phased out and all the incumbents inducted into the cadre of Asst. Manager by increasing the cadre strength in the pay scale demanded above.

B. The UDCs/Store keepers in AIR & Doordarshan are attending almost the same duties as being done by the Assistants in Central Secretariat. The most

important and complex type of works being entrusted to UDCs in Administration are maintenance of communal rosters, court cases, appointments, promotion,

transfers, disciplinary and vigilance cases etc and attending to correspondences relating to them. In the Accounts Section, UDCs are attending preparation of

Budget & Revised Estimates etc & attending to correspondences related to them. In the Engineering side UDCs (Storekeeper) is in direct charges of stores & is responsible for direct acquisition of stores, custody & direct disposal of stores etc

The UDCs in AIR & Doordarshan are supposed to work in three units i.e. in Administration, Accounts and Engineering Stores & therefore a single person is to be well acquainted with all three trades as they are inter-changeable between sections. In most of the HPT, DMCs, F.M. stations, it is the UDCs who shoulder the responsibility of supervisory officer where the posts of Head Clerks is limited to one, in some cases it is nil. The duties being performed by UDCs in in AIR and DD

cannot be compared with UDC in other Government departments due to the peculiar nature of work entrusted to them. It is the UDCs / SKs who put up any

-6-

proposals to his immediate supervisor after examining it in details in consultation with the Government rules & regulation and therefore he should be well versed with all the rules & regulations service conditions / instructions of the Government of India from time to time.

Therefore the UDC may be redisgnated as Asst.Manager and placed in the pay scale of Rs. 9300-34800 with Grade Pay of Rs.4200 and the cadre may be made the entry cadre and made on direct recruitment basis. qualification to be prescribed as any Degree with computer skills. The educational

C. The Head Clerk / Accountant / Senior Store Keeper, first level supervisory officials, are the backbone of the entire administrative setup and the pivot on which turns the wheel of administration. In fact, the post were created by the Ministry of Finance (Deptt. Of Expenditure) under the category of Supervisory Staff. It is a

common cadre with the duties interchangeable among the incumbents. The Head Clerk is in charge of personnel administration & vigilance unit. The Accountant is responsible for financial management and financial advisor to the Head of Office. He is the primary auditor and it is the Accountant who signs the Budget & submit it directly to Head of Office where no post of AO is in existence.

He is a member of the DPC where AO posts are not created for recruitment of Group C and Group D posts and also writes the CRs of LDCs/UDCs/Group-D staff which fact shall illustrate the importance attached to this post in the administrative hierarchy in AIR & DD. It is pertinent to mention here that in 80% of the

stations/offices it is the same person who double up as Head Clerk as well as Accountant. Since in such stations / offices no Administrative Officers (Gr.B) has been provided and the whole burden of personnel and financial management falls on the HC/AC/SSK. Therefore a single person is to be well versed in both the

trades and in the era of enhanced stress on financial management the skills of the Accountant (who also acts as HC) is tested to the maximum. There is no separate Legal cell & Transport Units in any of the AIR / DD offices. Therefore handling the

-7-

court cases & transport matters also falls on the shoulders of the HC/AC. There are more than 1000 court cases pending in CAT, High Court & Supreme Court. In the above mentioned stations / offices the post of Administrative Officer has not been sanctioned and the job of AO including Drawing & Disbursement is entrusted to an officer belonging to Programme or Engineering. Since these officers including the Head of Offices are totally ignorant of rules, regulations, procedures and principles governing personnel and financial administration, the responsibilities and burden

for correctness of the work done falls squarely on the shoulders of the Headclerk/Accountant. It is proposed that this cadre may be redesignated as

Manager and placed in the pay scale of Rs. 9300-34800 with Grade Pay of Rs.5400.

D. The Administrative officers / Senior Administrative officers belong to the Gr.B Gazetted and are the Drawing and Disbursing officers. Recognising the status, functions and responsibilities of this cadre, the department has delegated certain powers directly to them. They supervise the work of HC/AC/SSK and in the AIR

side the post of AO are provided in Zonal Headquarters (corresponding more or less to the state capitals) and the post of Sr.A.O are provided in the Metro stations. On the Doordarshan side the posts have been created in all the Kendras except HPTs & DMCs. The AO/SAO manages the affairs of around 400 to 800 staff depending

upon the size of the establishment where he is posted. An idea of the responsibility borne by the Administrative officers can be gauged from the fact that the total budget of Metro AIR stations/capital stations range from 8 to 12 crores and in a Doordarshan Kendra is in the range of 15 to 22 crores. It has been explicitly stated in Doordarshan Manual that since there are practical difficulties in creation of the post of Dy.Director (Administration) the post of Sr A.O has been created thereby equating the post of Sr.A.O with that of DDA. The same can be said of AIR stations too where over the years due to growth in Programme activities there has been corresponding increase in administrative activities as well combined with these things, the Heads of offices are drawn from programme or Engineering cadre who have been vested with authority but without having the requisite knowledge / experience of the functions they are carrying out.

-8-

It is a fact there is no strong (managerial) set up in AIR & DD in real sense of the term. So long as the media units functioned as Govt. Departments the

requirement was not felt so acutely. But with the conversion of Govt. Departments into an autonomous Corporation and greater emphasis laid on revenue generation and better financial and personnel management, the situation cannot be salvaged without having a vibrant administrative set up occupied by competent personnel. In Prasar Bharati, unlike in the Govt. set up, funds flow directly to field units and the same are to be accounted for and the expenditure monitored. Like wise all the stations / Kendras are urged upon to find out ways and means to generate revenue. Therefore there has to be a proper revenue recovery mechanism put in place. Even in the production of programmes there is need to have the services of a finance manager for the same reasons.

To meet the requirements listed above, it is imperative to have personnel with competence, well defined functional jurisdiction and authority in order to carry out the functions expected of them effectively. With this intention it is proposed to upgrade the post of AO and SAO to that of Assistant Director (Finance & Admn.) in the scale of Rs. 8700-34800 with Grade Pay of Rs. 5400. Apart from restructuring this cadre there is an immediate necessity to alignment the cadre strength also. Therefore in view of what has been stated above there is a necessity to create posts of Assistant Director (Finance & Admn.) in all the AIR Stations where they are not provided now. At present out of around 200 AIR Stations AO/SAO posts are

sanctioned only less than 50% of the Stations and in all other stations the work is looked after by officers belonging to other cadres which is not in the interest of the administration. It severely affects the career prospects of Administrative Staff who are stagnating as Head Clerk without promotion for 15 to 18 years.

Secondly in the capital stations only one post of AO/SAO has been sanctioned to look after both Personnel administration including Establishment matters, office Management and Financial administration. Capital stations are centres where

budget is large and revenue generation is also high. The volume of work in the

-9-

establishment is also huge and complex in nature. Therefore in all capital stations one additional post of Assistant Director (F&A) must be created i.e one post of Assistant Director (F & A) for Personnel Management and one post for Financial Management.

E.

The Inspector of Accounts, as the designation itself suggests, are to conduct

inspection of field units to see whether the administrative procedures and instructions are followed properly. But the cadre is a miniscule one, that it neither does justice to the job created of it nor improves the career prospects of administrative cadre. There has been a long felt need to upgrade the post to that of DDA level and the same was accepted by the Department too. With the up

gradation of the posts of AO and SAO to that of Assistant Director (F&A) it is but natural that the posts of IA should be upgraded and included in the strength of DD(F&A) in the pay scale of Rs.10000-15200(pre revised) as per

recommendation of the Fifth Central pay Commission vide para 46.21.

F.

Deputy Director Administration is the apex level cadre in the administrative

hierarchy placed in the scale of Rs. 15600-39100 with Grade Pay of Rs. 6100. The Deputy Directors have been delegated powers, under functional autonomy, of Head of office(ordinary grade). At present DDAs are sanctioned in the Zonal Chief

Engineers offices, Metro DDKs, DDK,Lucknow, DDK, Jallandhar and DDK, Srinagar and NSD, AIR, New Delhi and STI (P), New Delhi and with the objective of strengthening the personnel Financial Management it is proposed to create DD(F&A) in all the Capital DDKs, AIR Stations which are major revenue earning centres and also having a huge budget. Moreover, there are around 300 to 500 staff are working in the office and the entire volume of Personnel management is to be looked after by him.

-10-

G.

A new cadre of Joint Director (F&A) in the pay scale of Rs.15600-39100 with

Grade Pay of Rs. 6600 is proposed. This is in conformity with the basic principle of strengthening the Financial and Personnel management. In AIR & DD the metro

centres are the major revenue generating centers and also the centers where the quantum of expenditure is high. The Heads of these centers are borne on

Engineering and Programming cadres.

In view of the high magnitude of financial transactions and the complexity which is inherent in the process of generating revenue in a commercially competitive environment, the Heads of these centers need support in the form of advice in financial matters from an officer who is experienced and who is of sufficiently high rank and vested with authority to advise. Therefore, it is in the

interest of the department to create one post of Joint Director for each of the centers. Incidentally, the Staff Inspection Unit of Ministry of Finance which

conducted the study of the staffing pattern and its impact on the efficiency standards in Doordarshan has also recommended, that the post of Joint Director be created keeping in view the functional requirements.

H.

Internal Audit is an important function in any organization.

In spite of

various levels of supervision and check there creep in several lapses both intentional and unintentional. The internal audit alone brings out such lapses and rectifies them which is vital in the successful conduct of the administration. But

with the conversion of AIR and DD into Prasar Bharati the internal audit which was conducted until then by PAO (Internal audit) of Min. of I & B was terminated. No alternative set up has been created in its place. This has been adversely

commented upon by AG Audit. Even when the PAO (Internal Audit) was there, due to small size of the team, audit could not be conducted in an effective manner. Therefore there is an urgent need to constitute an Internal Audit Organisation with sufficient number of teams. So that 100% audit is conducted in all the AIR & DD

-11-

units within a Zone. With objective it is proposed to constitute at least four teams, two each for AIR & DD for each Zone. The country may be divided into five zones viz. East, West, North, South and North-east. Each zone may be headed by one Deputy Director (F&A). Each interval audit team may consist of one AD (F&A), two Managers and two Assistant Managers. At the Apex level one post of JD (F&A) with appropriate staff structure for support may be created to Head Internal Audit Organisation who will prepare the repost and submit it to Prasar Bharati Board.

CONCLUSION To sum up the cadre structure may be reconstituted in the following manner. Sl. No 1 Existing cadre struture Proposed cadre Structure Joint Director Existing pay Scales Proposed Revised scale Rs. 1560039100 Grade Pay Rs.6600 Rs.1560039100 Grade Pay Rs. 6100 Rs. 1560039100 Grade Pay Rs. 6100 Rs.930034800 Grade Pay 5400 Rs.930034800 Grade Pay 5400 Rs.930034800 Grade Pay 4800 Rs.930034800 Grade Pay 4200

Dy.Director (Admn)

Dy.Director (F & A)

Rs.1000015200 Rs.750012000 Rs.750012000

Inspector of Accounts Sr.Admn officer

Upgraded and Placed in the cadre Of DDA Asst.Director (F&A)

Admn. officer

Head Clerk/Acct/ SSK Upper Division Clerk Lower Division Clerk

To be merged with the Rs.6500cadre of SAO & Redesig10500 nated as AD (F&A) Manager Rs.55009000 Asst.Manager Rs.40006000

To be merged & Redesignated as Asst. Manager

As far as cadre strength is concerned a. The post of LDC may be phased out and the incumbents inducted into the cadre of UDC and redesignated as Asst.Manager.

-12-

b. I)

II)

The post of AO/SAO may be redesignated as Asst.Director(F&A) and one post of AD (F&A) may be created in all AIR Stations where they are not provided at present. One additional post of AD(F&A) may be created in all AIR capital stations.

c. Post of DD(F&A) may be created in all capital DDKs and AIR Stations. d. Post of JD(F&A) may be created in Metro DDKs/AIR stations. e. The distinction between the Directorates and field offices may be done away with and a unified cadre structure may be created. f. Staff component as proposed for Internal Audit Organisation may be created It is hoped that the above proposals shall receive utmost consideration by Prasar Bharrati and accepted in the interest of both the organization and employees.

-13-