Odisha Secretariat Service : Situation demands cadre review

Why Cadre Review? 

The main purpose of a cadre review is to restructure a cadre in such a way as to remove the deficiencies which might be existing at the time of the constitution of a service or have crept in subsequently and ensure that the cadre structure satisfies the functional, structural and personnel considerations. Cadre review provides an opportunity to overcome various bottlenecks, remove existing distortions and bring about rationalisation of cadre structure so as to improve the efficiency and morale of the cadre officers and thereby enhance the effectiveness of the Service in the fulfilment of the objectives for which it has been established.

The major part of the cadre review exercise concerns advance projection of manpower requirements over the review period and the planning of recruitment for this period. Rationalisation of the cadre from the functional, structural and personnel angles is the other major objective of a cadre review. Specifically, the main objectives of cadre review are to:

i) estimate future manpower requirements on a scientific basis for a period of 5 years at a time,

ii) Plan recruitment in such a way as to avoid future promotional blocks and at the same time prevent gaps building up,

iii) so restructure the cadre as to harmonise the functional needs with the legitimate career expectations of its members and thus

iv) to enhance the effectiveness of the service.

The methodology of the cadre review is fully explained in the Detailed Guidelines of GoI (Download.PDF).

CADRE REVIEW OF OSS 

As like other cadres, posts are being created / abolished based on demand of present situation. The no. of posts sanctioned for different ranks in OSS cadre is as follows. (As on 02.09.2020) 

ASO = 1564 (53%) 

SO = 712 (24%) 

DO = 326 (11%) 

US = 254 (8.6%) 

DS = 70 (2.4%) 

JS = 22 (0.74%) 

AS = 08 (0.26%) 

Total = 2956

If we go for present position of the base level two ranks i.e. ASO & SO, (file level work starts here) though there is huge vacancy in SO (nearly 450/712), still then the ASOs  (having service period only 4 years) are not eligible for promotion. This situation arises because of recruitment in a gap 20 years i.e. from 1997 to 2016. 

Now SO posts are vacant and ASOs are new to service. This affects office work seriously. There are only two ASOs per section which should be at least four. Hence it requires more base level posts. In 2024, a major part of OSS officers will be retired from service. So the pyramid of OSS officers will not be uniform. In this situation, one time relaxation for promotion from ASO to SO may be considered by Government in

If we compare the sanction strength of OAS officers, its somehow in good ratio. Sufficient base level posts available with good promotional posts. Every 2-3 years, this cadre is being reviewed by Government and restructuring is there as per necessity. 

As on 09.06.2020 - 

Class-I (JB) = 1188 (62.41%) 

Class-I (SB) = 330 (17.35%) 

Supertime Scale = 235 (12.36%) 

SAG = 125 (6.58%) 

Spl Secy = 25 (1.4%) 

Total = 1903

From this hierarchy, it's understood that the number of promotion level is only four in OAS cadre whereas six in OSS cadre. So to avail promotional posts by maximum number of eligible OSS officers during their service tenure, some levels should be merged and base level posts should be increased.

May be late but not bad, Odisha Secretariat Service Association (OSSA) has submitted its memorandum (Download.pdf) to Chief Secretary, Odisha with proposals for cadre review. 

The proposals include re-nomenclature of posts, merger of SO & DO, increase sanction strength of base level as well as promotion level etc. It needs analysis to have a better cadre restructuring.