Sample Material of Our IAS Mains GS Online Coaching Programme
Subject: General Studies (Paper 4 - Ethics, Integrity, and Aptitude)
Topic: Public/Civil Service Values and Ethics in Public Administration (Part-1)
Public/Civil Service Values and Ethics in Public Administration (Part-1)
Meaning of Public Services
The term ‘Public Services’ is generally used to denote the civil services constituted by the government to translate all plans and programmes into implement-able actions. Public services forms the arms of the executive branch of the government- It is concerned with law enforcing functions. In the executive branch of the government, there are two parts, the ministers and civil servants. The civil servants carry out the orders of the ministers and advise them in policy formulation.
According to E.N. Gladden, “Civil/Public service is the name of an important government institution comprising the staff of central administration of the state. It stands for a spirit essential to the success of modem democracy, an Ideal of vocation in public officials who devote their lives to the service of the community”. Public services is a blend of certain features viz. expertise, vitality and leadership. Which enables the public services to function in professional and efficient manner. It provides stability and continuity to the system of government.
Civil Services in India
The Macaulay Committee which gave India its first modern civil service in 1854 recommended that the patronage based system of me East India Company should be replaced by a permanent civil service based on a merit based system dirough competitive entry examinations. The Macaulay Report made it clear that only the best and the brightest would work for the Indian Civil Service (ICS). The Report stated, “It is undoubtedly desirable Uiat the civil servants of the Company should have received the best, the most finished education that the native country affords”.
After 1855, recruitment to the ICS came to be based totally on merit. Th e report of the Civil Service Commissioners pointed out that of those who entered the ICS between 1855 and 1878, more than two-thirds were university men, equipped with a liberal and finished education. Initially, the ICS sought its recruits from Oxford and Cambridge. It was thus an elite service. Subsequently, it opened its doors to Indians and from 1922 onwards the Indian Civil Service Examination began to be held in India.
Structure of Civil Services
While structuring the civil services alter Independence, the Indian political leaders chose to retain elements of the British structure of a unified administrative system such as an open-entry system based on academic achievements, elaborate training arrangements, permanency of tenure, important posts at Union, State and district levels reserved for the civil service, a regular graduated scale of pay with pension and other benefits and a system of promotions and transfers based predominantly on seniority. Hie civil services in India can be grouped into 3 broad catcgorics.i.e. Services whose members serve both the Union and the State Government are termed as All India Services. Services whose members serve only the Union Government are termed Central Civil Servicts. Apart from these, the State Governments have their own group of services - Slate Civil Serviees. The posts in the Union and the State Governments arc hierarchically arranged into four Groups - Group A to Group D.