Sudha Chobe                                                                                              Central Railway,

FA&CAO                                                                                                      Mumbai.               

 

No.FA/Misc/2002                                                                                            May  28, 2002

 

 

Dear Shri Rana,

 

 

Ref:   Your DO letter No.2002/E&R/50/CRB/5

                         dated 3rd May 2002.

 

***

 

          Your letter on vision is very inspiring and I, as member of IRAS, feel that any system which has judicious personnel policy, will never exclude an able officer with experience & overview of all departments, and an IRAS qualifies officer for that.

 

With regard to your seeking suggestions from FA&CAOs, these are submitted, along with some observations and a few questions, which need to be debated and honestly answered.

 

The health of any organisation is adjudged from its financial performance, which, in turn, results from very healthy financial discipline.  In view of the increased burden on the dwindling resources, the need for fiscal discipline when we are celebrating “150 years” is more than ever before.  The Railways have to fight for survival against the forces pulling in different directions like increased expectations of the public, demands of organized labour, political and socio-economic considerations, besides individual limitations, in certain cases.

 

To start with, certain observations;

 

-          Have the lessons learnt from implementation of project or increase/decrease statements of operational efficiency or various Inspection Notes, Audit Paras etc. contributed to our collective wisdom, or have we been following these as routine without substantial impact on how we think and work.  I personally feel that these lessons learnt end up most of the time in adding to existing codes and elaborating on the procedures.  Thus, the practical wisdom gets lost.

 

-          The existing system involving number of  tiers  for preparing and checking may be with the intention of handling an organization of this magnitude, but it does involve delays and unrealistic appreciation of the priorities because of the various subjective, individualistic, organizational and political considerations (to enumerate a few). 

 

-          Even the modern technological system whenever being applied in Railways, are not adopted in all the cases with full appreciation of the requirement and compatibility.

 

-          Size of the organization and hierarchy therein do have an impact on efficiency.  Cutting capacity of a blade will depend on sharpness  & not on weight and width of the blade.  The blades with heavier weight and wider blades can at best crush and not cut.  

 

-          The system of Finance vetting, internal check at different stages is used more for the safety of the sanctioning authority, than serving its real function of objective assessment.

 

 

For suggestions, stray ideas coming to mind are as under:

 

-          Perhaps, in projects, after laying down the broad rules, adherence and compliance should be left to the executives, and any time and cost over runs should be viewed as personal accountability of the project manager.

 

-          The concept of compiling statistics and judging the efficiency of those numbers needs to be looked into dispassionately and objectively. 

 

-          The concept of Quality Circle and other management concepts viz., Performance budgeting, Value Engineering, can be used effectively with a reasonably good moderation by any official heading the organisation.

 

-          The Swedish Rail Model, if applied, can make Railways more efficient.

 

          While deliberating on the above, a few questions surfaced, which need to be addressed before any vision can be spelt out.

 

ü      Are we clear about our corporate goals and are we genuinely committed towards them ?

 

ü      Whether delegation of unlimited powers in such a big organization will not cause fiscal chaos ?

 

ü      What are the real reasons for time/cost overruns ?

 

 

          For rising to the level contemplated by you, each one who is handling Railway’s assets or sitting in a position of taking decision should be motivated to a very high standard and should be fully responsible, both  for financial as well as physical performance.  In this regard, the top man should take a lead.

 

I believe, the initiative taken by you in this direction may definitely take Railway to run on still faster track to very distant destinations.

 

 

 

                                                                   Yours sincerely,

 

 

 

                                                                   (Smt.Sudha Chobe)

 

Shri I.I.M.S. Rana

Chairman

Railway Board

New Delhi – 110 001.

 

 

Copy to Shri S.Murali, Financial Commissioner/Railways, Railway Board, New Delhi.  This has reference to CRB’s DO letter No.2002/E&R/50/CRB/5 dated May 3, 2002.

 

 

 

 

                                                                             (Smt. Sudha Chobe)

                                                                                      FA & CAO