Suggestions on the revision of recruitment norms and policy

I think we should adopt a recruitment policy with a well-defined career trajectory, keeping view of the very high aspiration level of the present generation and desperation and demotivation prevailing in the previous generation.
In fact in FCI we have a much skewed ratio in our staff profile. We have only 1 post in Cat-II- up for promotion for every 6 employees in cat III. Similarly promotional vacancy in Cat-I (taking the promotional post in cat-I as 716 with the proposed increase of ratio in promotional post from 2/3rd to 3/4th) is not enough to accommodate even the direct recruits (i.e. 1757) in category II level. This means almost 3 persons in every 5 direct recruits Managers are likely to remain Manager in their lifetime. 90 of the 125 officers of the newly inducted Movt. Cadre is likely to remain at the same post throughout their career.
In contrast, our sister organization CWC is maintaining a very healthy career prospect for its officers. For example in FCI for one cat-I post there are 7.4 category II employees and 32 cat III employees, whereas in CWC for one cat-I post there are approximately 3.8 category II employees and only 10 cat III employees.
Thus, only logical way to get out of this mess seems to be having recruitment at only entry level of staff and executive posts, e.g. at AG III level and Manager’s level apart from introducing newer and extinct scales at both level.

Regarding qualification, since FCI has already introduced the scheme of management trainee where candidates are selected through vigorous screening, it has already been able to attract bright and talented candidates who are required to undergo prolong and intense training, getting a very good exposure.

Thus, we should not have any objection for ‘graduation’ to be the desirable qualification (except for specialized cadre) at Executive level, since this is also the required qualification at various civil service exams. However, candidates having higher qualification (MBA etc.) should be given some sort of edge in the recruitment process, which is also the prevalent practice.
Regarding career progression for the hard-working lots, problem is that practically, it would be very difficult to formulate any such formula in a Govt. sector organization, since people will go to the court citing arbitrariness in the question of identification. However, we cannot also fridge the induction of bright and talented people only at the entry level of the career ladder which is neither good for the concerned employee nor for the Organization.

Therefore, we should develop a mechanism of career progression for the deserving candidates through Departmental exams. We may reserve a portion of the total posts (say 10%) for limited Departmental Exams. Eligibility for the same may be a minimum qualified service in a particular grade. This way deserving candidates would have an impartial and uncontroversial way to move up the career ladder.

Another policy I find it hard to comprehend is separation of certain cadres. Take for example, General, Depot and Movt. Cadres. Candidates are recruited on the same eligibility and qualification criteria (sometimes on the same question paper). After induction, there is no clear cut demarcation in allotment of jobs too (especially in the Cat-II level). Often it is found that persons from depot cadre are posted in the Dos, ROs, ZOs and even at the Hqrs. Gone are the days when FCI was depending on people from Rlys. for the nitty gritty of Movt. planning. For the last few years, the entire show is being run by our own people (with fewer people in Movt. cadre itself) Moreover, it is also hard to find out from the recruitment process, whether there is any conscious effort to select specific candidates for the specific cadre. Actually at Cat-II level, there is no justification to keep these cadres separated, since all the persons from these cadres are essentially dealing with general administrative/managerial works.

However, due to this artificial separation, people are greatly suffering in terms of promotional prospects, since these three cadres are merged at the AGM level. As already cited, just take the case of the newly requited Movt. Cadre people.

I have been working in FCI since last eight months and through out these short period what I have found regarding the career prospect that here everybody is considered as equal in respect of getting promotion, an employee who works seriously through out the whole day and an employee who does not work at all is equal. So gradually the employees who works really hard also get demotivated due to getting no reward of their work. So I think this work culture should be changed and the hard working employees should be given preference in respect of promotion instead of seniority, otherwise other performance appraisal techniques like internal exam, etc. should be adopted. And more over for direct recruitment in Management Trainee (A/Cs), the educational norms should be kept as B.Com.

I think here FCI's recruitment policy should be revised by the management. I think graduate level knowledge in Commerce with honors in Accountancy is enough for maintaining accounts of FCI where every employee posted in accounts section gathers more knowledge as he gathers more experience in service. So I think there is no logic of wanting MBA (Fin), ICWA, or CA for recruitment in Management trainee in Accounts cadre where the norms for other cadre is simple graduate.

I think that many may agree that the qualification required for the post of Direct recruit Manager A/C's is a bit too high. A CA will never apply for the post of Manager A/C's. See the banks the direct recruit officers (PO) minimum qualification is Graduate.

pgadurai wrote:So many commitee reports notified that the cadre based recruitment in FCI need not be, since there is no specialised knowledge is required to perform the functional cadres such as depot, Genl.Admn, Accounts, Quality Control, Movements, etc., excepting the staff cadres like Engg, Legal, System Management, etc.
When the AG III is recruited with the qualification of degree in any disipline for different cadres, why it should not be one recruitment for all put in to one cadre. These different recruitments for different cadres at different point of time may create faster promotional avenue in one cadre and longer stagnation in other cadres. Now in FCI the QC cadres got better carrier prospects than A/C, A/C better over Genl, Genl better over Depot. This is only for example and may be wrong in case to case. This scenerio may change according to the frequency of recruitment, age profile of the existing and newly recruited employees, new sanctionof post in any cadres etc.

There are certainly very few channels of promotion as in Cat.III posts there are three steps for promotion AG.III, AG.II and AG.I, but in Cat.II posts there are no promotional avenue and it takes very much time to get promotions from Cat.II to Cat.I posts. therefore, there must be some channels of promotion in Cat.II posts itself, so that Cat.II employees can break their stagnation in one post and that will certainly improve their working as well as moral.

The deserving people must get more promotion avenue, for that there should be an departmental exams instead of seniority based promotion.