A Review of Highway Agencies in the South Asia Region

A Review of Highway Agencies in the South Asia Region
Table 2.9: Composition of staff in Karnataka Public Works, Ports & Inland Water Transport Department (example)
Post Sanctioned Filled up Vacant Vacant as Share
of Sanctioned
Engineer in Chief 1 1 0 0%
Chief Engineer 3 3 0 0%
Superintending Engineers 21 21 0 0%
Executive Engineers 64 61 3 5%
Assistant Executive Engineers 344 341 3 1%
Assistant Engineers 1,119 857 262 23%
Junior Engineers 863 703 160 19%
Total 2,415 1,987 428 18%
Source: Karnataka Public Works, Ports & Inland Water Transport Department.
scheme is described merely as the entitlement of an employee to wage increases as (s)he
grows older.
Most senior postings, the responsibility of the parent ministry, are promotional posts for
officials from within the highway agency. These posts tend to be filled by older officers
nearing their superannuation. The tenure in senior position, therefore, is generally short,
between one and three years. The higher echelons are thus relatively old in age, a potential
barrier for a fresh approach to the management of highway agencies.
Scarce attention is paid to improving knowledge and skills within highway agencies.
Membership of the respective national institutes of engineers is limited to half of the
responding organizations and the concept of professional registration is unknown.
Participating in committees of such or similar institutes is observed in 40 percent of cases.
Despite the importance attached to training in the available policy and vision statements,
training does not receive much attention. In 60 percent of the highway agencies, junior and
assistant engineers do not undergo any training. Training is limited only to senior officials
and, that too, is often not targeted; in 20 percent of the highway agencies training is only
given to engineers at the level of Executive Engineer and above. Highly skilled staff is an
exception: 30 percent of the agencies employ Ph.Ds and 20 percent employ postgraduates.
2.6 Reforms Undertaken and Success Achieved
Governments and highway agencies have realized that their approaches would not yield the
desired outcomes in view of the economic and social development that is taking place in the
region. Therefore, a variety of reforms have already been implemented across South Asia.
Some of these have been highlighted in the previous sections of this chapter.
In addition, Figure 2.18 shows other reforms that have been implemented across the region.
Most common is the digitization of information and processes. Limited procurement and
financial management reforms have also been undertaken. In 70 percent of the cases
covered in the study, rudimentary management information systems have been put in
place, and in 40 percent of the cases budget tracking studies were undertaken. In India, RTI
is complied with by all but one agency covered in the study. However, grievance redressal
procedures are only implemented in 30 percent of cases. There are also efforts to increase
transparency and accountability and, to this end, standard bid documents and transparent
bidding procedures are in place in 70 percent of the cases.
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