Greater Bangalore civic body work likely to be outsourced

Greater Bangalore civic body work likely to be outsourced

The Hindu

High-powered committee to submit its report tomorrow

# The new civic body will have 5,328 employees
# Core group to monitor the outsourced work

BANGALORE: The State Government is likely to outsource administration, planning, finance, audit and legal work of the proposed Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to private firms.

According to high-powered committee, which has made this recommendation, the intention behind the move is to facilitate better governance and easy administration. That apart, the new civic body will have 5,328 more government officials on regular rolls to run the BBMP. These officials can either be recruited or deputed from the other government departments.

The committee, set up by the Government to look into issues of organisational structure and staffing pattern for the proposed BBMP, which met here on Wednesday, has unanimously decided to outsource a major chunk of work. It has finalised on the number of officials required for BBMP. This committee headed by BMP Commissioner K. Jairaj, which has a November 30 deadline, is likely to submit its report to the Government on Friday.

The report comprises details on the creation of five zones and their staffing pattern, setting up of finance, enforcement and planning wings in the head office and zonal offices. According to the report, while 1,030 officials are required to be deployed at the BBMP head office to manage all the departments, 4,298 officials are required in the five zonal offices to be set up at Byatarayanapura, Mahadevapura, Bommanahalli, Rajajarajeshwarinagar and Dasrahalli.

Mr. Jairaj told The Hindu on Wednesday that the plan was to ensure an efficient administration that was responsive to the people's demands. "We are working out modalities to see whether we can create a different kind of set up that will be more receptive to people. There is a lot of talent available in Bangalore and we want to utilise it to the fullest. We are planning to outsource work relating to planning, accounting, finance, audit, information technology and maintenance of IT systems and legal matters to private firms," he said.

"This is aimed at putting an end to the hierarchy system that exists in the present set up. Internal core groups of two or three officials will be formed to monitor the outsourced work," Mr. Jairaj said. Pointing out that the recommendations would be discussed by representatives from the Departments of Finance, Personnel and Administrative Reforms and Urban Development, Mr Jairaj said the report would be submitted to the Government on Friday. Recently, the Government had entrusted work on reorganisation of wards and the delimitation process to a private firm.