Honest decisions : Haunted in hindsight ?

Today’s papers carry following news :

Economic Times :

Graft law change needed to protect officials: Arun Jaitley 

Times of India  :

Anti- graft law bringing govt to standstill :  Jaitley

Gist  :

*  “The PCA is one of the most badly drafted laws.

     It does not confine corruption to bribery or dishonest behaviour but it almost puts

     even honestly taken decisions, which with the wisdom of hindsight prove to be

     wrong, into the category of corruption,” said Jaitley.

 *  “It creates a legislative system where even bona fide decisions, in a post-mortem

     done after 10 years, are found to be erroneous and people are held accountable.

    The only defence strategy that is available is not to take any decision

    This will apply to bankers and the bureaucracy,” said Jaitley.

Dear Shri Jaitleyji ,

You have hit the nail on the head  !

I hope that all the opposition parties agree with the amendments to PCA ( to be proposed by you )

To ensure that you have full support of the Central IAS Officers Association , I suggest that my following email ( sent to you 4 years back ) is incorporated in PCA , even if in some implied manner

https://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2014/06/to-err-is-human.html   [  20  June  2014  ]

To err is human

To forgive is divine ( provided it was a honest error )

All of us keep making errors , all the time

But rarely same " mistake " twice

Often , decisions taken at a point of time , turn out to be " poor " , with passage of time

Reasons are simple :

*  We never have all the information - relevant to the problem we are trying to solve –

    available with us , at the time of taking a decision

*  Even when most of such relevant info is available , we may not have the capacity /

    competence to " process " such info

*  As humans , we have our biases / prejudices , based on our previous experiences ,

    which influence our decisions

*  Quite often , and often against our own better evaluation / judgement of a given

    situation , we are wrongly influenced by our peers / bosses / subordinates or even

    voters - all of whom have different expectations / vested interests !

*  Additional - and more relevant - information surfaces , AFTER we have taken a

   decision ( happens all the time  !  )

To encourage Babus and Ministers to take FAST decisions , Narendra Modi must insist that they carefully " Record " on the files :

*   What “ info / data “ he wished was available for a better decision

*   What different " views / opinions " were presented to him for consideration

*   What " Data / Views " he would have obtained if he had more time

*   Who all , the decision might offend

*   What is the likely " Cost " of postponing that decision

And finally a declaration :

   “ This decision is not likely to benefit any of my near

    relatives / friends , directly or immediately “

After all of this , if the decision appears to be " Wrong " in hindsight , it must be " forgiven " and treated as an honest error

To err is human  !

04  July  2018

www.hemenparekh.in / blogs