Deputation: A Win-Win That Deserves Encouragement
Deputation is a rare win-win for both the Government and the employee.
Deputation should be viewed as a mechanism for optimum utilisation and mobility of human resources within the Central Government, rather than merely as the release of an employee from one office to another.
An employee normally seeks deputation for a higher post, better pay or deputation allowance, greater responsibility, or a posting nearer home. Since the posting is chosen rather than imposed, the employee is more likely to be satisfied, motivated and willing to perform at his or her best.
For the Government, the logic is equally strong. Deputation frequently fills a higher and more responsible post. If manpower is scarce, leaving a senior post vacant—where decisions, supervision and important work may suffer—is generally more damaging than leaving a junior post vacant. The Government has not lost an employee; it has simply moved that employee to a position where his services may have greater value.
The lending office’s concern about losing strength is legitimate, but it is a departmental concern—not a loss to the Central Government as a whole. That vacancy can itself be filled through deputation, promotion or permissible ad-hoc arrangements, creating a chain of upward mobility.
At a time when promotional stagnation affects morale across many cadres, deputation can simultaneously fill critical vacancies, improve employee motivation and make better use of existing manpower.
A system that places willing employees where they are more motivated, fills more important vacancies and improves utilisation of Government manpower deserves to be facilitated—not discouraged.