Andhra Pradesh: New CS Tucker ushers in era of consultants rule'

Hyderabad: New AP Chief Secretary S.P. Tucker is changing the administration by ushering in “consultants’ rule” in place of “IAS rule” in the state. The CS is appointing consultants in almost every department.

The state government has selected about 40 MBA graduates from prestigious institutions like IIM, IBM and TCS as consultants. They will be appointed mainly in revenue-earning departments and other core segments.

The Finance department has already appointed four consultants while the Housing department appointed three consultants two days ago. Each consultant will be paid about Rs 75,000 per month as salary.

As the Special Chief Secretary of Planning, Mr Tucker used to engage several consultants on various issues. After becoming Chief Secretary, he has continued with the trend. He has also appointed a consultant in his own office.

The main task of these consultants will be to work out strategies in their respective departments, to come up with innovative systems, work out plans to counter the strategies of other states and prepare project reports.

Meanwhile, some IAS officers feel that after the appointment of consultants, their importance might lessen. There are more consultants in the CRDA. The CRDA engages consultants for every work and it is spending hundreds of crores on them.

At present, in some sections in the AP Secretariat, there are more contract and outsourced employees and consultants than regular employees.

AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has often said that he is the CEO of the state. Adhering to that, the corporate culture is gaining ground in the state government administration.