Learning the Lessons of Finance

One day in October, 2013 Principal Secretary Finance, Jugal Kishore Mohapatra called me to his chamber and expressed his concern to find a suitable officer to be the Member Secretary of the Fourth State Finance Commission. The Commission was then due to be constituted. Without thinking for a moment I volunteered for the job although I was then quite overburdened.

He was visibly relieved and immediately put up the proposal for Government approval. Finally, the Commission was constituted on 31st October, 2013 by a Gazette notification with Chinmay Basu, former Chairman, Odisha Public Service Commission as Chairman, Dr. Adwaita Prasad Mohanty, retired Professor of Economics, Utkal University as Member, and myself as the Member Secretary. Devi Prasad Ray, a retired Special Secretary, was subsequently inducted as a Member. It was a new challenge for me but I had the confidence to make it an opportunity.

Never before have I had any acquaintance with Mr. Basu nor got the opportunity to work with him. He was known as a very tough bureaucrat who served as Secretary in key departments like Panchayati Raj and Health and also in the Government of India. After retirement, he served as Chairman, OPSC. His reputation as an honest and upright person was in public knowledge. He also had a reputation of being an ill-tempered person. I had to receive him at the railway station.

In our first meeting he expressed his doubts about my choice as Member Secretary in view of the fact that I had never worked in the Panchayati Raj system earlier but at the same time expressed his confidence in the selection by the Finance Secretary who was his longtime friend. The Commission had its first meeting a few days after the joining of all the members and in the same meeting the Chairman asked me to draft the report as mandated in the relevant rules. It was beyond my expectations and initially I had the impression that my job would be to provide secretarial assistance to the Commission as was being done by my predecessors.

Now it was a bolt from the blue. But I had no option either. I was asked to draft the first chapter: Issues and Approach and given a week’s time. I took it as a challenge and assured to submit it within three days. Everyone was astonished at my confidence to finish it within a mere three days. When I left the meeting I was almost sweating and got tense. That day I left the office early and upon reaching home started writing the chapter in long hands. I had no materials on hand, not even any reference. The dinner time was over but I was on the job. After having dinner I resumed work till midnight.

Next day, early in the morning, it continued. I called the Private Secretary over the phone and asked him to reach the office on time. On reaching the office I handed over the notepad to type out the materials and started writing the remaining parts. By evening the first draft was ready. Next day I took time to refine and edit the draft and the final draft was ready by the evening. On the third day I went to meet the Chairman in the first hour but he had gone to Puri on tour that day. I asked the Private Secretary to inform me of the arrival of the Chairman in the afternoon. Around 4.00 pm I went to meet the Chairman with the draft and he was surprised to see the draft prepared within such a short time. He wanted time to go through the draft. I came back and waited for the feedback from him. After an hour or so he called me.

It was a trying time for me. When I reached, he was visibly happy and started praising me for the nice draft. He had one question for me. How could I know so many things about the Panchayati Raj system which never occurred to him although he worked for three years as Secretary of the PR department? I then divulged to him that I was born in the system itself and observed it from close quarters since my father was a three time’s Chairman of our Panchayat Samiti. Then he had a hearty laugh and remarked that my selection as the Member Secretary was quite justified.

Once the Commission started functioning it was a pleasure to deliberate and discuss various issues from different perspectives and arrive at a conclusion. Each day was a day of learning. Basu was a serious type of person and a hard task master. At the same time he had a very soft heart and a generous attitude. Once he invited us for dinner at his residence. In course of time he became one of my ardent supporters and well wishers. Madam Basu was equally very homely and hospitable.

Professor Mohanty was a scholar of repute and was very cordial in his approach. Shri Ray was a very humble and down to earth person. I was made to prepare the first draft for almost each chapter and the Members and Chairman used to add value to it and make it meaningful. The Deputy Secretary Ellora Mohanty and Under Secretary Pradyumna Mahakud were very much involved and took care of the day today activities. Finally, the report was prepared and it was certainly an outstanding report. It was crisp, to the point and focused.

There was a lot of clarity and novelty in the approach. The day it was submitted to the then Governor and the very next day to the Chief Minister in September, 2014 we had a great sense of satisfaction. Thankfully, the State Government accepted almost all the recommendations of the Commission. At the end of the day I was recognized as a domain expert in the field and got invitations from different quarters to share my views on the matter.

Another surprise was waiting for me a few years later. It was in the last part of 2018. I was passing through a very bad phase of my career and some elements were active to defame me and see me penalized for no apparent reason. One day I came to know that Chairman of the Fifth State Finance Commission Rabi Narayan Senapati had requisitioned my service for the Commission.

Shortly thereafter I was transferred to the Finance Department where I had spent about twelve years earlier. It was like a homecoming for me and a surprise for many. It was a pleasure for me to work under Senapati for the second time. Our relationship was from the nineties on account of our fascination for poetry. When I joined as Under Secretary in the Finance Department in 2002 I called on him. He was then the Secretary of the Women & Child Development Department. He offered me coffee and a new poetry collection along with an advice not to leave the Finance Department till getting promoted to IAS.

Few years down the line he joined as Finance Secretary in 2006 when I was a Deputy Secretary. He continued for three years and our relationship remained very cordial. He had enough confidence in me and I fully enjoyed his tenure. To my surprise he assigned me to the OFS establishment in spite of myself being the General Secretary of the Association and subsequently made me the State Budget Officer on my promotion to Joint Secretary. Although he was dubbed as a conservative officer, under his leadership the department successfully managed many crises.

However, one thing then distressed me. When nomination for promotion to IAS was invited he didn’t want to break the precedence of seniority and nominate me thanks to the advice of one of the officers who was jealous of me and apprehensive of my selection at his cost in the event of my nomination. Of course the same day he called me to his chamber and narrated his constraints assuring me that sooner or later one day I would surely get it. I chose to forget the episode the very moment I came out of his chamber and left it to my destiny. The gentleman who hatched the conspiracy to debar me from the nomination on the plea of seniority miserably failed in the interview and got humiliated for being congratulated on false news in the media that he was selected that year.

Senapati hailed from a humble background and struggled hard to reach his destination. But he was an outstanding student from the beginning and topped in his studies. After a brief stint as a lecturer in a government college, he stood first in Indian Economic Service at the all India level and in the next chance got into IAS. He was Collector of undivided Koraput district as well as Sundargarh district. He became Secretary of many important departments like Panchayati Raj, W&CD, Water Resources, Health and Finance. He retired as Development Commissioner and was appointed as the first Cooperative Election Commissioner and later the State Election Commissioner. Besides, he was a brilliant orator and earned a reputation as a poet and writer.

My second innings in the Finance Commission was no less enjoyable. The members of the Commission Dr Samson Moharana, Ex Professor of Commerce, Utkal University, Sanjeeb Mishra, Ex Director of Municipal Administration and Dr Asit Mohanty, Professor XIMB were well known to me. After my joining all of them got enthusiastic and relied upon my experience and expertise in the previous Commission.

Although I was not the Member Secretary but with the trust of the Chairman I could manage the things with help of my old colleagues in the Department. In the middle of the tenure of the Commission, I got promoted and thanks to the Secretary Ashok Meena , one of my well wishers in Government, I continued in the Finance Department to assist the Commission. This time the report was equally very good with some new dimensions and new ideas. The Commission submitted its report in August, 2019 and as before the State Government agreed in principle to all the important recommendations.

My process of learning got strengthened and the take-away was far more satisfying in the long run.