This article was published in Prakalp Magazine published by PMI mumbai chapter in their April 2021 edition.
I. Background:
A white paper published in 2017 by Project Management Institute pegged that the Indian industry would require about 700,000 Project managers every year for a decade to meet its development aspirations. That seems a very daunting number in the context the total registered Project management professionals estimated during that period was 100,000. The white paper further expanded on what organizations could do to enmesh Project management as integral to its approach to operations. Additionally, the paper also recommended government to grade contractors based on their project management certifications.
At a vision level, such recommendations seem logical and significant. For effective implementation, the public governance system should be in a position to make the necessary internal design changes. Any public governance initiative necessarily becomes a complex mosaic with involvement multiple departments and by extension multiple stakeholders. In this article I have tried to examine this aspect using Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) as an example. I am attempting to highlight that there is no dearth of Men or Money in BMC. It is management (project management more specifically) that needs to be brought into picture for improving the civic services and improve overall quality of life. I have further attempted to share few actions which good project managers can gainfully make their services available.
II. BMC – defining the problem:
There are multitude of papers and articles on how BMC is one of the richest municipal corporations of India. To contextualize this, examine this contrast: Annual budget of BMC is approximately INR 30,000 crores (this excludes substantial layout towards capital expenditure which Central Government and state government contribute). Annual budget of all other Municipal Corporations, Urban Local Bodies and Panchayat. Raj Institution (PRI’s) in state of Maharashtra are just about the same number. From per capital point of view about 10% of population is assigned about 50% of the total public funds.
Examination of annual accounts of 2019-20 of the BMC further would lay out the following facts:
1. About INR 7,500 crores is spent by BMC on capital expenditure (essentially development projects).
2. About INR 3,000 crores is the value of capital investments already in progress (under implementation). The total value of Capital Assets that BMC has accumulated over the years is about INR 4,200 crores.
3. About INR 7,900 crores is available with BMC as reserves in various investments and additional INR 423 crores as liquid balance.
4. Amount receivable from various sources is to the tune of about INR 25,000 crores. This works out to about 2.5 years of tax / user fee that BMC collects from its residents. It needs to be noted that despite such substantial outstanding, the corporation still has material funds as reserves and investments.
5. BMC spends about INR 11,500 crores as establishment expenses which is largely towards salaries and related payouts. Assuming an average of INR 500000 per annum per person as salaries in urban city, this would work out to about more than 2 lakh personnel working for BMC. To elaborate further there are: 227 elected councilors, 109 administrative heads (from Municipal Commissioner to various HOD), more than 75 nominated members to guide these 2 lakh personnel. Total population of people living under BMC jurisdiction is estimated at about 1.25 crores, thus there is 1 BMC employee for every 62 person residing. BMC surely would qualify as a well staffed institution.
The above figures from annual report of BMC indicates that there is no dearth of Money or Man. Despite such resources being available the low level of civic amenities and services can then be attributed to lack of management.
III. Project Management (combining Institutional framework and Individuals) – solution to effective Municipal services:
It is my personal belief that for any public governance initiative Institution and Individuals have to work in tandem. If either one of the two pillars fail to live up to the expectation, then the entry to a progressive civil society would be blocked. In line with this philosophy, I am hereby proposing certain possibilities which Project Management Institute (as a organized body) and Project Management professionals (as individuals) can gainfully explore as their contribution to building a progressive society. I have articulated these from the context of BMC as a ULC, however this could be applicable to any ULB / PRI of India.
i. At Institutional level:
a. Lobbying for lateral infusion of members: Project Management Institute (PMI) would surely gain by aggressively pushing for lateral infusion of certified professionals within the public governance system. Today the emphasis is on vendors empaneled with public bodies to have some minimum level of certified professionals. This would address all projects which are specific output focused – largely creating physical infrastructure like flyovers, roads, Metro’s, buildings, etc. Any urban resident would realize that effective civic amenities go far beyond availability of access infrastructure. An integrated infrastructure development which plans for all amenities like, water, electricity, sanitation, size of access roads in arterial segments are conspicuously missing. This is the case despite a lion share of revenues that BMC generates is under the head – Development / Planning charges. A simple example of project management failure at BMC would be the ineffectual implementation of SAP as an ERP for public governance. The Annual report accompanying the annual accounts of BMC qualifies many processes in ERP which are yet to be brought online despite the implementation being pursued from year 2007.
b. Sponsoring members to contribute as committee members: PMI could as a part of its social responsibility initiative sponsor its members to participate in ward committee’s / special committees of the BMC. This would service dual purpose of promoting social awareness amongst its members and also the elected officials / personnel of BMC gaining from the professional experience of the member. Generally, such committees meet once in a month wouldn’t take a lot of productive time of the sponsored members. Sponsored members can also be motivated by offering them to share experiences in various collaterals / magazines published by the PMI.
ii. At Individual level:
Many professionals would find engaging in public service through political means quite a challenging task. We are generally aware of nominated representatives in the Rajya Sabha (upper house of parliament) and Legislative council (State legislature). One can be reasonably confident about the active engagement such nominations entail and thus difficult to adopt alongwith a professional career like Project manager. However socially conscious individuals do have the option to contribute to their immediate civic surrounding. There are provisions in the municipal corporation / ULC laws for the same. Whilst I mention BMC as an example, these possibilities are open in every other city too. A city like Mumbai is divided into 17 wards. Each ward has one councilor (in some cases 2). Each councilor can nominate around 3 members to guide / suggest / ideate on improvements that their wards can undertake. Any project management professional can engage as such a nominated member in his immediate ward and bring to the table the expertise of project management to ideate and guide in development and maintenance of civic amenities and services. Such nominations to committees are for a year. Thus experimenting with such possibilities could be for a short tenure and based on experiences the member could evaluate his continuance.
IV. Conclusion:
As Indian’s we have been exposed to two philosophies of public governance model as captured in the table below in the words of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya:
Capitalist / Right wing
Socialist / Left wing
“In the race, no one is prepared to stop and give a helping hand to the weak who is left behind; nay, elimination of the weak is considered just and natural. He is an uneconomic, marginal unit, not fit to exist. This is what it advocates. By the elimination of such marginal units, the economic power accumulates in the hands of a few.”
“The State is made supreme and the sole authority in all matters. The individual citizen is reduced to a mere cog in this giant wheel. There is no provision to inspire the individual to fulfil his role.”
As corporate professionals of current generation, we are experiencing this philosophy in different ways in day to day life. Most of us would find this economically enriching but still leaving a void at the human level.
Professionals of India from independence till about 1990’s experienced this corroborated by experiences of Russians and Cuban’s.
Its time we as people of “Bharat” adopt a philosophy which suits our consciousness. I heavily borrow from stalwarts from the past like Pandit Deendayal and Shri Thengadi which is further espoused by Shri Subramanian Swamy the concept of “Integral Humanism”. As professionals of Modern “Bharat”, we all have to examine how to participate to public governance so that it meets our expectations.
In closing I reproduce Pandit Deendayal’s thoughts:
“We have taken due note of our ancient culture. But we are no archaeologists. We have no intention to become custodians of a vast archaeological museum. Our goal is not merely to protect the culture but to revitalise it so as to make it dynamic and in tune with the times. We must ensure that our Nation stands firm on this foundation and our society is enabled to live a healthy, progressive and purposeful life. We shall have to end a number of traditions and set in reforms which are helpful in the development of values and of national unity in our society. We shall remove those traditions which obstruct this process.”
Lets remove our apathy towards public governance.
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