POWER- Expanding Systems, Poor Management

A consultancy organisation like AFC faces a dilemma in regard to staff. Though its diversified assignments required innovative approaches and experts in different fields, it will not be feasible to keep all the expertise required as regular staff. It has therefore to depend on outside consultants. While this arrangement works out satisfactorily insofar as work is concerned, the regular staff tends to get disenchanted in the absence of adequate number of officers to carry out the work efficiently and because of lack of promotion avenues on the lines found in sister institutions like NABARD and banks. There are only about 72 officers as against a sanctioned strength of 222. Another aspect to be kept in mind is that mobility of staff is important for better motivation of staff to shoulder the varied assignments entrusted to AFC. This is an issue which needs urgent attention. One practical solution lies in making AFC part of a bigger set-up without compromising on its independent status so that staff development becomes more flexible.