India's bureaucracy worst in Asia
By siliconindia   |   Thursday, 04 June 2009, 16:09 IST   |    5 Comments
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India's bureaucracy worst in Asia
Bangalore: India's 'suffocating' bureaucracy was ranked the least-efficient among other Asian countries, says a business survey on 12 economies in the region. A survey by Hong Kong based Political and Economic Risk Consultancy (PERC) said working with India's civil servants was a slow and painful process. They are a power centre in their own right at both the national and state levels, and are extremely resistant to reform that affects them or the way they go about their duties, PERC said. The survey included 1,274 expatriates working in 12 North and South Asian nations on the efficiency of bureaucrats in those countries. The poll was last held in 2007. Singapore's civil servants are the most efficient among their Asian peers, released on Wednesday showed, but they tend to clam up unhelpfully when things go wrong. The island-state was ranked first for a third time During normal times, when the system is not stress-tested, it operates very well, the survey said in a 12-page report of Singapore's bureaucracy. However, during difficult times - or when mistakes are made that reflect badly on the system - there is a tendency among bureaucrats to circle the wagons in ways that lack transparency and make accountability difficult, the report said. Thailand, despite four years of on-off street protests and a year of dysfunctional government was ranked third. For all the country's troubles - or perhaps because of them - respondents to our survey were impressed with the way Thai civil servants have been carrying out their duties, PERC said. It said state offices associated with corruption presented the most difficulties for Thai citizens and foreigners. PERC managing director Bob Broadfoot said that the controversy around huge investment losses by Singapore sovereign wealth fund Temasek [TEM.UL] was a good example of how things could become less transparent in the island-state. Ranking by most efficient to least efficient economies: Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Taiwan, Vietnam, China, Philippines, Indonesia and India.

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