KP lends support to civil services reform programme

ISLAMABAD: Setting political differences aside the PTI-led Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government has extended full support to the federal government’s civil services reform initiative.
According to official minutes of the Centre’s consultations with the provincial government arranged at Civil Secretariat Khyber-Pakhtunkhawa, provincial information minister Mushtaq Ghani asserted that change could only come if citizens are involved in governance.
Speaking of the initiatives taken by the KP government, he referred to the laws regarding right to information, right to public service, conflict of interest law, public private partnership law, grievance system and E-governance.
These initiatives, he stated, will empower the public and bring transparency to government operations.
The minister praised the federal government for its reforms initiative and to ensure meaningful change, he offered support on behalf of the political leadership of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and the government of KP to take the reform agenda to its logical end.
Secretary Establishment Department of KPK highlighted the importance the political leadership of KP has attached to anti-corruption measures. In this regard he mentioned the recent formation of Ehtisaab commission, reform in thana culture and anti-encroachment steps.
He said the political leadership of KP is revising the remuneration package to achieve high quality performance. Additionally, the leadership has reformed the system to make transfers of civil servants on merit only. As a result no case of major corruption has been reported as of late, he added.
Federal secretary planning, development and reforms, Hasan Nawaz Tarar shared with the participants the aims of the civil services reforms.
He said that the Vision 2015, a guiding document made in consultation with all provinces and stakeholders, underpins the need for such reforms. The time to realize the mission is now.
The secretary said the process of consultation has started from Punjab and will be conducted in all provinces. He encouraged the participants to share their inputs to enrich the thought process for reforms.
Federal minister for planning, development and reforms, Prof Ahsan Iqbal started his presentation by outlining the challenges the nation faces: security and economy. He asserted that we live in an age in which the paradigms of development and governance are changing. The old rules of industrial revolution are dying and a new knowledge economy is emerging.
The minister stressed that Vision 2025 is the nation’s vision and represents all provinces and political parties. However, just signing the vision document is not enough. Pakistan faces a major socio-economic imbalance. Judging by economic indicators, Pakistan is a middle-income country in terms of per capita income.
However, the social indicators represent a bleak picture as Pakistan is in the category of least developed countries in the world in terms of education, health, sanitation and poverty.
Unfortunately, Pakistan will be missing the Millennium Development Goals despite being a nuclear power. In the last decades a constant decline in the outcome has impacted all areas of governance.
Prof Ahsan Iqbal was all praise for the capabilities, intellect and professional maturity of Pakistan’s civil servants.
However this brings forth another dilemma; how come the competent and well-meaning officers of the government are not able to achieve results?
The minister highlighted three key issues in governance. Firstly, there is a lack of effective and meaningful performance management.
In the current system, there is virtually a Grade 22 position for everyone who enters the service.
The Civil Service of Pakistan is devoid of competitive and merit-based promotion. The current system of ACRs is such that potentially every officer can receive an outstanding evaluation and be promoted to the next grade, he added.
A possible remedy to this issue is a Forced Ranking Method that would compel supervisors to only give outstanding ACRs to a small percentage of officers based on a bell curve.
Secondly, the gap in remunerations of public and private sector is discouraging for the high-performing officers. While the government wants to reward high performers, it also does not want to create rift in the system between haves and have-nots.
Thirdly, there is a skills gap within the civil service system. The trainings and professional milestones of the employees must be streamlined. Post-18th Amendments, the provincial institutions need to be strengthened so they can deliver better results given the increased responsibilities.
Finally, the minister shared with the participants key best practices from the private sector: alignment and synergy. The goal of the reforms is to gel competence of individuals in a manner that the collective output is larger than its sub units.
He stressed the need for transformational growth and transformational results. In line with the private sector, he advocated for departments to compete and collaborate simultaneously.
They should make citizens the king, just as businesses make customers the king. Since no reform can succeed unless it has the buy-in of the stakeholders, the minister encouraged the honest and candid input of participants.