Whose incompetence is it anyway?

The recent concern shown by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif regarding inefficient public service delivery appears to signal his determination to improve his government’s focus on development.
It is also very encouraging to see that the current reforms agenda has a clear and focused direction: civil service reforms to ensure the welfare of the populace. Interestingly, this policy decision by the Pakistan government comes at a time when the world’s most developed countries, such as the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada are also in the process of reforming their civil service structures.
President Barack Obama has been most vocal in admitting, since 2010, that the American civil service has failed to deliver and needs an overhaul of the selection process as well as the service structure. Western countries realise that failed policies and wrong decisions in the past decade have been due to the inefficiency of decision-makers at critical positions. The Obama administration’s recent commitment to introduce a civil service reforms package in the proposed budget for 2016 also highlights the importance of the issue. These facts, and events like the recent offer of support by the British government to support civil service reforms, should boost the efforts of the Pakistani government to confidently move on with its civil service reforms agenda.
The prime minister could not be more correct to connect poor public service delivery to the lack of competence and initiative on the part of civil servants. But this fact should draw our attention towards the factors behind this inability on the part of the most well-educated, trained and experienced group of people in the country. There is a need to find whether it is the individuals who are failing or it is the system that is selecting, developing and positioning them wrongly. Permanence, independence and competence, with a unique skill set, make civil servants ideal for critical assignments and public service delivery. These so-called powerful individuals perform in a strict hierarchy without a choice of position or role in most cases. In such a work structure, it is very common that successes are proudly shared but failures are disowned. Most of the times it becomes quite difficult, rather impossible, to track the responsibility of failures or inefficiency.
This vital group easily becomes a victim of political influence, usually in a negative manner. Interestingly this victimisation is mostly deliberate indicating a serious flaw in the overall work practice. Such loopholes in the civil service structure support the deterioration of the work ethics of these otherwise competent civil servants. Critically reviewing the incidences where civil servants failed to act efficiently and effectively while leaving the country in the face of crises leads to the fact that it is neither suitability nor competence that is responsible for their positioning at a certain post.
Primarily it is the weak structure of civil service in Pakistan – and not individuals – that is responsible for these disappointments. The selection and placement process on which the public service delivery system is based should be the focus of civil service reforms in order to achieve its true policy objectives.
Like any other country, the objective of the civil services in Pakistan is to attract the best and the brightest in order to ensure the finest public service. But as the world experiences a downward trend in civil service as a choice of career for the smart youth, the situation in Pakistan is not different. Basic flaws in the structure of the public service are keeping this valuable human capital away from working for the government.
The public sector is losing its charm, both in prestige and benefits. This elite service does not attract the intellectual elite any more, albeit with some exceptions. The training and exposure offered by the civil services of Pakistan is no doubt adding value to even inductees with a mediocre intellect. But the plight of public service delivery is still one of the biggest issues in the country.
Challenges facing public service are getting complex, increasing the need for a more specialised, trained and dedicated workforce which can handle complex issues and make difficult decisions. This skilled human capital is expected to cover for the limitations of the general civil service cadres. Recent crises and failures on the part of civil servants in Pakistan make it evident that the current civil service structure of the country has failed. It is unable to induct and retain honest, capable and faithful civil servants. Most young and bright minds join the public service with a lot of ambition and motivation, but a deteriorating service structure and culture is either transforming them or losing them to the private and non-profit sectors. It is believed that young graduates from universities are more innovative and confident with a higher level of ambition to serve their countries and people but factors like discrimination, nepotism and unjustified compensation are restricting them from pursuing this noble career.
Given the speed with which the current government is pursuing its reforms agenda and the international drive to reform civil service structures, it should be seen as an opportunity for Pakistan to come up with an ideal but indigenously developed civil service model.
The government’s intention to study and learn from international models is a great idea but it must be kept in mind that local issues are best solved using local solutions. The best public service delivery models in the world, like that of Singapore where the country’s economic growth decides financial benefits for the civil servants, can serve as an effective model for these reforms but with necessary adjustments for easy adaptation.
The writer is a Fulbright Scholar at Carnegie Mellon University.