ISLAMABAD: Thousands of top bureaucrats have obtained degrees from the best universities in the world at the cost of the taxpayer, but have either been sidelined or assigned work completely contrary to their expertise, The News has learnt.
The newly elected government, led by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), could right that wrong by adopting the principle of "the right man for the right job", based on the qualifications of these civil servants, top officials said.
“There is a need to introduce the concept of panels of experts who could be paid on the basis of results achieved on their advice," a senior civil servant told The News, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"It is essential to improve good governance and delivery of services,” he said on Tuesday.
The affected officers belong to various service branches of the federal establishment, including the district management, audit and accounts, inland revenue service and customs, commerce, office management and economists groups.
A top official at the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) told this scribe some 300-400 officers with degrees in law, economics, public administration and other subjects from top global universities areas were currently tasked with conducting tax assessments in far-flung areas of the country.
“There are 70 to 80 officers who have degrees in law from best international universities, but are not dealing with multi-billion-rupee tax cases pending in different courts. The FBR hires local lawyers having no expertise in tax laws, causing huge damage to the country’s tax collection,” the official said.
Another official highlighted FBR-instigated tax cases against CNG sector in Rawalpindi, which ultimately landed in the Supreme Court. An officer knowledgeable about law and tax issues prepared the case and helped the FBR-engaged lawyer to prepare. Under their strategy, the officer was granted permission by the court to explain the case and the FBR won.
It is unclear why the 70-80 sidelined officers have not been assigned major taxation cases being heard by the higher judiciary.
The PTI-led government could easily obtain information about foreign-educated officers and their areas of special expertise from the Establishment Division. This would facilitate the process of deploying them on merit, rather than on the basis of any political considerations.
The concept of incentive-driven expert panels would help the government address the increasingly complex issues of governance. For example, the telecom sector has fast expanded in recent years, but there is a lack of expertise in the FBR on related taxation issues. To overcome this, the FBR could hire a panel of experts and pay them a reasonable percentage of taxes raised as a result of their advice.
A retired bureaucrat told The News that the World Bank had funded capacity-building programmes for both mid-career officers and leadership figures. Having acquired world-class degrees, the officials would be assigned jobs according to their expertise and remain in the same ministries while serving on ranks up to that of joint secretary.
However, the programme was rendered futile because its supervision by the Establishement Division was assigned to a friend of a former military dictator. He subsequently relaxed the criteria for candidates, resulting in the wastage of the multi-million dollar programme, the former civil servant said.