LAHORE: Bureaucracy apart, transparent and merit-based appointments in regulatory bodies are critical to ensure better delivery of services by public sector institutions and good corporate governance in the private sector.
The orders of the government are executed through bureaucracy. Ideally it is expected that the bureaucrats would act to the rules and regulations. However, rules are bent to do the irregular biddings of the ruling elite and for making personal gains.
There are for instance prescribed rules for obtaining a power connection. A person with influence may get the demand notice immediately after application. He will get the connection next day. There are some formalities that must be completed like inspection report by an electricity inspector about the load needed. These are completed without visiting the premises (for others the report is given after bribe).
Commoners, who fail to grease the palms of the officials, might have to wait for weeks and months to receive the demand notice. Getting actually connected might take a little longer. The normal excuse would be the shortage of meters and non-fulfillment of formalities that means pleasing the officials.
Ordinary citizens face similar hurdles for getting gas and water connections as well. These issues could be resolved through strict adherence to rule of law. Technology could be a check on the malpractices. The services should be provided on first come first serve basis. There should be a time limit for the execution on each application. These issues do not need any civil service reform but strict adherence to rules and regulations only.
Appointment of competent persons in the regulatory institutions is of greater importance than the bureaucratic reforms. The regulatory institutions must be fully independent with a human resource that is competent and understands the issues that regulator has to address.
Unfortunately the government of the day plays major part in the short-listing of candidates for any regulatory post. Three names shortlisted by a government-appointed panel (panel changes with the government) are sent to the Prime Minister, who could reject all the three and ask the panel to send new names or appoint one of the three on that post.
Another drawback faced by the regulatory institutions in Pakistan is that after the completion of the tenure of a regulatory post the government (chief executive of the country) could ask the person to continue till the appointment of another person. Or someone with the institution may be asked to officiate till new appointment is made and in many cases the post may remain vacant for months till a new regulator is appointed.
We have seen many regulatory institutions become dysfunctional as a few regulatory posts were not filled in time. National Tariff Commission for instance could not take up appeals of Pakistani businessmen as the number of commissioners required to take up the matter were insufficient.
Yet another drawback that economy faces is the power of the state to overrule or change the recommendation of the regulator. The petrol prices have to increase in line with fluctuations in the global markets.
The recommendations of OGRA are frequently rejected and then comes a day when the state steps in to increase the rates massively in one go. If the government has to decide the rates of power and and gas it should close down the regulatory institutions.
A strong and independent regulator would strongly resist any interference from the state. The State Bank of Pakistan is one example that announces its monetary policy every alternate month which may not be liked by the sitting government. Like the governor SBP all other regulatory posts are constitutionally protected. Most have tenure of three years except perhaps WAPDA where the tenure is for five years. Many creditable global institutions have been advising successive governments to bring a transparent and prompt system of appointing heads and members of the regulatory bodies. In fact World Bank assigned former chairman SECP and CCP Khalid Mirza to prepare a procedure of transparent, merit-based and prompt appointments of regulatory bodies’ members.
Mirza proposed a super Public Service Commission, comprising most respected experts from the private sector like Baber Ali and Saleem Lakha, who have unblemished credentials. He suggested co-opting an expert having knowledge and experience of that particular regulatory body for which candidates were to be short-listed.
The draft suggested creating a pool of experts vying to work in any regulatory body. The high-powered body of experts be allowed to continue interviewing candidates and for registration in that pool.
Whenever any tenure post in the regulatory body falls vacant the Prime Minister should fill it promptly from the three names forwarded by the experts from that pool. The post should not remain vacant for even a day.
This procedure if practiced would have paved way for tenure based transparent and merit based appointments in the regulatory bodies and their performance would have vastly improved as the government influence would have been neutralised. In case the Prime Minister fails to choose from the three shortlisted candidates then the one at the top of the list should assume the charge.