Policy to monetise bureaucrats’ perks in the doldrums

‘File lost somewhere between CM office and Finance Dept’

PESHAWAR: The resistance by senior bureaucrats in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has put the much-publicised project of the Pakistan Tehreek-3-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan to monetize their perks and privileges in the doldrums.

The PTI-led coalition government soon after coming into power in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) sought to imitate the private sector and the existing trend in the world to improve governance and reduce expenditure of the public exchequer by monetising the perks and privileges of the civil servants.

However, considering the degree of resistance from the bureaucracy, the situation still does not seem to be encouraging for the government to implement its ambitious monetisation policy.

According to the document shared with The News, the PTI government as part of its reforms agenda decided to adopt the monetisation of perks and privileges of the civil servants in terms of their transport and housing.

The provincial government under the then senior minister Finance Department, Sirajul Haq, formed a monetisation committee on January 10, 2014. In its first meeting, it constituted two sub-committees for transport and housing.

The committee on transport completed its task after several meetings and on April 22, 2015 it finalized the monetization of transport provided to the civil servants from grade-17 to grade-22.

The incumbent finance minister, Muzzafar Said, on April 28, 2015 sent a note to Chief Minister Pervez Khattak seeking approval of the monetization policy as finalized by the sub-committee.In his note, he proposed to the chief minister that in order to stop misuse of vehicles by the bureaucracy the per month transport monetization to BPS-22 officers should be Rs95,000, for BPS-20 it should be Rs77,000, for BPS-20 an amount of Rs65,000, for BPS-19 it should be Rs55,000 and for BPS-18 and BPS-17, it ought to be Rs25,000 and Rs20,000, respectively.

He also proposed that for the public office-holders such as ministers, advisors, and special assistants, a transport allowance of Rs100,000 might be approved, while parliamentary secretaries should get monthly transport allowance of Rs60,000.

The minister also proposed that the department concerned should be directed to forthwith move a summary seeking formal approval of the competent authority to place the matter before the cabinet for approval.

The note also proposed that the Law Department should be directed to initiate necessary legislation and get the policy approved from the provincial assembly as an act of law.However, an official of the finance ministry said the staff of the chief minister’s secretariat sat on the file for almost a year. Requested anonymity, he said none of the departments concerned initiated any action on it as the policy was resisted tooth and nail in a hush-hush manner by the senior bureaucracy.

He said that even at the outset it was anticipated that the implementation and delivery of the perks’ monetisation would not be entertained by the bureaucrats who retain several unauthorised vehicles costing millions of rupees to the public exchequer.

The official said the recent claims of Imran Khan during the by-elections in Punjab that the monetisation policy has been implemented in KP prompted the chief minister to seek information from the concerned officials about the status of the policy file.

“The chief minister has though inquired about the monetization policy file, but he could not get it as it has been lost somewhere between his office and the Finance Department,” the official added.

He said that at a meeting the other day it was decided in principle that the case will remain pending.The official said that the self-interest based role and lack of cooperation from the top bureaucrats and certain ministers has put the implementation of the monetisation policy on the backburner. It could hardly be included in the upcoming budgetary proposals, he added.