Good governance strategy: Efforts on to make govt more responsive, says CM Mahmood Khan

PESHAWAR: Chief Minister Mahmood Khan said on Saturday that a good governance strategy had been designed to make the government more responsive and accountable to people.

“This whole paradigm in turn will help to achieve greater public satisfaction. Under the e-governance initiative of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa several online portals have been designed to monitor progress and evaluate the performance of public sector departments,” he added.

He was presiding over a high-level meeting at the Chief Minister Secretariat regarding good governance strategy, said an official handout.

Provincial Minister Shaukat Yousafzai, members of national and provincial assemblies, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Shahab Ali Shah, and representatives of performance management and reforms unit Khyber Pakhtunkhwa attended the meeting.

Mahmood Khan stated that according to the latest national statistics, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had the highest citizen satisfaction of 42 percent throughout Pakistan under the Pakistan Citizens Portal.

He added the Public Service Delivery Portal was being designed and would soon be launched.

“This portal will prove to be a major initiative of the provincial government under the good governance strategy,” he told the meeting.

The chief minister continued that a provincial task force has been constituted to review progress on services delivery and to take public feedback at district level merged districts. The meeting was briefed about the initiatives taken by the provincial government under good governance strategy.

It was informed that five different pillars have been devised under the strategy including open government and transparency, public service delivery, citizen participation, performance and accountability.

In order to review the public service delivery, several e-governance reforms have been introduced and online portals have been designed. The meeting was informed that from 2018 till date, so far 900 Khuli Kutchehries were held in the province during which over 8000 complaints were resolved.

The meeting was informed that online approval of building plans (commercial and residential) was also in progress to facilitate the private builders. The facility of online application along with submission of maps and documents would be available.

Similarly, a mechanism for administrative inspection of public service facilities and developmental schemes has been introduced under which all the details and latest situation is available on dashboards. Through the Chief Minister Complaint Cell, feedback of citizens was being taken through random phone calls.

This was a unique initiative of the provincial government under which complaints were being resolved within the one month’s time.

Besides e-bidding, e-tendering and e-billing, e-transfer policies have also been introduced in various departments.

The meeting was told that a digital mechanism for price control has been introduced and all the details on a daily basis available on dashboards. Targeted actions were being carried out to curb artificial price-hike in the province.