The bars of bureaucracy

LAHORE: Civil services reforms should be a recurring feature of governance in the country as they are imperative for ensuring smooth, transparent, and best services to the people and most importantly hiring the human resource that is competent to the point.

Successive governments assigned this task to former governor State Bank of Pakistan Dr Ishrat Hussain to come out with a viable solution to the pathetic performance of bureaucrats. Dr Ishrat is credited with reforming the State Bank of Pakistan into a clean, transparent and reliable institution. He advised the Musharraf regime and Punjab government under Shahbaz Sharif on governance reforms.

Hussain chalked out a detailed reform package after analysing the shortcomings in the present bureaucratic setup. He has since long been pointing out that only the bureaucrats recruited in civil service cadre have defined path to promotion while even the PhDs in different fields inducted directly in Grade-18 because of their qualification and expertise in their particular field hardly reach Grade-20 by the time they retire. Some even retire in Grade-19. The CSS (Central Superior Services) cadre is assured of reaching Grade-21 or 22 from 17 at the time of induction. The bureaucracy outside the CSS and DMG (District Management Group) become bland after a while because of absence of rewards.

Currently, Hussain is adviser to the Prime Minister on Civil Services reforms and his recommendations have been appreciated at all levels of the entrenched bureaucracy and some in ruling party are fighting tooth and nail to maintain status quo or dilute the reforms. The reforms have to be implemented fully; any exemptions in the process nullify the full impact of these reforms. However, it goes to the credit of present government that it has accepted and trying to implement most of his recommendations.

It is unrealistic to expect implementation of all reforms immediately. However if the basic principles of reforms are accepted we might see a high performing bureaucracy in a decade. The reforms basically provide level-playing field to all bureaucrats including non DMG and CSS cadres. Reforms are based on merit based to all levels and grades of public services protecting regional quotas.

One deviation that is resisted by the DMG and CSS cadre is merit based merit based carrier progression for all government employees with compulsory training at post induction, mid-career and senior management levels (this is in line with the system in vogue in all three armed forces). You do not get promotion unless you clear training courses specified for that post. The reforms call for equal opportunities for career advancement to all employees to all cadres be it superior services or others.

Reforms recommend decent living wage and retirement benefits for all and strict security of an office for a specified period of time. This tenure based system is in vogue in armed forces. On the civil side the bureaucrats could be transferred even an hour after posting. The bureaucrats favour tenure based postings but the ruling elite particularly the ministers strongly oppose it. Some relaxation has been granted in this regard empowering the government to transfer a bureaucrat within six months of the posting. This would massively dilute the reforms as bureaucrats would be obliged to follow non-transparent orders of minister to ensure tenure posting.

Going a step further it is recommended to introduce four specialised cadres for Economic Management, Technical Management, Social Sector Management and General Management. Currently the superior services cadres fill these posts irrespective of their qualification. A Grade-22 officer with a medical doctor’s degree could head the Water and Power Ministry and an engineer may be posted to lead the Ministry of Health. The new cadres would badly hurt the superior services cadres. There are numerous proposals to shift from manual and human contact-based management to e-management where details of every process needed to get an approval are clearly and transparently posted on website of each department. The applicant simply has to comply with the conditions given on the website to obtain the approval or services. This at present is a long haul. Earlier, experience in Federal Board of Revenue to disconnect human contact between the taxpayer and tax collector have failed because of resistance from the bureaucracy. If introduced it would revolutionise the governance in Pakistan.

Another aspect of civil service reforms is the evaluation of each officer on the basis of performance. Those evaluated at above par would be entitled to a double increase in pay. Those evaluated as normal would be given one increment and those termed as below par would be denied any increment. They will also be superseded by competent officers.

The promotion to higher cadres would be subject to performance of duty in both federal and provincial areas (this is in line with promotion criteria in army).They would have to retire after completion of 20 years of service. This reform if implemented in true spirit would prune the bureaucracy of incompetent and lethargic officers.

There are many other positive recommendations on appointments in public sector companies and regulators that negate political interference. Let us see to what extent the government would act in accordance with the spirit of civil service reforms.