Excise, taxation, narcotics control dept’s performance remains below average

LAHORE : The performance of the Excise, Taxation and Narcotics Control Department remained below average during March-July 2021 while the secretary of the department “has not clarity of goals and targets, and performance on the associated key performance indicator (KPI) set by the government for the department.”

According to the report of the Committee for Departmental Performance Review which headed by Punjab Finance Minister Hashim Jawan Bakhat, the performance of Excise, Taxation and Narcotics Control Department Secretary Waqas Ali Mehmood on ‘clarity of goals and targets, and performance on associated KPI and recommendations for future reforms/key initiatives to drive swift delivery on high impact projects is unsatisfactory.’

Previously, Waqas Ali Mehmood served as Food Department secretary and during his posting over there the province faced the worst wheat and sugar crisis.

According to the criteria set by the Special Monitoring Unit, there are five levels of performance of the government departments which range from exceptional to unsatisfactory performance. Grading points 45-50 are for exceptional performance, 44-35 points for above average, 34-25 points for satisfactory, 24-15 for below average and 15-10 are for unsatisfactory performance.

The performance report, of which a copy is available with The News, mentioned that the Excise, Taxation and Narcotics Control Department scored only 18 points out of total 50 points. Further, the department showed satisfactory performance in only one of eight performance gauging criteria which is austerity measures undertaken to eliminate unnecessary expenditure. The performance of the department remained unsatisfactory in two vital areas related to the vision, swift delivery and future reforms.

The performance of the department on five other evaluation criteria remained below average which related to the policy reforms undertaken, timely delivery on key initiatives, delivery on initiatives in the realm of automation and online service delivery, public-private partnership, ease of doing business, public facilitation, human resource development, improved financial management, signature initiative - a novel initiative aligned with the government’s vision undertaken by the department, new legislative initiatives – High-impact amendments to the existing laws and its associated impact, and introduction of new laws and their associated impact.

However, Excise, Taxation and Narcotics Control Secretary Waqas Ali Mehmood in the report attempted to justify the poor performance of the department with his viewpoint that the department was in the process of introducing the policy reforms. The introduction of the reforms involves many steps and approval of several different departments which exposes the roll-out of these reforms to delays. i.e The introduction of biometric verification system for registration and transfer of vehicles has been delayed for over a year because of lengthy negotiations with other stakeholders (NADRA, PITB). Further, he said the department’s projects and other policy reforms are often delayed because of external roadblocks, red tape and departmental inertia. The secretary in the report admitted, “the department has initiated reforms to increase automation, online service delivery, improve service delivery and improve financial management. However, the recent field visits to the department’s centres across Punjab showed that on-ground implementation of these reforms leaves a lot to be desired.”

Further, he admitted the poor performance with his response in the report that ‘the department does not formally measure the performance of its centers, initiatives or have a robust mechanism for measuring public feedback. It does not measure KPIs and only targets revenue targets given to it by the government of Punjab. In absence of these modern but fairly standard management techniques, the department’s ability to provide efficient and transparent services to the public suffers.’

Waqas Ali Mehmood, in his response to the committee, held the government responsible for poor performance about the future reforms by stating “the department’s recommendations for future reforms mainly consist of projects which are presently delayed or did not receive funding in the present ADP. The recommendations put forward by the department for future reforms were not made part of the ADP,” the evaluation report stated.

The Committee for Departmental Performance Review was constituted by the chief minister. The SMU of the Chief Minister Secretariat is providing secretarial support to it. It has been assigned to review the performance of Housing, Urban Development and Public Health Department, Board of Revenue, Excise, Taxation and Narcotics Control Department, Communication and Works Department, Tourism and Archeology Department and Punjab Information and Technology Board to improve the service delivery in the province.