Reforming the government PART III

By Ishrat Husain
The writer is a former governor of the State Bank of Pakistan. He is currently the chairman of the National Commission for Government Reforms.

In order to lay down the direction in which the reforms will be undertaken it is essential that the broad principles that will underpin these reforms are clearly defined. The following broad principles are outlined under each area of the reforms.

Civil services: (i) Open, transparent and merit – based recruitment to all levels and grades of public services with regional representation as laid down in the constitution, (ii) Performance – based promotions and career progression for all public sector employees with compulsory training at post-induction, mid-career and senior management levels, (iii) Equality of opportunities for career advancement to all employees without preferences or reservations for any particular class, (iv) Replacement of the concept of superior services with equality among all cadres and non-cadres of public servants, (v) Grant of a living wage and compensation package including decent retirement benefits to all civil servants, (vi) Strict observance of security of tenure of office for a specified period of time, (vii) Separate cadre of regular civil services at all Pakistan, federal, provincial and district levels co-existing with contractual appointments, (viii) Creation of an all Pakistan national executive service (NES) for senior management positions drawn through a competitive process from the federal, provincial and district level civil servants and outside professionals, (ix) Introduction of three specialised cadres under the NES for economic management, social sector management and general management.

Structure of federal, provincial and district governments: (a) Devolution of powers, responsibilities and resources from the federal to the provincial governments.

(b) Establishing inter-governmental structures with adequate authority and powers to formulate and monitor policy formulation.

(c) Clear separation of policy making, regulatory and operational responsibilities of the ministries/ provincial departments.

(d) Making each ministry/ provincial department fully empowered, adequately resourced to take decisions and accountable for results.

(e) Streamlining, rationalising and transforming the attached departments/ autonomous bodies/ subordinate offices/ field offices etc. into fully functional arms of the ministries for performing operational and executive functions from six to three.

(f) Reduce the number of layers in the hierarchy of each ministry/ provincial department.

(g) Cabinet secretary to perform the main coordinating role among the federal secretaries.

(h) Revival and strengthening of the secretaries committee at the federal/ provincial governments to become the main vehicle for inter-ministerial coordination and dispute resolution among various ministries.

(i) District level officers interacting with the general public in day-to-day affairs should enjoy adequate powers, authority, status and privileges to be able to resolve the problems and redress the grievances of the citizens.

(j) Police, revenue, education, water supply, and health are the departments which are highly relevant for the day-to-day lives of the ordinary citizen of this country. The internal governance structures of these departments, public grievance redressal systems against these departments and checks and balances on the discretionary powers of the officials have to be introduced.

Business process re-engineering: i) All laws, rules, regulations, circulars, guidelines issued by any government ministry/ department/ agency should be available in its most up dated version to the general public free of charge in a user-friendly manner on web page and in electronic and print forms at public places.

ii) Service standards with timelines for each type of service rendered at the district, Thana and union level should be developed, widely disseminated and posted at public places in each department.

iii) Rules of business at the federal, provincial and district governments should be revised to make them simple, comprehensible empowering the secretaries/ heads of departments/ district coordination officers to take decisions without multiple references, clearances and back and forth movement of files. Post-audit of the decisions taken should be used to ensure accountability rather than prior clearances.

iv) Delegation of financial, administrative, procurement, human resource management powers should be revisited and adequate powers commensurate with the authority should be delegated at each tier of the hierarchy.

v) Estacode, financial rules, accounting and audit rules, fundamental rules and all other rules in force should be reviewed systematically and revised to bring them in line with modern management practices.

vi) E-government should be gradually introduced in a phased manner. Technological solutions, hardware and software applications are easy part of the process but the most difficult aspect is the training and a change in culture, attitude and practices. E-government should be driven by business needs rather than crafted as an elegant technical solution.

Proposed approach: There are several ways to approach the task assigned to this commission. One option is to spend several years in preparing a comprehensive blueprint and plan for bringing about the desired changes covering all aspects of the structure, processes and human resource policies of government. This option has the disadvantage that by the time the report is ready ground realities might have changed. Political support for reforms under this approach is most likely to wane as high costs are incurred upfront in pushing through complex, unpopular and difficult decisions but the benefits of the reforms do not become visible in the lifecycle of the political regime in power. The advantage of this option is that all deficiencies and weaknesses are addressed simultaneously in a comprehensive manner.

The second option is to prepare a long term vision and direction in which reforms should aim and move but combine this with an opportunistic approach whereby easy to implement changes are taken up first and the more difficult reforms are taken up later. The disadvantage of this option is that the changes introduced may be imperceptible and the time taken for the whole process to complete may be too long. But the advantage is that incremental changes that create a win-win situation for all the stakeholders including politicians have a much better chance of getting accepted and implemented. It is suggested that the commission may propose the second option as the modus operandi for its working.

The sequencing, phasing and timing of the various reforms and their implementation will be guided by the speed at which consensus is built among the stakeholders and the decisions are made by the top policy makers but it is important to lay down the overall direction in which these reforms will move

While the comprehensive reforms will be implemented incrementally a second track will also be followed in which some quick win reforms will be implemented from time to time as an opportunity presents itself. For this purpose, the commission will follow a more flexible route. For example, it has decided to focus on four major areas where the interaction between the ordinary citizen and administrative machinery of the government is most intense. These four areas are police and enforcement of laws, land revenue administration, education and health.

The commission has formed four sub-committees to review and examine the efforts being made by the government, private sector and civil society in each of these areas and come up with solutions that will make the existing system more efficient and responsive to the needs of the public in the immediate or short run. The commission has also formed another sub-committee to recommend revision in the rules of business for removing impediments in the functioning of the government departments/ ministries/ agencies and empowering the heads of the departments to deliver results.

The preliminary recommendations of the sub-committees will be presented to focus groups of stakeholders drawn from diverse segments of society -- secretaries committee, political leaders, businessmen, NGOs, academic refined civil servants etc. -- for soliciting their feedback and views. Once this feedback is incorporated the sub-committees will finalise their recommendations which will then be discussed by the commission and then presented for consideration and decisions by the steering committee. The high-powered steering committee is co-chaired by the president and prime minister and consists of the four chief ministers. The committee has decided to provide a legal cover to the commission so that the recommendations approved by the steering committee are implemented by the federal and provincial governments without further reviews. The commission will also act as a facilitator and conduit for the reforms formulated by the federal ministries/ provincial governments and table them, after its own analysis for the decisions by the steering committee.

To conclude, those who agree that there is a need for these reforms have serious reservations about their implementation. They contend that these reforms cannot be implemented in real sense unless we insulate bureaucratic actions from political interference. According to this school of thought the problem of maladministration and poor governance stems from this interference. It must be recognised that in democratic forms of governance, elected leaders will have to respond to their political constituents and the associated vested interests. The accountability for results rests largely on these politicians and not on the civil servants.

If the interference of the politicians is aimed at serving the narrow parochial interests of a few individuals or groups rather than the broader collective interests of their constituencies, they may end up paying a heavy price at the time of the next elections. Their opponents, the opposition parties and the media scrutiny will keep a watch on their actions and expose them before their constituents. The alignment of the civil servants with their political bosses in violating a circumventing laid down laws, rules, regulations and procedure would prove to be myopic as these civil servants will also become tainted and suffer in their career advancement.

If the successive civil servants appointed to a key position refuse to carry out illegal, unlawful or irregular orders how many times a minister can get them transferred or how many of them could be appointed as OSDs. The strong temptation to indulge in immediate gratification by keeping the political bosses happy and either ignore or go along with them is indeed the crux of the problem. The long term consequences for succumbing to such temptations should always be kept in mind by this category of civil servants. There is no substitute for personal integrity and character in public service.

However to expect that we will be able to induct angels in civil services is also unrealistic. The thrust of the proposed reforms is to limit the discretionary powers of the decision-makers, simplify the cumbersome procedures and processes and make them transparent and realign the incentives of the individual civil servants with those of the organisation. It is proposed, therefore, that the commission should remain as a permanent body responsible for change management in the government but limit the term of the office of chairman and members to two years only.

(Concluded)



Email: ihusain@pmsectt.gov.pk