LUMS MBA for Fresh DMG Officers.

[PyroManiac]

Assalam o Alikum.
Atlast some thing to cherish for this elite group after the devolution plan.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=4191


MBA made mandatory for fresh DMG officers

By Ansar Abbasi

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has approved a proposal making it mandatory for every fresh entrant into the district management group (DMG) to do a specially designed Masters of Business Administration (MBA) from the prestigious Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS).

Sources said that the establishment division has been directed to take up the matter with LUMS through the Civil Service Academy (CSA) to devise a customized business degree for the future DMGs.

Seeing the Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC) failing to complete its announced plan of restructuring the existing obsolete Central Superior Services (CSS) exam system to meet the modern days challenges, it was the PM secretariat that itself initiated the proposal and got it approved from the prime minister.

Asian Development Bank, it is said, is being approached to fund the MBA programme for at least three years. Afterwards the Civil Service Academy will finance the MBA programme for DMGs from its own budget.

The emphasis of the MBA will be on public sector management. Through this programme, according to sources, the government wants to develop a professional pool of public sector managers who have the diversity of exposure to act as generalist administrator and simultaneously possess the relevant training to perform specialized assignments.

According to the approved plan, the DMG probationers after completing their common training programme in the Civil Service Academy and the specialized training programme at the DMG campus, will be sent to the LUMS for one year fast track MBA in public sector management.

The third segment of training programme will be conducted at LUMS and all educational standards, rules, regulations of LUMS will be applicable to the DMG probationers.

The focus of the LUMS MBA, it is said, will be on project management, human resources management, organizational behaviour, management of financial institutions, management of government business relations, international trade, management of social enterprise, managerial economics etc.

The sources said that the DMG officers in the post devolution scenario are expected to serve in the key offices of the revenue administration, district coordination, planning, local finance and municipal administration besides their mid career and policy making role in the provincial and federal secretariats.

The Central Board of Revenue (CBR) was the first to amend the relevant rules to make it mandatory for every future revenue officer to earn a master's degree in tax management before formally joining the country's top tax collecting authority.

According to a recent government order, now everyone joining the revenue services including the customs and excise group and the income tax service would have to qualify the MBA degree in tax management programme before joining these services.

The CBR initiative is part of the CBR reforms programme under which the probationers of the customs and income tax groups after attending the common training in CSA and completing their specialized training, would do the specified MBA programme from the reputed Institute of Business Administration (IBA) Karachi.

The FPSC under its former chairman was considering restructuring plan for the CSS exam system. A former member FPSC was assigned the task but the things slowed down because of the unexpected departure of both the chairman and the members owing to the cut in their tenure from previous five to existing three.

The World Bank was reportedly assisting the FPSC in the CSS overhauling programme, however, after the former chairman's departure there is no clue as to what is happening in this specific area.