Contract extension: Govt reappoints bureaucrat after retirement

Rana will serve as finance secretary, may deal with lending agencies


Shahbaz Rana November 06, 2012

ISLAMABAD: The government has re-employed Abdul Wajid Rana as principal officer, who will serve as finance secretary for one more year.

According to sources in the Establishment Division, the government has created a new post of principal officer to the government in an attempt to pave the way to bring back Rana, who retired on Monday after attaining the age of superannuation.

Rana, an officer of the District Management Group, which is considered the most powerful group of bureaucracy, has been hired in grade-22 on contract basis for one year.

His appointment shows that the government wants to keep a man in its fold that has rich experience of dealing with international lending agencies as the country may enter into another loan arrangement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

As pressure on foreign currency reserves mount due to upcoming big payments to the IMF, there are chances that the country may again knock on the door of IMF before close of the current fiscal year in June 2013.

Rana has served as Economic Affairs Division (EAD) secretary. He was appointed finance secretary in February 2012, being the sixth finance secretary in the last four and a half years.

He also worked as economic minister in Washington for four and a half years. He served in Sindh and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa as finance secretary. He also worked with Abdul Hafeez Shaikh in Sindh and is credited with helping achieve a surplus in the provincial budget.

After the retirement of Rana, a number of bureaucrats, particularly from the DMG, were trying hard to become finance secretary, but the government picked Rana.

The big economic picture does not depict a healthy trend and the finance secretary will have to make strenuous efforts to correct the things, which will be quite difficult in the wake of government’s heavy spending.

A massive increase in subsidies and interest payments during the first quarter (July-September) has made unrealistic the annual budget deficit target of 4.7%. Though the finance ministry has restricted the deficit to 1.2% of gross domestic product (GDP) from July to September due to Coalition Support Fund (CSF) payments, it may not be able to contain it in the remaining period of the year.

The secretary will have to devise a plan, close to the real economic picture, to avoid negative consequences.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 7th, 2012.

 

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