K-P launches good governance strategy

At least 205 indicators to gauge performance of officials

PESHAWAR: Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Mehmood Khan has formally launched the first ever Provincial Good Governance Strategy aimed at improving public services delivery along with promoting transparency, accountability and participative governance.

The launching ceremony was chaired by the chief minister at the Civil Secretariat in which commissioners, deputy commissioners and other high ranking officials from all the districts of the province took part.

According to official statement, a total of 205 performance indicators have been identified in various sectors aimed at improving the services delivery of government while simultaneously gauging the performance of various government office holders.

While addressing the launching ceremony, the Chief Minister stated that the strategy will be implemented in letter and spirit adding that the benefits of the Good Governance Strategy should be simultaneously communicated to citizens in order to motivate them towards participative governance.

The CM furthered that apart from providing services to citizens at their doorsteps, the new strategy will also identify public office holders who lag the capacity to perform their duties.

“This will be a major step towards ensuring efficiency in government services because we will be able to evaluate the performances of the government servants based on pragmatic evidences,” CM Mahmood added.

According to details, the strategy is based on five basic pillars including open government and transparency, public services delivery, citizen participation, accountability and innovation & technology.

In order to ensure transparency and open governance, the strategy has documented citizens right to access to all the documents and proceedings of the government for effective public oversight. This has been achieved, to a certain extent, by ensuring proactive disclosure of information to the public, easy access of the public to government offices and their outreach and interaction.

Under the good governance strategy an attempt has been made to ensure public service delivery through implementation of regulatory functions, smart management for improved performance and technology driven services delivery.

Similarly, citizen participation has been termed as an integral part of democratic governance as it ensures that citizens’ complaints against the government are adequately addressed and their feedbacks are considered in policy making. Under the citizen participation, the government will emphasise on identification and mapping of short terms and long term citizens’ engagement, social empowerment and community development.

Performance and accountability can only be ensured through coordination among all the departments of the government, internal accountability and career planning of public office holders. For the purpose the strategy has identified areas for better coordination between district government and line departments.

Keeping in view the market dynamics and an ever increasing demands and parameters, the strategy aims to introduce and institutionalise scientific Innovation and technology through digitalisation of data regarding the government processes, computerisation of human resources, employees’ data and land records.

The use of citizen portal mobile applications, ERD, GIS and MIS are manifestations of government responsiveness to achieve a competitive edge and attain the ultimate goal of good governance

For the successful implementation of the strategy, each area of intervention has been made measurable by a set of key performance indicators. On the basis of these, periodic review will be held for gauging the progress of district administration and administrative departments against each area of intervention.

While speaking with media persons, the chief minister added that the incumbent government is working to further the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan and that every effort will be made to rid the Province of inefficient practices and pave way for sustainable and lasting development.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 29^th, 2019.