Delivering public service to Pakistan’s diverse ever-increasing population of more than 220 million would be no easy feat in the best of circumstances. But what has historically kept good governance even more elusive for the country is a bureaucratic structure rife with inefficiency and vulnerable to corruption.
A report by Transparency International in 2013 revealed that 75 per cent of survey respondents in Pakistan had bribed the country’s land services department. Similarly, 57 per cent of respondents had bribed their utility services while 45 per cent had bribed their registry and permit services. The report further said that 81 percent of the respondents in the survey believed civil servants and public officials to be the most corrupt among Pakistan’s office-bearers.
Pakistan ranks within the bottom third percentile globally as far as governance indicators are concerned. In the last 72 years the country has been unable to stabilise its economy, and maladministration and misuse of resources have remained a persistent challenge. Amidst such circumstances, significant circles in the country are expressing concerns that the country could plummet further into failure if significant changes are not made within public sector practices.
Pakistan’s bureaucracy predominantly consists of the Central Superior Services (CSS), which is considered the state engine responsible for implementing government policies. While its role for development and stability of bureaucracy cannot be overlooked, changes and improvements in its policies and practices are necessary. For this purpose, analysing the whole structure of CSS, its recruiting process, promotion and training is extremely relevant.
For a long time, experts have criticised the structure and processes pertaining to bureaucracy in Pakistan. Certain circles have even stated that the entire concept of bureaucracy is outdated and stressed that it should be abandoned altogether for a more efficient and modern way of governance. However, since bureaucracy happens to be the machinery that keeps the country running, one cannot deny its benefits. Abandoning it abruptly would not be a practical idea nor does it seem to be possible. Rather, as some scholars suggest its reforming would be less costly and sensible.
A new approach to recruitment
Analysts maintain that the recruitment process is responsible for selecting the right people for the job and has farreaching effects on the overall efficiency and culture of any organisation. The first question is to what extent the tools for recruiting candidates for CSS, which is carried out through the CSS exam under the supervision of Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC), is credible.
Dr Riffat Hussain, a well-known analyst who was also engaged in the examination process of the Federal Public Service Commission, said that earlier the recruitment process had many flaws but four years ago, measures were put into place to improve it. “I think the examination and interview process is better now [since the improvements],” he said.
But many observers still have reservations over the recruitment process. Some say that the exam is not judging management skills as the selected candidates have to be involved in administration in different departments and the tools of the examination are not even fit for measuring intelligence. “Syllabus for the CSS exams have some issues and it has to be revised. For example in the optional portion, chemistry, which is not directly related to management or administration, was set as a paper of 200 marks but Public Administration is a paper that carries 100 marks only,” said former member of FPSC Ahmad Farooq.
He said checking papers of one subject is not possible for one person as thousands of people appear in the CSS exam every year. Thus, the marking of the papers is not standardised either.
Talent filtered out
Critics maintain that some talented candidates are ousted by exams as they need to select people with some particular ideas and ideology, and candidates have to express themselves artificially if they want to be selected. They add that the system of CSS exams is not for checking the relevant intelligence and traits that would later be required by the jobs in focus.
This selection process and the type of personalities that is being selected do have an impact later when such individuals are selected and inducted within the bureaucratic system. Certain columnist and analysts have severely criticised the credibility of the exam itself as a very low number of candidates are able to pass these exams. For instance, only 250 out of over 17,000 candidates passed the written examination for CSS recently. Experts insist that the testing system itself flawed as oftentimes applicants with brilliant academic records are unable to pass these exams and thus, significant talent is missed out on by the government. However, members of the FPSC and academicians differ with them on the subject.
Dr Riffat, who is also a prominent academician and nowadays chairs a department at the NUST said that the reason for higher ratio of failure at the CSS is the falling standard of education at a number of institutions. Recently students that have passed the four-year BS exams are appearing for the competitive exams in large numbers and this trend is different from the past when candidates preferred to opt for CSS exams after their master’s degree. When asked as to how the four-year BS programme is inferior to the master’s degree, he said that institutions across the country had increased however, except two or three educational institutions, all of them have very low standards.
Anyhow for critics, certain factors that affect quality of the recruitment need to be addressed. For example, oft-repeated topic topics of essays such as ‘pros and cons of globalisation’ could put a candidate with genuine ideas who cannot afford coaching academy at disadvantage in comparison with a less intelligent with coaching. Here, memorisation rather than genius can lead to achieving success in the exam and thus lead errors in the selection process.
However, analysts seem to be satisfied with the fairness and transparency of the recruitment process as software and office automation like artificial intelligence is employed for the selection panel and there is little room for subjectivity.
For controlling numbers of candidates appearing in the exams, screening tests which are to be valid for three or more years have been suggested. Such steps have already tested in the United Kingdom for minimising the number of the candidates (upto 20 per cent) for finally appearing in the competitive exams for similar services such as CSS here in Pakistan. “In this way only most suitable candidates would be able to appear in the written exam for CSS which could save time and energy while also to have positive effect on standardisation for the recruitment,” said Ahmad Farooq.
Reform on the horizon
Sources inside the Federal Public Service Commission said that such options coupled with some other steps for improvement were already in the cards. Analysts said that several other factors like training, promotion policy and the environment including political situation and other factors determine the productivity of bureaucracy in the country though the principles of selecting right persons for the right jobs can never be ignored.
Another positive development for bureaucracy is that the incumbent government has constituted a federal task force on institutional reforms headed by Dr Ishrat Hussain. Sources in the task force told The Express Tribune that recruitment is not the only issue that has negatively impacted the performance of the system. “We have problems with training, promotions and every phase that causes inefficiency on part of the public services,” said the source, who requested anonymity.
After recruitment for the all 12 groups of the CSS, the selected candidates receive training at Civil Service Academy Lahore and then further training at different phases of their jobs. Experts said that a very general type of training is provided at the academy, though at later stages some specialised trainings are provided during jobs but which is considered insufficient for enhancing high skills that are required in the modern time.
In addition, such trainings are considered as formalities as unlike Pakistan military no promotion or important incentives are attached to such programmes. Pakistani military provides regular trainings to its officers and without attending the training, promotion to the next stage is almost impossible. Performance and distinctions are also evaluated during the trainings are taken into consideration during postings or promotions.
Hina Shiekh and Zara Salman, both experts on developmental policies and programmes, in an article published in a prominent publication, suggest that a key path for improving performance of civil servants during training is to strengthen its linkages with opportunities and promotions. The analysts said that careful selection of training modules are essential to improve performance of the bureaucracy.
It is encouraging that the first-ever training need assessment survey was carried out and recommendations for reforming bureaucracy were moved forward for approval of the cabinet. In the past all such steps had been resisted.
As per recommendations, future placement and postings of officers would be based on the criteria which include nature of experience gained, expertise acquired, appraisal reports of the training institutes and dossier of performance evaluation reports.
Advisor to the prime minister on institutional reforms Dr Ishrat Hussain told The Express Tribune that changes in the selection process of civil servants, their trainings, and promotions are being made. “Efforts are afoot to make FPSC and Civil Service Academy more effective while methods for promotion and evaluation are also being made to achieve better results,” he said.
Habibullah Khan, senior bureaucrat who was also member of FPSC, said that civil servants are seldom posted on merit rather positions are given for their undue obedience. This environment has however, badly affected the efficiency of bureaucracy. “In fact they are compelled to serve political bosses whether his demand is legal or not,” he said
No doubt extensive changes within the CSS exams and institutional reforms were suggested but experts are still worried as no implementation in this connection is visible.