What can civil service learn from military?

If you meet an army officer who is part of the faculty of National Command and Staff College, you’ll immediately know that he is a ‘career officer’ with exceptional credentials within the armed forces. On the other hand, if you meet a civil servant serving at a civil service training institution, you’ll inevitably get the impression that he is khudday line — a term in popular use within the bureaucracy to signify being sidelined — even if it’s not true.

While both these institutions operate in totally different contexts, there are three areas in particular where civil service can and should learn from the military. These include the pyramid organisational structure, strong internal accountability and exceptional focus on talent development.

Civil service in Pakistan takes in about 200 officers a year and all of them are offered assured upward mobility. No one is weeded out. Subject to allocated seats, officers from all central superior services (CSS) reach the top-most grades. Very few who are left behind complain of being victimised. Without a pyramid structure, everyone has incentives to let almost everyone pass through. This vertical top-heavy structure creates a complacent culture.

The military, on the other hand, takes in about 800 to 1,000 officers each year, in two batches. Out of those, only 8 to 10 make it to the top tier i.e. Lieutenant General. The pyramid structure requires filtering out most, based on the principle of up-or-out where only the best are promoted. In fact, most of these officers — about 70 per cent — recruited as 2^nd Lieutenants are retired at the rank of Major. The rest are made to retire at subsequent levels. Those who want to rise to the top have to fiercely compete. Moreover, the promotion criteria based on officers’ efficiency index is quite transparent and is well understood and respected within the institution. The civil service has tried to adopt a similar structure but only in form and not in function.

The second important element is the strong internal accountability in the military. Multiple agencies keep vigilance on officers and any breach of discipline is dealt with immediately. The career never comes in the way of discipline and even the best are not spared if found guilty.

Civil servants operate much closer to public resources and rent-seeking opportunities. If anything, the internal accountability system should have been far stronger. Instead, it’s abysmally weak, with a forgiving culture. Efficiency & Discipline Rules are rarely used to impose a major penalty on a CSS officer. The most common way to reprimand someone is to post him at an unimportant position or at best surrender from one government to the other. Barring the recent wave of NAB cases, accountability of civil service has happened only in exceptional cases.

Lastly comes talent development. A career army officer generally has a balanced track record of staff, command and instruction assignments. In times of peace, the best officers are posted as directing staff. When they evaluate their trainees at the end, their words are taken seriously. Moreover, the pre- and in-service training is fully tailored to the job requirements. In civil service however, not only are the training assignments not considered prestigious, but there also remains a big disconnect between what’s taught and what’s expected of the civil servants.

Both the armed forces and the civil service were part of Britain’s institutional legacy in the sub-continent. Both changed their orientation in the post-colonial setup but took entirely different trajectories. Civil service became weaker over the years while armed forces strengthened. The former became highly politicised but the latter, though involved in politics, never permitted politics to perforate its institutional boundaries. Maybe it’s time for the civil service to take a page from military’s institutional playbook.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 7^th, 2021.

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