Discussing their fraternity: The pot calling the kettle black
At a seminar, retired bureaucrats slam bureaucracy, politicos.
“Over the years, we have done lip service to the need for civil service reforms and all efforts to move forward ended without any concrete outcome”, says Dr Hussain.
ISLAMABAD:
Today, the state has become dysfunctional due to failure of civil service reforms, suspension of process of decentralisation of power and appointment of federal secretaries on the whims of vested groups. This was the consensus of serving and former senior state functionaries at a seminar organised by the Planning Commission on Wednesday.
The retired and serving bureaucrats admitted that that many reforms could not be implemented and the price was being paid by their countrymen.
The event was organised at a time when criticism is increasing over the previous government’s failure in introducing key reforms, resulting into bad governance at all tiers.
Keynote speaker Dr Ishrat Hussain, a former State Bank of Pakistan governor, said the process of devolution of power that started with much-trumpeted 18th Amendment has been stuck at provincial level, denying the citizens of the benefits envisaged. The concentration of power now resides with provinces that have refused to transfer these powers to grassroots level.
“Over the years, we have done lip service to the need for civil service reforms and all efforts to move forward ended without any concrete outcome”, said Hussain, who also headed many commissions constituted to restructure the government.
Dr Hussain said reforms introduced to separate regulatory and policy work also failed due to the ongoing turf war between the regulators and concerned federal ministries. He said a grade-17 section officer sitting in a federal ministry was more powerful than whole regulatory authority board.
The third area where reforms failed was the government’s inability to abolish the financial adviser structure, as a grade-18 deputy financial advisor is more powerful than a grade-22 federal secretary. He said the attached departments have also become meaningless as these departments were being micromanaged by the ministries.
There are 410 attached departments and autonomous bodies, 200 of which have been recommended for closure by the National Commission for Government Reforms (NCGR).
Dr Hussain also spoke about flaws within the civil services. He said non-cadre government employees are given stepmotherly treatment, which is resulting in the waste of three-quarters of the human resources hired. He termed the existing evaluation system for promotion of bureaucrats outdated and sought new performance evaluation criteria. He also highlighted flaws in business processes, particularly the Rules of Business 1973.
“The rules are framed in such a way that the head of Planning Commission (PC), cannot appoint the chief economist and members,” said Dr Nadeemul Haque, deputy chairman of the PC. He said that even today, retired generals and federal secretaries are appointed as PC members without his consent.
The framework for economic growth, which was approved twice by the National Economic Council, was aimed at introducing reforms in the civil service, markets and urban centres, “but we badly failed to implement the growth framework,” Dr Haque admitted.
He said urban centre reforms are tied to civil service reforms, as bureaucrats control the cities.
However, the most striking comments were made by former finance secretary and current Federal Public Service Commission Member Abdul Wajid Rana. He said that over the years, the bureaucracy has aligned itself with various lobbies and now, retired bureaucrats are emerging as door openers for the cement, sugar, fertilizer industries and other lobbies.
“During the last eight years, interest groups were getting their choices appointed as ministry secretaries and seniority was no longer the criteria for appointment at top posts,” Rana said.
“The cancer of corruption is a result of a compliant and inefficient bureaucracy,” said former federal secretary Ijaz Ahmad Qureshi. He said that today, a ‘good bureaucrat’ is one who goes out of his way to oblige politicians. “The collective behaviour of the bureaucracy led to the failure of the government and the state,” said Qureshi.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 4th, 2013.
Today, the state has become dysfunctional due to failure of civil service reforms, suspension of process of decentralisation of power and appointment of federal secretaries on the whims of vested groups. This was the consensus of serving and former senior state functionaries at a seminar organised by the Planning Commission on Wednesday.
The retired and serving bureaucrats admitted that that many reforms could not be implemented and the price was being paid by their countrymen.
The event was organised at a time when criticism is increasing over the previous government’s failure in introducing key reforms, resulting into bad governance at all tiers.
Keynote speaker Dr Ishrat Hussain, a former State Bank of Pakistan governor, said the process of devolution of power that started with much-trumpeted 18th Amendment has been stuck at provincial level, denying the citizens of the benefits envisaged. The concentration of power now resides with provinces that have refused to transfer these powers to grassroots level.
“Over the years, we have done lip service to the need for civil service reforms and all efforts to move forward ended without any concrete outcome”, said Hussain, who also headed many commissions constituted to restructure the government.
Dr Hussain said reforms introduced to separate regulatory and policy work also failed due to the ongoing turf war between the regulators and concerned federal ministries. He said a grade-17 section officer sitting in a federal ministry was more powerful than whole regulatory authority board.
The third area where reforms failed was the government’s inability to abolish the financial adviser structure, as a grade-18 deputy financial advisor is more powerful than a grade-22 federal secretary. He said the attached departments have also become meaningless as these departments were being micromanaged by the ministries.
There are 410 attached departments and autonomous bodies, 200 of which have been recommended for closure by the National Commission for Government Reforms (NCGR).
Dr Hussain also spoke about flaws within the civil services. He said non-cadre government employees are given stepmotherly treatment, which is resulting in the waste of three-quarters of the human resources hired. He termed the existing evaluation system for promotion of bureaucrats outdated and sought new performance evaluation criteria. He also highlighted flaws in business processes, particularly the Rules of Business 1973.
“The rules are framed in such a way that the head of Planning Commission (PC), cannot appoint the chief economist and members,” said Dr Nadeemul Haque, deputy chairman of the PC. He said that even today, retired generals and federal secretaries are appointed as PC members without his consent.
The framework for economic growth, which was approved twice by the National Economic Council, was aimed at introducing reforms in the civil service, markets and urban centres, “but we badly failed to implement the growth framework,” Dr Haque admitted.
He said urban centre reforms are tied to civil service reforms, as bureaucrats control the cities.
However, the most striking comments were made by former finance secretary and current Federal Public Service Commission Member Abdul Wajid Rana. He said that over the years, the bureaucracy has aligned itself with various lobbies and now, retired bureaucrats are emerging as door openers for the cement, sugar, fertilizer industries and other lobbies.
“During the last eight years, interest groups were getting their choices appointed as ministry secretaries and seniority was no longer the criteria for appointment at top posts,” Rana said.
“The cancer of corruption is a result of a compliant and inefficient bureaucracy,” said former federal secretary Ijaz Ahmad Qureshi. He said that today, a ‘good bureaucrat’ is one who goes out of his way to oblige politicians. “The collective behaviour of the bureaucracy led to the failure of the government and the state,” said Qureshi.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 4th, 2013.