Islamabad:
One week after advertising to hire federal secretaries for economic ministries from the private sector, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday made a committee to further investigate the induction of sector experts to more appropriate levels of the office.
The Committee of Ministers includes Minister for Climate Change, dr. Musadiq Malik, Minister of Power Sardar Awais Laghari, Trade Secretary Jawad Paul and FBR -Chairman Rashid Langrial. It has been tasked with considering the proposal thoroughly.
The committee’s conclusions will also be in line with the work of two other committees led by Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb and Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal.
The move comes just six days after the government published a media ad seeking professionals in the private sector of the best civilian roles, triggering concern among some federal ministers and bureaucrats on the potential influence on governance and institutional integrity.
Prime Minister Shehbaz instructed the formation of a committee to conclude action proposals for restructuring other ministries and institutions, considering the reforms of the Ministry of Energy, according to a statement from PM’s office.
“The committee will also focus on recruiting the best workforce, adapting ministries with modern systems and improving management through reforms,” PM’s office said.
The sources said that some of the participants during the electricity sector meeting raised some of the participants’ serious concerns about the impact of the decision to hire the most important accounting men and other technical experts from the open market.
There was a strong view of the meeting that the federal secretary’s office cannot be replaced with private individuals who have limited or no accountability for their decisions. One of the arguments was that foreign investments have not been hampered by secretaries, rather the reasons were different. Lack of holiness for the contracts is said to be one of such reasons for deterring foreign investment.
Participants had no problem with the induction of people against higher quality positions, but there was concern about entry on whether to do federal secretaries or the inductions should be from class 20 or 21, the sources said.
The Federal Minister of Economic Affairs and Establishment Ahad Khan Cheema said there was no change in the previous decision that was to establish a pool of talented and experienced people.
The government has issued advertisements over the weekend to hire seven “dynamic” private sectoral people for positions as federal secretaries.
However, the ad did not name the divisions, the qualification criteria and the job descriptions. It has invited applications from “dynamic and experienced professionals to the role of main accounts officers (PAOS), technical advisers, head of organizations in key economic areas,” the ad indicates. A two -week deadline is given to submit the applications.
The advertisement, published on the establishment department site, did not name the divisions, the qualification criteria and the job descriptions. However, it suggested that the government is set to hire seven federal secretaries from the private sector to operate the financial -related ministries.
This is the finance department, petroleum department, Power Division, Planning Department, Industries and Production Department, National Food Safety Department and Vocational Education and Education. These departments are currently led by officers from the powerful Pakistan Administrative Service (PAS).
A federal minister opposed the attitude of his secretary to be announced without first consulting him.
Pakistan’s economic ministries are mostly driven by officers from passports, and there has been criticism that many of them do not have the necessary experience to understand the complexity of financial affairs.
The Prime Minister said that the transformation of the outdated system into a modern, digital and effective management model was among the government’s priorities, as economic development and prosperity were impossible without modernizing the system to meet contemporary demands.
The Prime Minister ordered to introduce reforms to improve the performance of ministries and hire experts’ services in all sectors. The Prime Minister said the country could not make progress with the system that has been in place for seven decades.
The meeting participants claimed that instead of bringing in federal secretaries, the capacity must be built through technical induction on a contractual basis or at the middle level lateral entry into office services.
The direct induction as the main accounting officer has largely not tested without exposure to public sector management and political and parliamentary summaries that exclude the induction of secretarial information technology.
According to some bureaucrats, the best professionals in the private sector in this environment with high risk will not participate in the current administrative wages scales and special pay scales. The existing things in the management reward scale are not of high quality, they argued.
Young officers from the provinces are also reluctant to work in the federal government due to better service structure in the provinces.
The federal government had, for a few years back, gave 140% executive reimbursement to the bureaucrats on the grounds that officers from provinces were not ready to work at the center due to better wage packages offered by the federal units.
