Govt's Top Civil Service Reformer Unveils Reform Agenda

5/11/2020 Govt’s top civil service reformer unveils reform agenda
Govt’s top civil service reformer unveils reform

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agenda
Top Story Ansar Abbasi (https://www.thenews.com.pk/writer/ansar-abbasi) May 10, 2020
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text=Govt’s
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ISLAMABAD: Government’s top adviser on civil service reforms Dr Ishrat
govt-top top
Hussain
s- unveiled the variety of changes being made in the country’s bureaucratic
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structures serviceand systems from civil servants’ induction, recruitment, training,
civil-reformer
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performance, promotion, compensation and retirement to institution building,
service-
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devolution,
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Dr Hussain shared with The News details of the Imran Khan government’s vision
agenda)
s- govt-
on civil
top- s-
service reforms to improve government’s performance for the progress
andcivil-
prosperity
top- of the country and its people. The salary raise to government
service-
servants civil-
will be given on the basis of performance, present pension system is
reformer-
service-
being changed
unveils-
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to de ned contribution mechanism, CSS system is being
reform-
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https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/656409-govt-s-top-civil-service-reformer-unveils-reform-agenda 1/8
overhauled, specialists or non-cadres o cers are being given more opportunities

to grow and serve better, more posts in grade 17 and above are being created, e-
governance is being introduced to cut lower sta etc.
He said that the entire package of proposed civil service reforms is part of an
integrated, interwoven value-chain of human resources policies, therefore it
would be a mistake to examine each component as stand alone without realising
its inseparable linkages with other parts of the chain. He said, “We are looking at
how we can enhance the quality of human resource in the whole government. A
weak link in the chain, if left to itself, would not allow that qualitative change to
take hold,” he said, explaining that the value chain starts with recruitment
induction, and then it goes to training, performance management, career
progression and promotion policy, compensation and bene ts, and nally
retirement. “It must be emphasised that these reforms should be seen in the
context of an empowered, devolved and fully resourced local government system
as the delivery of public services takes place at the village and town level and not
federal and provincial capitals. The new Local Government Acts approved by
Punjab and KP assemblies would strengthen the local bodies whose heads would
be directly elected by the people and operate with the assistance of the civil
servants.” He said, “we may bring about changes in recruitment system to attract
the best talent but if they are not compensated well, have no clear career path and
lack a transparent performance management system then it would be di cult to
retain the brightest among them or to early retire non-performers.”
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govt-top top he said, “we may increase compensation across the board without
Similarly,
s- civil civil
distinguishing
top- service
service
between those who produce quality output and those who slack in
their
civil- duties
reformer
reformerbut it will end up in lowering motivation and morale, and the overall
service-
unveils
unveils would su er resulting in poor service delivery to the public and
productivity
reformer-
reformreform
impediments
unveils- agenda in the way of economic actors.” “Under the present performance
system
reform- it would be di cult to identify o cers who have received unsatisfactory
agenda)
s- forgovt-
ACRs three years and the purpose of early retirement would be defeated in
top- s-
actual
civil-practice.
top- So, the new Performance Management System is the pre-requisite
for service-
the civil-
success of the early retirement rules. All elements are intricately linked
reformer-
service-
and tinkering with one or two without making consequential changes in the
unveils-
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others would bring no bene cial results. Thus simultaneous changes in all
reform-
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componentsreform- are required.” For recruitment, he said, the government is bringing in
agenda)
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some element of domain knowledge at the time of the appearing in the civil
services exam. So right now, you may be an English Literature graduate but
because of the quota system and if you are from Punjab, you are not allocated a
place in DMG or Foreign Service, and you end up in Audit and Accounts Service.
As a result, your domain knowledge becomes absolutely incompatible with the
job you are going to do. So either you are a frustrated person or you rely on your
clerks and juniors. The government, therefore, is currently unable to make an
optimal utilisation of these bright young men and women. He added, “We have to
move towards a blended approach in which the relative strengths of the
generalists and specialists are optimally utilised. Therefore, at the time of
induction, we create incentives for candidates to match their preferences with
some prior domain knowledge. There would be no restrictions of any academic
quali cation to apply and appear at the Central Services examination. You may be
a doctor or an engineer, but if you want a career in Foreign Service, you must
appear at International Relations and International Law as optional papers. If you
prefer to work in the Police Service, you must have chosen papers on Criminology
and Civil & Criminal Procedural Codes as optional subjects. So that is the mapping
the government is attempting to introduce.
Additionally, he said, they are proposing a screening test for CSS exam as right
now it is very di cult to assess 16,000 scripts from the exam every year. So we
should try to bring in MCQs which will help to eliminate a lot of people at the
screening stage but respect the observance of regional/provincial and other
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As a result, the residual bunch of 2,000 people or so will go through a
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psychometric test modeled on the British Civil Service. After this round, the
s- civil civil
candidates
top- service
servicewill appear at compulsory and optional subjects' written exams, and
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then the interviews.
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Dr Hussain
unveils- agendasaid that the second most important element of this value chain is the
training.
reform- Right now, there is no di erentiation in the products of training at
agenda)
s- govt-
various stages of civil service. The training is not linked to job requirements. The
top- s-
reforms will address that issue. But the biggest change is that we have to
civil-top-
systematically
service-
civil- train specialists as well as generalists. Out of 29,000 federal
reformer-
service-
government o cers, only 6,000 are generalists or what we call cadre o cers. The
unveils-
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remaining
reform- 23,000 are non-cadre o cers – there are engineers, doctors,
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accountants,
reform- nancial analysts and others among them. They don't have either
agenda)
agenda)
any prescribed training or any career path. They are frustrated and demotivated
and therefore they are not contributing much. They are sulking because despite
having their degrees from some of the best universities in the world and in
Pakistan, they haven't been promoted for 12 years from grade 18 to grade-19. “We
are trying to bring them into the mainstream and eliminate this arti cial barrier
between the superior services and other services. Have we ever thought for a
moment as to why there is so much corruption in PWD, Irrigation, Customs,
Revenue, Development Authorities such as CDA and LDA, lower Police etc? As
they don’t nd any prospects for future career progression they use their
enormous discretionary powers for enriching themselves and buying in uence to
protect themselves. Despite NAB, FIA and Anti Corruption agencies it is generally
perceived that the level of corruption today in these departments is much higher
than three decades ago. It has also permeated in Education, Health and AG o ces
too,” he said.
He disclosed that the cabinet has already approved the plan to have post-
induction training for all the specialists and then in-service training at grades 18,
19 and 20. So there will be an equality of opportunity for both the generalists and
the specialists. And this discrimination that exists today and has led to a lot of
heartburn will be removed and we would be able to utilise their services
e ectively. He said, “We have mega projects and engineers have never had any
chance to refresh their knowledge or learn new tools. The government is
spending a lot of money on highly paid consultants from outside and we cannot
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judge whether the work of the consultants is up to the quality. According to
govt-top top
the PM Inspection Commission, the cost overruns on development projects are
s- civil civil
150service
top- percent
servicehigher than the original estimated costs. So, we will create a cadre of
civil-
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specialistsreformer
who will be exposed to training, up-gradation of their skills over time
service-
unveils
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andreform
de reform
reformer- ned career paths with results based monetary rewards so that we can do a
better
unveils- job in project screening, project appraisal, and project evaluation. That
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training scheme for the non-cadre and ex-cadre o cers has already been
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s- govt-
approved
top- s- by the cabinet and now it is being implemented.
civil-top-
Hussain
service- added that the government is also making changes to ‘performance
civil-
reformer-
service-
management,' which is the third area of intervention and has been approved by
unveils-
reformer-
thereform-
cabinet.
unveils-Today we follow the colonial system of ‘annual con dential report'
thatagenda)
provides
reform- no substantive evidence of performance on the job or future
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potential. So, we are replacing these subjective evaluation reports by an

objectives-based, KPI-driven evaluation, which a subordinate can discuss with his
or her superior o cer. Both of them will sign the KPIs that are to be achieved
during the year. Only 20 percent in the cohort will be categorised as outstanding,
60 percent as satisfactory, and 20 percent as below average. Performance will
also be related to promotion, so that the o cer's training outcomes and placement
in the promotion ladder will be determined by his or her performance. So, there is
an incentive for the o cer to work hard because he or she wants to get promoted
to the next grade. This categorisation would also feed in early retirement policy. If
an o cer has not consistently performed satisfactorily and keeps falling in 20
percent or below average then his/her case would be placed before the committee
for early retirement.
He said there is a lot of criticism against the promotion policy that has been
noti ed as it is alleged to reward those “in good books of the government and
penalise those in bad books”. He said the Selection Board consists of 14 senior
most o cers drawn from di erent services, provinces, backgrounds and they are
given a standard assessment sheet for marking 10 pre-de ned attributes. It is the
average of all the independent but structured assessments made by the Board
members, which determine the nal marks out of 30 marks at the disposal of the
board. The discretionary element is minimised and biases are nulli ed in this
process and that is the beauty of large group collective judgment compared to the
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discretion of an individual or 3 to 4 individuals making the decision. The
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are given lower weight at present because by and large they are highly non
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di erentiated and skewed in favour of outstanding and excellent categories. Once
s- civil civil
theservice
top- new Performance Management system becomes fully operational, the relative
service
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weight reformer
of performance reports would be raised.
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According
unveils- to the Adviser, “The other thing that we are looking to change is the
agenda
practice
reform- where a 15 percent across-the-board annual increment is given whether
agenda)
s- govt-
an o cer has performed or not. We are going to give a 20-25 percent raise to the
top- s-
people who are in the outstanding category, 10 percent to 15 percent increment to
civil-top-
those in
service-the satisfactory category, and no increment to those who are below
civil-
reformer-
service-
average. We want to give a signal that the o cers need to improve. In
unveils-
reformer-
performance
unveils- management, we are also giving attention to o cer's personal
reform-
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development and linking it to training objectives. For instance, if an o cer feels

that he or she needs training to improve writing or presentation skills, it will be
the job of the supervisor to provide adequate training in that particular eld.”
He said, “The fourth area of our value-chain approach deals with the career path.
Today, you may be a Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Religious A airs and
tomorrow you may become a Joint Secretary of Industries Ministry. Now, how
you can actually contribute to that position because you don't have any prior
background. To tackle this issue, we are following the clustering model. At grade
19, you may be a medical doctor or an engineer or an agriculture researcher or a
PAS o cer or a PSP, but at this stage we will try to sort people out into clusters. So
some people will remain only in the nancial and economic ministries' cluster;
some may remain in the social sectors' cluster; some in the technical ministries;
and some in the general administrative cadre.”
According to Hussain, the idea is to have an o cer's performance and career path
tailor-made so that if he or she has the inclination and the capacity to go to the
economic ministries, then we will train him or her in that path. Hence, after grade
19, you will specialise in that area. So, the clustering will promote a plank between
a generalist and a specialist. Both the theory and the empirical evidence show that
you need a generalist at the leadership position who synthesises the various
strands of expert ' knowledge to make cogent and coherent decision. So you may
be a very good engineer and you may have a very beautiful design for a bridge,
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your chief nancial o cer says that the cost is so much that it outweighs the
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benetop ts.
top“So, as a Secretary, I will listen to the engineer as well as the nance
s- civil civil
personservice
and make a decision whether this is really a viable solution to the
top- service
problem.”
civil-
reformer “We are doing that for specialist cadres. We have introduced technical
reformer
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unveils
advisers unveils
to assist each minister directly. Fifteen ministries have been chosen for
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that.
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The technical advisers will be picked from the market. They will be
agenda
employed
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s- govt-
Thetop- s-
Adviser added that the government is looking at several areas under
civil-top-
‘compensation
service-
civil- and bene ts,' which is the fth element of our value chain. Out of
640,000
reformer- people currently working in the federal government, about 95 percent
service-
areunveils-
sta reformer-
ed in grades 1 to 16, and only 5 percent are employed in grades 17 to 22.
reform-
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This rereform-
agenda) ects an imbalance in our human resource deployment. We have too many
naib qasid's,
agenda)too many clerks, and too many assistants – and they are paid much
higher than the private-sector counterparts because of the national pay scale. As a
result, a private secretary gets the same pay and emoluments as the
neurosurgeon working in PIMS, because both of them are in grade 19. So we are
trying to bring in e-governance, so that this secretarial support sta is eased out
over time.
Additionally, he said, “We are trying to create more positions from grade 17 all the
way to grade 22. Even today, at grade 22 salaries, you cannot get people who are
specialists in their elds to work for the government. We don't want to get rid of
anybody, but through the process of attrition we will not replace the people who
are retiring or resigning in the lower grades. In the process, we will use the
savings to push up the salaries to reward performance. This experiment has been
successfully implemented in the State Bank of Pakistan for last 15 years where an
entry-level o cer receives salary comparable to that in the MNCs.
And nally, he said, “We have the regular retirement policy in addition to the early
retirement policy, which has been noti ed. Pension, he said, is a bomb that is
going to explode in the future, because our pension bill is just going up and up
every year. In fact, our pension bill is now more than our salary bill. We want to
go the de ned-contribution mechanism, as identi ed after actuarial analyses
during my time as the Chairman of Pay and Pension Commission in 2010-11. The
government has appointed a Pay and Pension Commission, which would present
recommendations for pension reform moving away from pay as you go to De ned
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Contribution and creating a Pension Fund. This would not only save the
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government from future scal burden but also help in deepening the capital
s- civil civil
markets
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in Pakistan.
service
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saidunveils
service- that these reforms would take a long time to reach the culmination point
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andreform reform
would pose a lot of challenges on the way. “There would be resistance from
unveils-
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those
reform- who
govt- are bene tting from the status quo and their entitlements and perks
https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/656409-
without
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s- govt- much e ort. There would be losers who would not be promoted nor given
top- s-
annual increments and those who would be given early retirement. They would
civil-top-
approach
service- the politicians, media and challenges in the courts for violation of their
civil-
fundamentalservice- rights. There would be delays, set backs and temporary reversals.
reformer-
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travel not on a linear straight path free of pebbles, stones and boulders
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zag unknown alleys and therefore the expectations for quick, successful
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should be tampered with a sense of realism,” he said.
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Govt's Top Civil Service Reformer Unveils Reform Agenda

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Govt's Top Civil Service Reformer Unveils Reform Agenda

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5/11/2020 Govt’s top civil service reformer unveils reform agenda

Govt’s top civil service reformer unveils reform

overhauled, specialists or non-cadres o cers are being given more opportunities

potential. So, we are replacing these subjective evaluation reports by an

development and linking it to training objectives. For instance, if an o cer feels

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