Islamabad:
The Federal Government has not yet found adequate federal secretaries of the private sector to administer key economic ministries, since the deadline given by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to present the list of possible candidates has also expired.
The aware sources of the internal discussions said that a committee has met with some private sector candidates to hire them to administer energy divisions.
The prime minister also presided over a meeting in the fourth week of the last month for the main hunt for the main accounting officers (PAO) who will act as secretaries in addition to finishing the profiles of the candidates to hire technical experts in these ministries.
After the last meeting of the month, the prime minister had ordered the establishment division “to complete the process of preselecting Pao panels” in three weeks, the sources said. He had also asked to share the profiles of the candidates of the remaining technical positions to the ministries.
The deadline has expired, but so far there is no formal progress in the matter, the sources said.
The Minister of Economic Affairs and Establishment, Ahad Khan Chema, did not answer a question about whether the list of preselected candidates had been shared with the prime minister.
Last month, the Government published a media announcement that seeks private sector professionals for the main civil service roles, which also caused concern among some federal ministers and bureaucrats on the potential impact on institutional governance and integrity.
According to the 1973 business rules, federal secretaries are the administrative chiefs of the respective divisions and are responsible for administering government business without problems. However, there have also been concerns that government work has slowed down due to bureaucratic inefficiencies and it was necessary to bring fresh blood with experience in the private sector.
But the sources said that the Committee constituted to choose the candidates could not find adequate people during their interactions. The government has hired a foreign consulting firm, which is charging a beautiful rate, for the purposes of the shell.
The prime minister had also constituted the committee to recruit the best workforce, align the ministries with modern systems and improve governance through reforms.
The sources said that most of these candidates have good professional history, but lacked knowledge and knowledge of the formulation of policies and the functions of the ministries in question. Some of these potential candidates also had concerns about the continuity of their roles in case of changing political dispensation, the sources added.
The announcement, published on the website of the establishment division, did not appoint the divisions, qualification criteria and work descriptions. However, he suggested that the government is ready to hire seven federal secretaries of the private sector to administer ministries related to the economy.
These are the Finance Division, the Petroleum Division, the Energy Division, the Division of Planning, the Industries and the Production Division, the National Food Safety Division and Education and Vocational Training. These divisions are currently headed by officers of the Almighty Administrative Service of Pakistan (PAS).
The Federal Government had behind a couple of years of executive allocation of 140% to the bureaucrats on the argument that the provinces officers were not ready to work in the center because the federal units offered better payment packages.
Another committee to improve government efficiency is also working under the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, ISHAQ Dar. The Committee also met on Tuesday and focused the discussions to advance a government model that is transparent, based on merits and technologically motivated, with clear and objective performance evaluation criteria, according to a statement from the deputy office of PM.
The objective is to establish a system that is oriented to the results, responsible and that responds to public needs, he added. ISHAQ to emphasized the importance of institutional efficiency, evaluation mechanisms and the delivery of tangible results to improve the provision of public services.
The sources said that, in addition to finishing possible candidates, the prime minister also received instructions to review the investment portfolios and identify a good number of strategic and high profile for investment projects.
The government had hired the Foreign Consulting firm in Kearney to finish investment projects by the Gulf nations.
