Recently, I had the opportunity to attend the wedding ceremony of one deputy commissioner’s son along with one my CSP friends, in one of the districts of Sindh province. It was perhaps one of the most extravagant marriage ceremonies in the history of that district which has crumbling infrastructure in the province. Revenue officers estimate that millions were spent on the ceremony. A deputy commissioner who is honest and subsisting on his salaried income cannot afford such extravagance. Sources privy to the deputy commissioner office reveal that DC Sahib has asked and assigned every corrupt and crook officer of the district to arrange this and that item by hook or by crook, by crime or corruption. Those who were honest officers – indeed, rare in our society – had been cornered or transferred to remote districts of the province so that this corruption could be carried out.
The deputy commissioners, I mean, the district administration has a critical role to play in the development of any district. But in many districts they have to operate with the constraints of shrinking resources and even those meagre resources are misappropriated, embezzled or used in corrupt practices such as the wedding ceremonies of the sons and daughters of the deputy commissioners. This is, indeed, an erosion of professionalism and ethics.
In order to discourage such a culture of corruption and extravagance among deputy commissioners and other revenue, irrigation and other departmental officers at the district level, it is proposed that the government, both federal and provincial, must introduce or upgrade policies and programmes to improve the management of ethics and conduct in their public services. Furthermore, information dissemination at the district, divisional and provincial may be undertaken to promote “benchmarks” or common standards to promote ethics and combat corruption in the public service.
Thus, the provinces will be better able to achieve a professional and ethical public service, one which can play a key role in the better governance and, ultimately, in the sustainable development of their province. Indeed, there is a need to generate awareness of the need for ethics, accountability and transparency in the district administration today, given its indispensable role in the development and governance of a nation.
HASHIM ABRO
Islamabad