Reforming bureaucracy
Bureaucracy around the world is considered permanent government because they stay in their positions while elected cabinets come and go after each election cycle. The role of a cabinet is to provide policy direction and allocation of resources based on their ideological orientation. When a Democratic president is elected in USA, there is increase in taxes and spending on social services. On the other hand, when a Republican president is elected, taxes go down as well as spending on social services because of capitalist and socialist orientation of these two parties. In Pakistan, there has been continuing decline in quality and capability of bureaucracy. This has resulted in serious deterioration in governance, law and order and delivery of services. It is a book size subject to deal with but I will try to highlight some key issues and their possible solutions.
Up until late 1990s it was rare, 2 or 3 out of 10, that a public sector project would have cost overruns or severe mismanagement that it would become non-viable. But now it has become a norm that projects have serious cost overruns and delays. Nandipur, Metro bus and almost all these large capital projects have resulted in almost doubling the cost from original projections and even then the quality of construction is not of the highest standards. This is a result of erroneous engineering, wrong bill of quantities (BOQ), and bad project management. Besides construction costs overrun there is another issue of substandard construction which results in shorter life span for these projects. For instance, a major road or power plant that should operate for 20 years wears down in 5 to 10 years because of bad construction thereby causing loss to the nation.
Another issue is wasteful spending in rural areas. While campaigning in 2013 General Elections I visited many rural districts of Punjab and KP. In almost all these districts there are unfinished schools, hospitals and colleges. When I inquired each of these projects cost the nation on average 35 to 40 million rupees to build. The amount is already spent but the projects remain unfinished and these skeletons have become landmarks of callousness of our rulers. Most of these projects are built by close associates and relatives of MNAs and MPAs so these political elite get rich at the cost of poor and taxpayers. During General Musharraf’s tenure over Rs300 billion were spent in five years for uplift of Balochistan. The money is gone but there is nothing to show for it in that poor province. Another issue is that even when some of these hospitals, schools and college buildings are finished, they remain non-operative because doctors, teachers and lecturers refuse to serve in these hard areas. Irony is that they still get paid without serving the nation and it does not bother them that this is haram income that they are taking home.
Politicians and their family members in order to retain control of their districts pressure elected government to appoint deputy commissioners and police officers of their choice. This has resulted in political interference in the operations of bureaucracy which is another reason for its decline. This has to be stopped and merit based system of appointments should be introduced.
What is the preferred solution adopted by our elected politicians to solve these bureaucratic problems? They create a new department to overlap with the older non-performing department. If police is not performing then create an elite force or install Rangers to work as police. If FIA is unable to prosecute white collar crimes, then create NAB. For each department, it seems, there is another department that overlaps with it. This has increased the size of the government, created chaos among departments and has still not solved the problem. The dilapidated condition of public offices, absenteeism and short workhours indicate the lack of responsibility and any fear of reprisal among government servants.
The real solution is that we have to reform and restructure our bureaucracy on more modern lines. No political party has on its agenda as a priority to build capacity and efficiency improvement of bureaucracy. Talented graduates of LUMS, IBA, GIKI or NUST are not interested in joining bureaucracy because they prefer to be successful in private sector and then seek appointment as advisers to CM or PM through a parachute rather than go through a bureaucratic career and rise through the ranks. Bureaucracy is now a first choice for rural graduates that are looking for security of tenure and elevation of social stature in their villages. But since the quality of education in rural educational institutions is substandard, most of these young men have degrees without proper skills and knowledge. They seek these jobs through bribes, backdoor channels and political influence. This has resulted in a decline of standards of bureaucracy. Hiring, training, and placement practices of bureaucracy needs serious revamp and best minds in education, development and management should be engaged for it. The country cannot progress without installation of a capable bureaucracy.
The basic tenets of our reforms should be to reduce redundancy, improve efficiency and monitor performance through tangible benchmarks. Redundancy can be removed by reducing the number of ministries and departments through merger. Efficiency can be enhanced by introducing productivity tools and reduction in paper trail. And performance can be monitored through regular surveys of consumer satisfaction and department image improvement. Wasteful spending can be reduced by engaging civic organisations to monitor projects through regular postings of expenditure and public hearings until its successful initiation of operations. If we are able to reduce the size of the government, the people can be paid better salaries and benefits which is important to attract talented individuals. Singapore model has demonstrated that paying market base salaries to government servants along with punishment for lack of performance produces good results.
Bureaucracy is one of the major sources of social injustices in the country right now. They treat citizens with contempt and seek bribes from them for even their legitimate needs. This is increasing the frustration and anger in the country that is ready to blow out if a group of revolutionaries emerge on the scene that are sincere in their efforts. That bloody revolution can only be avoided by improving the governance and introduce social justice. There is some improvement in the last few years but it is not enough and requires a more radical approach.