- The civil service should move from a colonial model to a public-service delivery model
At the climax of their power in India, not more than a thousand ICS (Indian Civil Service) officers ran the entire machinery of the British government in India. Owing to their small number, these officers had to carry out a diverse range of tasks that required them to be generalists — jack of all trades but master of none. The ICS exam was prejudiced towards students with a background in the liberal arts and the training process further gave them a fine dosage of the Indian languages, philosophy and literature.
The other hallmark of the ICS was its colonial mindset that made subjugation and economic exploitation of the Indian people its utmost priority. The imperial government stood on the twin pillars of a generalist outlook and colonial mindset of the ICS officers.
Unfortunately, the Englishmen’s rule collapsed long ago but our civil service still stands upon those obsolete pillars. The world has moved along and its time that we overhaul our entire bureaucracy. In this regard, the Singapore Civil Service is a shining example that represents the spirit of the twenty-first century and Pakistan can learn a lot from it.
Pakistan’s civil service should be transformed from a generalised to a specialised system of governance. This is the age of specialisation and there is a dire need to hire professionals for specific government posts. Furthermore, the civil service should move from a colonial model to a public-service delivery model. The common man should be looked upon as a citizen rather than as a subject. This model shall focus on raising the life standard of the masses and the provision of basic facilities to them.
To transform the civil service on these lines, comprehensive reforms are needed on three levels.
In the present seniority-based promotion system, there is no incentive for showing good performance and achieving higher qualification. This necessitates the need for replacing the ACR (Annual Confidential Report) system with PBE (Performance Based Evaluation) system
First, the monopoly of the existing twelve elite occupational groups and especially the super-elite PAS (Pakistan Administrative Group) on the reins of the government must be broken. Instead, more occupational groups, a hundred or as many as required, shall be formed. In Singapore, there are more than a hundred occupational groups.
There shall be different cadres for engineers, doctors, academics, economists and so on. Likewise, these groups shall be hired through competitive examination and given a proper career structure. Unlike the present system, senior posts in the bureaucracy should be open to these professional cadres. This will incentivise the intellectual cream of the nation to join the public service.
Amongst the job nature of civil servants in Pakistan, the most interesting and astonishing is that of the PAS officers. A PAS officer is rotated between district administration and government departments.
One day he is made in charge of the education department, some other day of the health department, and then of departments as diversified as agriculture, energy, power, interior, finance, industry, environment, water and so on… How on earth can a single individual be so versatile in knowledge and skills to make policies for all these branches of government?
The counter-argument given by advocates of the status-quo is that the professional specialists lack the administrative skills that are required to take a holistic view of policy-making and implementation. This argument stands on a flimsy ground. The specialist will be in a better position to administer their respective ministries, provided they are given sufficient on-the-job training in administrative and management skills. For instance, it is common sense that an educationist will be able to chart out a better education policy than a layman-officer.
Second, the recruitment process of civil servants must be revamped. The existing CSS (Central Superior Services) examination should be replaced with a cluster-based examination. Each cluster will consist of a couple of occupational groups similar in nature. Eligibility for applying to a specific group should depend on relevant academic qualification.
The examination should consist of a general part that measures the English proficiency, mathematical reasoning and basic writing skills of a candidate, on the pattern of the GRE (Graduate Record Examination). The other part should assess the candidate’s technical knowledge required for the occupational groups/cluster to which he has applied.
The norm of expecting from a candidate English of Lord Macaulay’s caliber and knowledge of Lord Bacon’s level should be given up. The emphasis should be on gauging the suitability of a candidate for the job for which he is being hired.
Third, the working conditions of the civil service should be professionalised. The outdated BPS (Basic Pay Scale) system should be replaced with market-based salaries dependent on the nature of the job and qualification of the officer. The salaries paid to civil servants are peanuts and serve as a catalyst for corruption.
In the present seniority-based promotion system, there is no incentive for showing good performance and achieving higher qualification. This necessitates the need for replacing the ACR (Annual Confidential Report) system with PBE (Performance Based Evaluation) system and incentivising higher qualifications. In Singapore, it is not uncommon for young officers to be made departmental heads i.e. secretaries, provided they demonstrate mettle for efficient administration.
Then there is a need to introduce specialised on-the-job training for imparting the latest skills and knowledge to keep pace with the advancement in technological and managerial skills. The Civil Service College of Singapore annually conducts more than 400 courses across seventeen topics, from public policy and governance to data analytics and personal development.
Finally, unless the civil service is not depoliticised, it will not be able to able to deliver. Transfers and postings should not be a prerogative of the politicians but of the executive bureaucracy, except the senior-most positions. This is because the responsibility of the politicians is solely policy-making whereas policy-implementation is the duty of the bureaucrats. The politicians shall keep away from the operational and day-to-day affairs of the administration.
These reforms require nothing but political vision and will. It is time that our politicians shift their concentration from protests, blame-game and political gimmickry towards reinvigorating the bureaucracy- once known as the steel frame of Pakistan’s government.
