ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: Ministry of Planning and Development has planned a government-to-government talent exchange programme under its Civil Service Reforms initiative to enable partner nations to exchange their best talent with each other.
The innovation and knowledge exchange visits have also been planned to learn the best civil service practices and reforms process experiences from other countries which include Malaysia, Mexico, South America and Europe.
The Ministry, which has been given additional portfolio of promoting and coordinating of reform including civil service reform, has initiated a comprehensive reform agenda which will be completed with stakeholder’s consultation and participation.
Official sources on Tuesday said to actualize Pakistan Vision 2025, some initiatives have been undertaken to modernize and improve the service delivery of public sector and these are to introduce Prime Minister Innovation and Excellence awards to recognize best performing government officials who have excelled and introduced innovative methods in their line of work.
The awards will be given to government officials based on a transparent system geared for performance evaluation.
The other step was to build capacity of government officials as the officers would be trained at global centers of excellence and the visits of top trainers to Pakistan will also be organized.
The subjects will include public administration, financial management, public procurement, leadership, public private partnership and also focus on improving the soft/interpersonal skills of the government officials.
The sources said it has been planned to introduce E-Governance in order to ensure efficiency and transparency in public sector services and provide Information Technology (IT) expert to each Ministry to implement e-governance initiatives which include Government Portal, Governance Innovation App Store, and Free Internet for all.
The sources said Pakistan Governance Forum has been made an annual event and so far two Forum i.e. 2014 and 2015 were organized wherein discussion on different thematic areas were undertaken.
The sources said with respect to setting objectives for every organization, the guidelines on five steps reform cycle has been prepared and presented in Secretaries’ Committee while Bio-metric system has been installed in Ministry of Planning and Development.
Highlighting the other steps, the sources said an amount of Rs. 1.0 billion has been allocated for performance management in budget 2015-16 while in terms of improving Human Resource Management, the appraisal system of government officers will be automated, an internal job placement portal would also be launched.
Moreover, the sources said a comprehensive Digital Government Strategy and an Open Government Initiative would be implemented which would ensure efficiency, improved access, transparency and accountability of public service provision.
The sources said to encourage innovation in work of public servants, individuals would be recognized as Innovation Champions.
Moreover, a Peer to Peer (P2P) network is being proposed.
The recruitment process will be calibrated, the sources said and added a proposal has been prepared.
Similarly, the sources said capacity development programmes and career trainings and service specific trainings have been reviewed and proposal have been finalized.
Pre- and In-service training regime would also be reformed while accountability will be enforced though calibration of ACR, forced ranking, development plans and review of efficiency and disciplinary regime. A proposal has been prepared.
Moreover, a proposal for creation of new Cadre have been prepared to promote specialization in civil services and was discussed with the stakeholders.
Civil service will be modernized to the 21st century which includes introduction of cadre development plans, civil service oversight commission and legislative oversight for civil servants. Initial work on redundant organization has been undertaken.
Similarly, proposal to convert Establishment Division into HR and Organizational Development Division has been prepared while proposal for constitution of Pay Commission has been deliberated and is being finalized.
The survey on citizen feedback will be conducted on quarterly basis, the sources said and added the third party audit citizen opinion survey to track performance and identify pockets of poor delivery is under process.
Source: APP
