Realistic Change
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That's one of the ways PMLN corrupts and controls bureaucracy
http://nation.com.pk/blogs/18-May-2...bureaucracy-has-jolted-the-national-exchequer
An insidious campaign appears to have been initiated since long and is being carried out by the PML-N government to create power centres in various departments of the bureaucracy in Punjab by sanctioning huge payouts to various appointment holders in the provincial government in the form of special monthly allowances, which not only defy imagination but are also in direct conflict with the established system of determining pays and allowances of government servants employed at the federal and provincial levels in various departments in different national pay grades. Being over and above the salary entitlements specified in the official salary structure is not only highly discriminatory, as only some blue-eyed officials are being unduly favoured ignoring the majority of public servants, but also highly unjustified and an unnecessary drain on the national exchequer.
This is an innovation which can be rightly credited to Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif who revels in being called Khadim-e-Aala and is touted as an administrative genius by the PML-N propaganda machinery and the government toadies. The grant of such monetary benefits/allowances is in addition to the practice of creating what are now popularly named as Project Management Units or PMUs in various provincial ministries along with the establishment/creation of Public Limited Companies owned by the provincial government for handling various administrative and maintenance duties like the Lahore Waste Management Company (LWMC), Lahore Meat Company (LMC),etc, in which besides posting of regular government servants belonging to the local government department or other provincial departments, a lot of employees are employed on contract basis with attractive and lucrative remunerations/perks to cater to the recommendations by party members, close friends, relatives and confidants of the Punjab chief minister, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and their minions.
While the PMUs and public limited companies help the ruling political party in spreading and establishing its political clout among the public, the objective of controlling the complete bureaucracy is being met by sanctioning of mouth watering monthly allowances to those government functionaries who would prove instrumental in ensuring political control and manipulation as and when needed by the rulers such as the role performed by the Punjab Education Department employees who served as polling staff during the last general elections.
Just a couple of months ago we saw the sanctioning of special monthly allowances to the Punjab chief secretary and the inspector general of Punjab Police to the tune of Rs300,000 to Rs400, 000 per month, which had created quite an uproar in the bureaucracy but which has since been managed and the voices of dissent seem to have been effectively silenced. And now, this largesse is being extended at the federal level.
The public has just learnt from this report published by Shahbaz Rana , in the Express Tribune, May 13, 2017, page 10, column 1-4 ,titled, “MONTHLY INCENTIVE, TO HELP PAKISTAN INCREASE EXPORTS,THESE CIVIL SERVANTS WILL MAKE UP TO Rs120,000 MORE”. “Commerce ministry gives approval to allowance in bid to ‘conduct studies’ that will increase exports.”
“According to sources, Federal Commerce Minister Khurram Dastagir Khan, who chairs the Board Of Export Development Fund (EDF), approved to pay between Rs50,000 to Rs120,000 in monthly allowances to all bureaucrats in service, except for federal secretary. However, the commerce minister stated in the board meeting that he was doing this on the bureaucracy’s insistence.”
“Under the proposal, the least amount will be received by a grade -17 officer that is even higher than the pay scale. Moreover, the maximum allowance was reserved for a grade-21 officer.”
The report further states, “In order to keep the matter a secret, the ministry did not formally put the proposal on the agenda of the board meeting. At present the size of the EDF stands at Rs32 billion.” And that, “ministry officials confirmed that the proposal was approved, however, the commerce minister was not available for comment due to an ongoing trip to China along with the PM Nawaz Sharif.”
In the same report it also says that, “FPCCI President Zubair Tufail also supported the proposal during the board meeting.”
It is obvious from this news report that the grant of such hefty additional allowances to the commerce ministry officers carries hidden and malafide purposes. And, although doubts have been raised in the report about the ability/qualifications of these officers in conducting such studies, yet such doubts do not actually raise any question about the likely misappropriation of public funds which is the actual problem with this decision. Moreover, it may be pointed out that the officers posted or employed in various government departments through the central and provincial services (CSS and PSS) are selected and trained for serving in the particular services or departments after undergoing a thorough process of selection/training, thus such doubts do not carry much weight.
Moreover, any officer in grade-17 and above is supposed to perform all functions including carrying out studies and work to improve the performance of his particular department, thus doling out special allowances without following due process is unjustified or simply irregular/illegal. This is also borne out by the statement of the minister that the allowance has been sanctioned on the insistence of the bureaucracy. This also gives the impression that the bureaucracy is indulging in unnecessary pressure tactics to obtain such a favour at the cost of public money.
Now, such decisions by the political appointees including the prime minister, chief ministers or federal and provincial ministers are not only an obvious misuse of authority, but also point out towards the tendency to manipulate the bureaucracy in following the dictates of their political masters, and conversely allows the bureaucrats to create conditions to twist governmental rules and regulations in order to derive pecuniary advantage by employing various stratagems to hoodwink their political masters.
Such tactics can lead to a situation where instead of serving the masses and instilling a culture of good governance, the political bosses and their bureaucratic subordinates would remain engaged in a constant tug of war to derive personal benefits by increasing administrative and other cost overheads which would overburden the national exchequer besides placing the national economy and governance in jeopardy. It is high time that the opposition takes note of these irregularities and devices to squander public money for achieving short and long term political gains in the name of development.
http://nation.com.pk/blogs/18-May-2...bureaucracy-has-jolted-the-national-exchequer
An insidious campaign appears to have been initiated since long and is being carried out by the PML-N government to create power centres in various departments of the bureaucracy in Punjab by sanctioning huge payouts to various appointment holders in the provincial government in the form of special monthly allowances, which not only defy imagination but are also in direct conflict with the established system of determining pays and allowances of government servants employed at the federal and provincial levels in various departments in different national pay grades. Being over and above the salary entitlements specified in the official salary structure is not only highly discriminatory, as only some blue-eyed officials are being unduly favoured ignoring the majority of public servants, but also highly unjustified and an unnecessary drain on the national exchequer.
This is an innovation which can be rightly credited to Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif who revels in being called Khadim-e-Aala and is touted as an administrative genius by the PML-N propaganda machinery and the government toadies. The grant of such monetary benefits/allowances is in addition to the practice of creating what are now popularly named as Project Management Units or PMUs in various provincial ministries along with the establishment/creation of Public Limited Companies owned by the provincial government for handling various administrative and maintenance duties like the Lahore Waste Management Company (LWMC), Lahore Meat Company (LMC),etc, in which besides posting of regular government servants belonging to the local government department or other provincial departments, a lot of employees are employed on contract basis with attractive and lucrative remunerations/perks to cater to the recommendations by party members, close friends, relatives and confidants of the Punjab chief minister, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and their minions.
While the PMUs and public limited companies help the ruling political party in spreading and establishing its political clout among the public, the objective of controlling the complete bureaucracy is being met by sanctioning of mouth watering monthly allowances to those government functionaries who would prove instrumental in ensuring political control and manipulation as and when needed by the rulers such as the role performed by the Punjab Education Department employees who served as polling staff during the last general elections.
Just a couple of months ago we saw the sanctioning of special monthly allowances to the Punjab chief secretary and the inspector general of Punjab Police to the tune of Rs300,000 to Rs400, 000 per month, which had created quite an uproar in the bureaucracy but which has since been managed and the voices of dissent seem to have been effectively silenced. And now, this largesse is being extended at the federal level.
The public has just learnt from this report published by Shahbaz Rana , in the Express Tribune, May 13, 2017, page 10, column 1-4 ,titled, “MONTHLY INCENTIVE, TO HELP PAKISTAN INCREASE EXPORTS,THESE CIVIL SERVANTS WILL MAKE UP TO Rs120,000 MORE”. “Commerce ministry gives approval to allowance in bid to ‘conduct studies’ that will increase exports.”
“According to sources, Federal Commerce Minister Khurram Dastagir Khan, who chairs the Board Of Export Development Fund (EDF), approved to pay between Rs50,000 to Rs120,000 in monthly allowances to all bureaucrats in service, except for federal secretary. However, the commerce minister stated in the board meeting that he was doing this on the bureaucracy’s insistence.”
“Under the proposal, the least amount will be received by a grade -17 officer that is even higher than the pay scale. Moreover, the maximum allowance was reserved for a grade-21 officer.”
The report further states, “In order to keep the matter a secret, the ministry did not formally put the proposal on the agenda of the board meeting. At present the size of the EDF stands at Rs32 billion.” And that, “ministry officials confirmed that the proposal was approved, however, the commerce minister was not available for comment due to an ongoing trip to China along with the PM Nawaz Sharif.”
In the same report it also says that, “FPCCI President Zubair Tufail also supported the proposal during the board meeting.”
It is obvious from this news report that the grant of such hefty additional allowances to the commerce ministry officers carries hidden and malafide purposes. And, although doubts have been raised in the report about the ability/qualifications of these officers in conducting such studies, yet such doubts do not actually raise any question about the likely misappropriation of public funds which is the actual problem with this decision. Moreover, it may be pointed out that the officers posted or employed in various government departments through the central and provincial services (CSS and PSS) are selected and trained for serving in the particular services or departments after undergoing a thorough process of selection/training, thus such doubts do not carry much weight.
Moreover, any officer in grade-17 and above is supposed to perform all functions including carrying out studies and work to improve the performance of his particular department, thus doling out special allowances without following due process is unjustified or simply irregular/illegal. This is also borne out by the statement of the minister that the allowance has been sanctioned on the insistence of the bureaucracy. This also gives the impression that the bureaucracy is indulging in unnecessary pressure tactics to obtain such a favour at the cost of public money.
Now, such decisions by the political appointees including the prime minister, chief ministers or federal and provincial ministers are not only an obvious misuse of authority, but also point out towards the tendency to manipulate the bureaucracy in following the dictates of their political masters, and conversely allows the bureaucrats to create conditions to twist governmental rules and regulations in order to derive pecuniary advantage by employing various stratagems to hoodwink their political masters.
Such tactics can lead to a situation where instead of serving the masses and instilling a culture of good governance, the political bosses and their bureaucratic subordinates would remain engaged in a constant tug of war to derive personal benefits by increasing administrative and other cost overheads which would overburden the national exchequer besides placing the national economy and governance in jeopardy. It is high time that the opposition takes note of these irregularities and devices to squander public money for achieving short and long term political gains in the name of development.
