EDITORIAL: It's been a while since the federal cabinet has been telling different ministries to fill over 100 vacancies of heads of autonomous, semi-autonomous departments and corporations, but to no avail. In July of last year a cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan gave the relevant ministries and divisions three months to do the needful. But nothing moved. Four months later at another cabinet meeting the PM took notice of the situation and directed all concerned to prepare action plans for submission to the Establishment Division. For its part, the latter issued a memorandum to all concerned to comply with the orders of the cabinet, appointing regular CEOs/MDs/HoDs without further delay. It also advised them that in case where changes in rules/regulation or terms and conditions of appointment were required to fill a certain position they should refer the matter to the "Implementation Committee for Reorganizing the Federal Government" within one week.
Yet, things remain at square one. A recent meeting of the cabinet was informed that such vital organizations as the Power Division, National Health Services, Regulation & Coordination Division, National Food Security and Research Division, Petroleum Division, Federal Education and Professional Training Division and Industries and Production Division, had no regular heads. Most of them are being run on an ad hoc basis by bureaucrats holding additional charges. If that is not bad enough, as many as 26 organizations do not have even acting heads. It is not difficult to imagine what that means in terms of service delivery to people. If the previous government was known to appoint people to these positions in accordance with its leaders' personal considerations rather than professional merit, leading to a significant fall in management standards; the present one gets criticized, justifiably so, for fumbling with the issue. As for the reasons why should such a straightforward matter become so difficult for it to handle, one could be sheer incompetence on the part of political bosses of ministries and their attached departments, or it may well have something to do with the government claims about an uncooperative bureaucracy.
In any event, the buck stops at the top. It is good to note that this time the cabinet has not only given the relevant ministries and departments another three months to fill all the vacancies, but also decided to put the onus where it belongs. As per its latest directive the concerned minister and the secretary are to be personally responsible for resolving the issue. And in case they cannot do that within the given timeframe, reasons for the same are to be communicated, in a week's time, to the Establishment Division which would present the same before the cabinet within a fortnight. This line of action should work where gentle exhortations failed to produce the desired results.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020
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