PRMP workshop:'Transparency, accountability on top priority of PTI government: minister

Transparency, accountability and service delivery are the three basic pillars of the PTI government to work and progress, Minister for Education Punjab Murad Rass said here on Thursday. He was addressing a workshop organised by Punjab Resource Management Program (PRMP) Planning and Development Board in collaboration with the World Bank jointly on "Showcasing Achievements of the Punjab Public Management Reform Program."
Chairman P&D Habib-ur-Rehman Gilani, Chairman PITB Azfar Manzoor, senior representatives of World Bank Ismaila Ceesay, Global Practice Manager Governance, Clelia Rontiyanni Task Team Leader WB, CEO Urban Unit Khalid Sher Dil, PD Project Implementation Unit Ali Jalal, P&D Member Education Khalid Sultan, Member Energy Sadaqat Hussain, Dr Shahid Adil Additional Secretary Administrative Secretaries, senior officers from other provinces, stakeholders, relevant officials and media representatives also attended the workshop.
Habib ur Rehman Gilani, in his welcome address, said the real beneficiaries of any public sector intervention were the people and their right to have a government that they could hold accountable. The Punjab Government with the new leadership is keen to address the concerns of the people regarding transparency of government processes and is keen to take forward key reforms in the area and improve on it.
World Bank representatives Ismaila Ceesay, Global Practice Manager Governance and Task Team Leader of WB Clelia Rontoyanni hoped that the government's commitment to efficient and effective service delivery through governance reforms would enable the people of the province to lead better lives. The WB representatives thanked the government for its commitment to reform the governance and welcomed future support for any such interventions.
In the workshop, different departments of Punjab government gave presentations on the key interventions that came under the Punjab Public Management Reform Program.
The key achievements included 84 organisations publishing updated institutional information on their website, eight departments with automated records system for defined disclosed information, information about 68 key services available to the public through the Citizen Contact Centre (CCC), 2.9 million inquiries/comments received by the CCCs to seek information about, or to provide feedback on key services, 14 services accepting online applications, 15 services using online processing, 10 services accepting mobile payments, 149 functional facilitation centres, 393 centres using the public-private partnership model, 216 district services monitored through smart management tools, 36 functional digital property registry across Punjab, 155,594 properties added to the property registry, Rs 1,004 million urban property tax collection, 153 organizations using PPRA MIS for targeted contracts.