According to newspaper reports, the Federal Finance Minister Dr Hafeez Sheikh expressed serious concerns over the non-implementation of decisions taken by the Economic Co-ordination Committee (ECC), the highest economic decision-making body in the country. That the ECC has worked well in the past is evident.
It has been credited with taking appropriate decisions in a timely fashion with respect to the anticipated shortages of essential food items/inputs and directing the concerned ministry/department/private importers/autonomous corporation to begin the process of importing the deficient items. It also monitors key economic indicators including inflation and has the responsibility of taking corrective measures in a timely fashion.
The ECC, however, is heavily reliant on summaries presented by the relevant ministries, which identify issues as well as proposals to deal with those issues. According to reports, Dr Sheikh observed in the last ECC meeting that the pace of implementation of decisions is slow and instructed the secretaries to accelerate it.
In addition, reports from the ECC meeting reveal that Dr Sheikh also expressed concern over the failure of the relevant secretaries to respond to his questions with respect to the summaries submitted for the ECC's approval. Reportedly the Minister of State for Housing, Makhdoom Shahabuddin and Minister of State for Economic Affairs and Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar concurred with the Finance Minister.
Delay in implementation of ECC decisions, of necessity by the bureaucrats, is a reflection of the constant political uncertainty that has been the fate of the present government. Almost routinely, every few months there is fresh speculation about the impending fall of the political government, rumours that are unfortunately strengthened and not weakened by statements made by the political leadership, which leads many a bureaucrat to implement ECC decisions in a manner that, so accuse detractors of the bureaucracy, is premised on confusion about the applicability of the directive even in the short-term; and in other instances lethargy.
For Dr Sheikh to take umbrage, justified in this case, and exhort the secretaries to accelerate the process of implementation is therefore, hardly likely to make a difference. What needs to be done is to formally reprimand the offending official and a copy of the reprimand must be made a part of his/her personnel file, which would determine his/her ability to be promoted in future. Action that would compromise the career prospects of an official would ensure that the ECC decisions are speedily implemented.
The Monday ECC meeting approved the export of 200,000 tonnes of wheat to create space for the fresh wheat crop in the Pakistan Agriculture Storage and Services Corporation, barred institutional investment in the National Savings Schemes and could find no answer to the question as to who sets urea prices in the country and why urea, through open tenders, was cheaper than that imported through the Saudi Basic Industries Corporation.
It is not clear if the wheat exports would be at a loss, as the price paid by Passco was higher than the current international price of wheat. However, disturbingly a participant challenged the right of the ECC to take the decision on the institutional investors in the NSS, claiming that the decision must rest with the Prime Minister, while open tenders always provide for cheaper imports, relative to assistance linked to procurement from a specific entity.