ISLAMABAD, Sept 27: The government has planned to computerize 34 offices of the Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS) to improve its working condition up to the international standards as a first step under its restructuring plan.
Federal Secretary of FBS Asad Elahi told Dawn on Tuesday that the restructuring plan included capacity building of existing personnel as well as induction of highly qualified professionals, provision of latest equipment and better coordination of work.
Mr Elahi said that a grant of 1.5 million euros had been given by a German organization for computerization of field offices and provision of transport facilities to the FBS workers.
The secretary said that for capacity building the training wing of the FBS had been shifted to Islamabad from Lahore and provided with adequate space and latest equipment.
He said that UNFPA, apart from providing the equipment and teaching aids, was providing international experts to conduct training courses on sample methodology and GIS in November and December this year in the newly-established centre.
He said that negotiations were under finalization for getting similar experts in other fields of statistical techniques from donor countries. The object of these measures, he said, is to upgrade the skills of the lower and middle tiers of statisticians to the modern levels.
The secretary said that the German firm was also providing equipment and experts to strengthen the field offices and headquarter of the FBS. He said that an effective monitoring mechanism to check the work of the field enumerators had been introduced to check quality of data.
Answering a question, the secretary said that for organizational restructuring reports had earlier been prepared by Australian and Norwegian experts in 2002 and 2003. However, he said need was felt to specify the exact organizational model to be followed as well as an operational plan for the restructured organization.
