September 21, 2007	Friday	Ramazan 08, 1428

PESHAWAR, Sept 20: The National Commission for Government Reforms (NCGR) has recommended delegation of administrative and financial authority to the secretaries of divisions and provincial departments, officials say.

The commission in consultation with the federal and provincial authorities has prepared a proposal regarding the job description and powers of secretaries.

The NCGR, a consultative body, has proposed the shifting of administrative control of some of the ministries to the provinces and reduction in the number of divisions from 46 to 37 and ministries from 41 to 23.

“Main thrust of the proposal is to minimise political interference in departmental affairs and to facilitate swift and smooth decision making at the ministry and department levels,” officials in the establishment department told Dawn.

According to the proposal, the secretary would be the chief operating officer of a division or a department accountable to the chief executive of the federal and provincial governments.

For routine operations, he or she will only take guidance from the minister in-charge who will also monitor and oversee the functioning of the division/department.

The secretary will act as the principal accounting officer, principal human resource manager, principal planning officer, principal contracts and purchasing officer and principal legal officer of the division assisted by officers with specialised skill in each one of these fields.

The NCGR has recommended that the secretary will prepare, justify and defend budget proposals for their submission to the ministry of finance and finance department (in case of provincial government), but once the budgetary allocations are approved by the assembly for the division/department, the funds should be placed at the disposal of the secretary.

The officials said that currently the secretaries played almost similar duties which had been proposed by the NCGR, but they did not enjoy maximum authority to utilise funds approved by the provincial assembly.

Most of the provincial secretaries complain of delay in release of the allocated funds that affect their operations.

The commission has proposed that the secretary of a department should enjoy adequate autonomy in resource allocation within the overall budget ceilings to use public resources in a responsible and efficient manner.

Similarly, the secretary should be allowed to hire a person on contract for limited period of time against the budgetary allocation for the regular vacancy, if some specialised skilled persons are not available in the department.

This step would allow the divisions/departments to produce timely results, observed the NCGR.

On administrative side, the NCGR has recommended that the secretary should have the powers to select or requisition officers required for a post. Similarly, he should also be able to surrender the services of those found unsuitable for the job by providing a justification and the reasons for such surrender.