Centre may abolish section officer tier
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LAHORE: The Task Force on Austerity and Restructuring is planning redesigning of the federal government with initial idea of reducing the number of ministries and abolishing the tier of section officer.
According to official sources here on Thursday, the task force under Dr Ishrat Hussain intends to have the rules of business amended to make the government leaner, cost effective and efficient.
“A breakthrough is expected in the next few days,” an official said.
According to him, the restructuring in the federal government would definitely impact the administrative systems in provinces which too are expected to adopt measures that can make them lean, automated and efficient.
He said the idea at present is to empower the cabinet, saving the prime minister of approving each and every file of the federal government so as to enable him concentrate on major issues confronting the country.
Task force mulls cut in number of ministries; deputy secretary to initiate files
The plan is to get approvals of the cabinet on at least day-to-day matters of all federal subjects through the cabinet secretary, shunning the existing practice of sending all files for approval of the prime minister to his secretary or principal secretary which makes him the all powerful bureaucrat in Pakistan.
Another item under consideration is to abolish the office of section officer and make deputy secretary initiate files. Under this plan every departmental edifice would be reduced to three tiers --- secretary, additional secretary and deputy secretary.
At present section officers initiate files in all government departments.
“The difficult issue at hand is how to absorb section officers already in service as this post will be abolished without rendering anyone jobless,” the official said.
He said the task intends to make the federal government reduce the number of its ministries.
According to this idea, every ministry would have a minister and a secretary but multiple divisions of related subjects. Each division would be headed by an additional secretary. Files would be initiated by deputy secretary under the additional secretary.
The official said that the scheme would help the government save funds it has to spend on staff of so many ministries.
It may be mentioned here that the federal government has already started automation of its departments to make them efficient and to know who is doing what.
Published in Dawn, October 26th, 2018
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