LAHORE: The Punjab government has asked all the administrative secretaries to perform their duties without any fear, pledging they will be given full freedom to work, and their work will be assessed quarterly through an online portal, holding the “low-performers” accountable.

The Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) have also been issued in this regard.

The directions were issued at the administrative secretaries’ conference chaired by Chief Secretary Kamran Ali Afzal at the Punjab Civil Secretariat here on Saturday.

Explaining the KPIs, secretary services said each secretary would self-assess his own performance through internal accountability, monitoring and evaluation and HR development etc.

The Planning and Development Board chairman will assess the respective administrative secretaries’ performance on the basis of utilisation of development funds during the current financial year and key initiatives undertaken by the department.

The additional chief secretary (ACS) will assess audit paras, the secretary regulations will look into the disposal of disciplinary and pension cases, the secretary implementation and coordination (I&C) will assess performance on the basis of implementation of policy directives as well as instructions of federal and provincial government.

The chief secretary will overall assess respective administrative secretaries’ integrity, efficiency, improvement in policy, regularity framework, effectiveness and quality of M&E department, attached department, autonomous bodies, service delivery, innovation and punctuality.

CS Mr Afzal directed that the pending work orders of the schemes under the Annual Development Programme (ADP) be issued immediately. He said the implementation of the ADP should not be affected by complicated procedures.

He also issued ordered expeditious disposal of pending pension cases. The meeting reviewed the situation of dengue, Covid, and the resolution of complaints received through the Pakistan Citizen Portal. The administrative secretaries of all departments attended the meeting.

The chief secretary directed all the administrative secretaries to allocate one hour from 10am to 11am daily for the people to listen to their problems related to departments.

Mr Afzal said officers should use their authority to bring convenience to people and ensure merit and transparency in their respective departments.

He ordered that the administrative secretaries should provide tenure security to the officers of their field formations and issue the transfer order before the stipulated period only over corruption or poor performance.

He said there should be no delay in the cases of departmental promotions.

“The administrative secretaries should hold regular meetings of the committees set up for departmental promotions. The meeting of Provincial Selection Board-1 would be held regularly after every two months,” he added.

Published in Dawn, December 19th, 2021