CIVIL servants are the backbone of any state structure. They enforce the rules, provide services, and set governance standards. In Pakistan, commissions have repeatedly been formed to enact civil services reforms, yet hardly any meaningful recommendations have actually been carried through.

Regrettably, we either lack the ability to think logically about what to reform, which I doubt, or we remain careless, or purposely make things complicated to keep the status quo intact. I am not going to suggest any tedious changes that may involve constitutional amendments. Instead, I will just point out some simple, straightforward, rational thoughts and ideas.

Structural problems: Does the existing hiring process of civil servants even remotely address the labour market matching problem? Candidates may land in a specialised service (ie, Inland Revenue, Customs, Commerce & Trade, or Audit & Accounts), which can be totally irrelevant to their qualification. What really is the logic of training a generalist for a specialised field? What if the selected candidate has no real interest in the allocated field?

Usually, students who do not take economics, commerce, IT and the like in college do not develop a love for them for a long time, if at all. Therefore, it is crucial that the exam is conducted based on the candidate’s declared group or field, and according to the nature of specialisation it may entail.

Many a time, bureaucrats get transferred from one ministry or department to an entirely different one within months. One might wonder how much learning in one field is acquired in such a short period of time before moving on to another.

Evidence suggests that attaining expertise in an area requires profound knowledge, training and experience. We need to give a serious thought to this from early on in the career-building process of our bureaucrats.

Many district officers choose to sit on king-sized chairs on a stage when they hear complaints from the area people. Why?

Small changes, big impact: Last year, I gave a talk to an excellent group of undertraining assistant superintendents of police at the National Police Academy, Islamabad.

I also engaged them in a discussion by posing some governance-related questions to tease their curious minds. To mention a few, I asked: why do police have to beat up the accused in front of their family and community? Why don’t we think about the after-effects of this unruly behaviour on the person’s self-esteem? Many of our officers feel entitled to special treatment.

For example, they bypass immigration lines at our airports because other officials help them with their desire for ‘protocol’. If so, under what law, and whom do they try to impress? Likewise, many district officers choose to sit on king-sized chairs on a stage when they hear complaints from the area people. Why don’t they sit with them at their level? Studies suggest that building trust rather than asserting authority reduces crime and grievances more effectively.

Much has been written about the sprawling official houses of bureaucrats, spread over vast areas and fully maintained with public funds. How do they sleep peacefully in them amidst the abject poverty and inequalities under their noses? Is 10 Downing Street bigger than many of our official abodes in districts and GORs? It’s been over 75 years since we got independence from British rule. How much more time do we require to change our colonial mindset?

Why can’t our bureaucrats live in a one kanal house — official or privately rented — and the state sell off the big sarkari mansions all over the country? That alone will earn trillions of rupees for the exchequer. The proceeds can be used to build an endowment fund that can pay for their children’s education and other special allowances.

Inefficient governance system: The Ministry of Finance’s data on the 10 largest public sector corporations shows that there is one manager (BS17-22) per 2.26, 2.59, 2.66, 121 and 48 staff (BS1-16) in PIA, OGDC, Pakistan Steel Mills, Utility Stores Corporation and Pakistan Ordnance Factories, respectively. If this does not boggle the mind, I don’t know what will. Does any private firm hire one manager for three workers? And, why is there one manager for 121 workers in USC? Is that because no officer wants to deal with daal chawal matters? In the POF, it is one to 48; maybe political recruitments are not easy there.

Currently, there are over 212 state-owned enterprises, with 84 commercial organisations and 83 subsidiaries of the commercials. All are posting cumulative financial losses of hundreds of billions of rupees every year. Who really thought that the government should run commercial enterprises? Who will now clear this mess? For years, we have not even been able to privatise the much-talked-about PIA and PSM. One may also wonder why the size of federal ministries, departments and bureaucracy keeps on rising, when, post the 18th Amendment, the key subjects have been delegated to the provinces.

Final words: Everyone in our country pays GST and other indirect taxes, which account for the majority of tax revenue, while direct taxes make only a small portion of the total tax collection. Therefore, most of the government expenditures are financed by the tax receipts of the low- and middle-income population. We have a legal responsibility of serving them as well as possible.

The services of government officials are vital for increasing the income and productivity of private citizens, businesses and entrepreneurs. If the overall income in the economy grows, so will prosperity and tax revenue. This is not possible without putting an efficient, effective and inclusive governance structure in place. It is high time that we get serious about civil services reforms.

The writer is a professor of economics at AUS. He is also affiliated with CERP Lahore and MHRC-Lums.

Published in Dawn, April 22nd, 2023