KARACHI, March 23: The World Bank has not endorsed the federal cabinet decision made in early February to recruit grades 11 to 16 without involving the Federal Public Service Commission, and has observed that "it sends a disturbing signal".

The fear is that the problem of patronage and political pressures will reappear again in the appointment of employees of these grades. In practice so far, the lower level recruitment in the government was being made by the departments but the commission maintained a tight regulatory supervision.

"Thus, while they were not themselves recruiting, they maintain full responsibility for quality of the recruitment," the World Bank observes in a report on "Pakistan-Public Expenditure Management, Strategic Issues and Reforms Agenda.

"The recent decision in Pakistan seems to remove responsibility for the process as well as the function from the commission," the report remarks. The report also notes political pressures "behind the continuing high level of transfers of senior staff" and finds the problem "chronic at the provincial levels". In Sindh, the average tenure of secretaries is 15 months.

The World Bank wants the Pakistan government to move ahead rapidly for creation of a national executive service, give a sharp pay increase and monetize many of the large in kind benefits and transfer the budgetary responsibility of salaries to the district governments and progressively passed on the authority of appointment, promotion and transfer (APT) to the districts.

With a total strength of 3.2 million public employees around 2.3 per cent of Pakistan's total population that claims Rs160 billion annual wage bill (4.3 per cent of the GDP), the report notes, Pakistan's public employment "is certainly excessive relative to what the public sector delivers and undoubtedly it is bottom heavy." About 95 per cent of public employment is in grade 1 to 16. At federal level this ratio is 97 per cent.

By the year 2000, there were as many as about 889,000 employees in Punjab government, 457,000 in Sindh, and more than 128,000 in Balochistan. No figures were available from NWFP.

"Public sector employment in Pakistan may not be large but it is certainly excessive in many areas in relation to what it delivers," the World Bank notes and has, therefore, proposed the need for administrative reforms but argues against an overambitious or overelaborate set of proposals.

It observes that there appears to be a consensus between the Establishment Division and the National Reconstruction Bureau (NRB) for administrative reforms. It wants the government to move ahead.

The World Bank report refers to the proposal of the National Reconstruction Bureau for creation of five new broadly-based services which are: The Federal Service; The National Executive Service; The Provincial Civil Service, including the Provincial Executive Service; The District Civil Service; and The Tehsil Municipal Service.

Within the NRB proposal, both the federal and the provincial civil services will continue to be divided into occupational groups below grade 18. The NES will, however, be an all Pakistan service comprising a pool of officers selected on merit from amongst the officers of the federal, provincial and district services for critical policy and management positions beginning at grade 19.

The NES posts will total between 1,000 and 1,500 and will encompass all grade 19 to grade 22 officers in the federal secretariat, heads of important departments and senior positions in provincial and district governments.

The NRB has proposed NES to have three streams of specialization which are: Economic Management; Social Sector Management; and General Management. As for the wages being offered to civil servants, particularly to those at the higher levels, the World Bank report says that there is substantial evidence to prove the real compensation for the senior levels has declined over times and the gap between the public and the private salaries and emoluments has steadily increased.

For the higher grade in 22 the nominal salary and monetary allowances have increased from Rs3,000 per month in 1950 to Rs38,000 at present. Consumer prices have arisen 30-fold over the period.

It observes the first phase of pay reforms in 2002 to have positive impact that increased substantially the basic pay but decreased the ratio of allowances. The total pay package has also increased. The report also proposes completion of the administrative devolution by transferring budgetary responsibility for salaries to the district governments.