ISLAMABAD, July 31: The restructuring and rightsizing plan of the federal ministries and divisions will be finalised by Oct 30 this year with the active support of the National Reconstruction Bureau (NRB).

According to official sources, the completion of the plan could not be achieved by June 30 this year as was earlier decided, and now President Gen Pervez Musharraf has directed the concerned officials to meet the new deadline of Oct 30 in order to achieve the much awaited restructuring and rightsizing of the federal government ministries and divisions.

Sources said the NRB and the Committee on Restructuring and Rightsizing of the Federation Ministries/Divisions (CRR), headed by the deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, had proposed the induction of well qualified private sector people in the government departments for improving their performance.

Initially, it was proposed to reduce some posts in the Planning Commission and induct three members from the private sector by offering them M-I grade, who would have worked as consultants starting for two years by getting Rs70,000 to Rs80,000 per month.

A major finding of the CRR was a very inappropriate officer/staff ratio based on staff entitlement studies dated back to the 60s as well as arbitrary decision-making by the ministries/divisions themselves, going up in some cases to as high as 1:8.

In its view, the CRR was established to ensure effective governance in the federal government “not” to downsize or retrench employees.

According to the findings of the CRR, so far as the federal divisions are concerned, cutting their strength by any percentage will not lead to significant saving to provide fiscal space; it will surely affect efficiency and morale, though.

The secretaries were, therefore, encouraged to redesign their organisations to improve performance. If in the process of restructuring, the existing strength increased or decreased, it was of no consequence as long as the total budget was not increased and a rational officer/staff ratio was observed.