LAHORE, Dec 12: Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi says the standard of services is being improved through administrative reforms to enable the people to benefit from economic progress.
Inaugurating a seminar on capacity building for public sector reforms here on Tuesday, he said a memorandum of understanding had been signed with the Civil Service College of Singapore for administrative training of government officers which would improve their performance considerably.
The government was spending huge resources on infrastructure improvement, and its administrative reforms agenda had been appreciated not only by the World Bank but by other countries as well.
The chief minister said Singapore had made a phenomenal economic progress, and administrative training by its institution would help improve the provincial service structure.
He said welfare of the people and increase in per capita income were the basis of economic strategy of the provincial government which had expedited development and facilitated increase in internal and external investment helping in control of unemployment. Health and education cover had been improved and transparency ensured in utilisation of resources through good governance and financial discipline, he said.
Punjab Planning and Development Board chairman Suleman Ghani said the Singapore college would develop course modules for key departments and training of trainers specially for strengthening the Management and Professional Development Department under the MoU. The MoU would help the provincial administration improve its business procedures, work environment and training arrangements.
He said the civil service was required to keep pace with the changing times in order to meet the growing expectations of the people. Reforms could not yield the desired results without a programme for building the capacity of the services for effective implementation. The capacity building was central to organisational performance and required a systematic management approach to learning and development as an integral part of workforce planning. He said a capacity building framework had been prepared for the province which was tailored for the public sector after due consultation with key stakeholders.
He said intention preparation of the capacity building framework was to take an overview of the problems being faced by the government departments with special reference to capacity of available workforce and to propose possible solutions. The signing of MoU with the Singapore college would show the way forward to support a learning culture and articulate governance considerations to fulfill the expectations of the people through capacity building of government employees at provincial and district levels.
The agreement between the Punjab government and the Civil Service College, Singapore, was signed by secretary services Farkhanda Aafzal and College dean Chan Heng Kee. Permanent secretary to the Public Service Division, Prime Minister Office, Singapore, Lim Soo Hoon, was also present on the occasion.
Programme officer Asad Sunbal told newsmen the MoU was valid for one year, and the provincial government would pay $500,000 to the Singapore college for training.