A few years ago, a development economist of international acclaim William Easterly called Pakistan a paradox of ‘growth without development’. This may be a half-truth but a development-gap practically persists despite periods of often good GDP growth rates during post-independence economic history of Pakistan.
Persistently low Human Development Index scores, high Multi-dimensional Poverty Index Values or attainment of hardly 9 out of 41 MDG indicators reflect the existence of this development-gap. To achieve ambitious Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, Pakistan needs troubleshooting of public sector capacity problem. Governance or management capacity of public sector is one of the factors contributing to this development gap. Civil service constitutes the nucleus of public sector in Pakistan. In the vast menu of governance reforms in Pakistan, recruitment and training of civil servants are two basic starters.
Like other South Asian countries, Pakistan has inherited structure of state institutions including civil service from the British Empire. During the East India Company days, directors of the company used to nominate new entrants to the company’s civil service in India. The young nominees, usually of age 17, were trained in the East India College at Hailey bury. This nomination-based recruitment of young relatives of the Company directors practically excluded the graduates of elite British universities from a prestigious career in India. This led to first phase of civil service reforms which introduced the concept of competitive examination for civil service recruitment.
In 1854, the British Parliament gave Macaulay Committee the task of proposing reforms to improve East India Company’s civil service recruitment. Benjamin Jowett, an influential member of the committee, was a fellow and tutor of Balliol College of Oxford University. He wanted the doors of a civil service career in India to be opened for graduates of Oxford. Macaulay himself was against the nominations and believed in an open competition. The recommendations of Macaulay Committee emphasised the desirability of recruitment of Oxford and Cambridge graduates for civil service in India but through an open competitive examination for all the British university graduates. In 1855, the first competitive examinations were held at King’s College and the first batch of the famous ‘Competition Wallah’ arrived in India.
To make instructional positions attractive, the officers who volunteer to serve at civil service training institutions should be offered significantly higher pay to match the opportunity cost of forgoing attractive field assignments
The same principle of meritocratic civil service recruitment through a competitive examination has continued after independence. But over the time, a few weaknesses of this recruitment system have become prominent. For instance, the existing examination system rewards rote learning and conformist thinking rather than an independence of mind and analytical thinking. The civil service recruitment process should be able to select candidates who possess a good mix of analytical skills, knowledge and ethical values.
The rationale of a single recruitment examination for a dozen occupational groups of civil service needs re-examination. Each occupational group has quite specific and distinct job description. But the concept of job specification commensurate with job description is missing in combined recruitment system. It is also time to consider introduction of specialised recruitment examinations for each occupational group.
In a combined examination system, very few candidates succeed in getting occupational group of their choice and a majority ends up in getting what they never literally aspired for. This fails the purpose of selection of right person for the right job. Specialised separate examinations for different cadres with specific educational background will serve the objective of right selection.
In the existing examination system, the choice of optional subjects betrays the principles of justice and equity. Evaluating candidates in different subjects in a combined examination, in which all candidates have equal stakes, often leads to unfair outcomes. Equally good performance in examination may result in disproportionately unequal scores just because of difference of optional subjects.
At entry level, federal civil service training comprises a two-tier system i.e. a combined Common Training Program (CTP) for all occupational groups followed by a Specialised Training Program (STP) for each group.
With little overall justification of a combined training, it is better to discontinue CTP. The entire focus of training effort should be the respective STP. The promotion-related mandatory trainings at midcareer or senior levels give same CTP-like motley-crowd impression.
Between 2002 and 2007, Professional Development Program (PDP) and Executive Development Program (EDP) of federal government provided an excellent capacity building opportunity to civil servants to study at the best foreign universities in professionally relevant areas. The dividends of such human resource development investments remain immeasurable but it is economically well established fact now that the investment in human capital gives high returns. The programs like erstwhile PDP should be reintroduced and should become a regular feature of in-service capacity development of the civil service.
The postings in civil service training institutions are generally considered unattractive from career perspective. To make instructional positions attractive, the officers who volunteer to serve at civil service training institutions should be offered significantly high pay and perks to match the opportunity cost of forgoing attractive field assignments. The civil servants on instructional assignments should be given additional career incentives including higher promotions prospects.
The right selection and right training form the bedrock of governance reforms. The socio-economic development and quality service delivery aspirations of people of Pakistan depend predominantly on quality of civil service. To effectively deal with development challenges, it is about time we embarked on governance reforms focusing the civil service.
The writer works for the public sector and is a development policy analyst
Published in Daily Times, June 30th, 2017.