The World Bank in a widely-disseminated report titled Pakistan Country Programme Snapshot April 2014 identified a host of governance challenges that continue to hamper growth in the economy that include "rule of law, security and a legacy of corruption, to resource management and the effectiveness of the civil service." The report however, acknowledges that "in terms of political governance important milestones were reached with the adoption of the 18th Constitutional Amendment which delegated service delivery responsibilities and resources to the provinces and the completion of a full term in office of a civilian government for the first time in Pakistan's history." This statement is qualified in the report with the proposal to strengthen the system by "the parallel establishment of a professional police service and independent prosecutors." The significance of the latter statement is obvious at the present moment in time with the looming threat of the million-march by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf scheduled on Independence Day and the government's extraordinarily stringent measures to combat it. These measures are unfortunately reminiscent of not only how protests were dealt with by sitting governments during military dictatorships but also during civilian governments - an example being the long march led by Nawaz Sharif for the restoration of the judiciary in 2009.
While holding no brief for the PTI's list of untenable demands that include the resignation of the Prime Minister or indeed for the government's over reaction in deliberating on apprehending PTI leaders on trumped-up charges and closing fuel stations along the Lahore-Islamabad highway yet the fact remains that Pakistani politics has invariably worked to the detriment of the economy. One would, of course, urge the two protagonists to negotiate with the intent to resolve the underlying issue of electoral reforms and agree on the number of constituencies that would be audited immediately, and based on the outcome the year of the next general elections. The confrontation that the PTI and the government appear to be gearing up for is likely to have a massive economic cost, which our depleted treasury can ill afford.
The report also highlights the challenge of resource management and here one can place the onus on the federal as well as provincial governments mainly because the former is not focusing all its resources on resolving the energy crisis, but is supporting mega road projects that should not be the immediate priority, and the latter have no capacity to deal with the devolved subjects like education and health under the 18th Constitutional Amendment. In addition, the federal government expenses that should have been reduced as a consequence of the devolution continue to be just as high. The report also notes that "state-owned entities (SOEs) actual and potential losses as well as related flows of subsidies are a fiscal risk. These two challenges will require strengthening of tax administration and SOE corporate governance." And unfortunately the poor performance of the Federal Board of Revenue continues, as per the third review of the International Monetary Fund, and the government has failed to improve corporate governance because of its sustained failure to appoint heads of SOEs as per the rules laid down by the superior court.
And finally the effectiveness of the civil service remains a challenge for Pakistani governments, which is partly attributable to the politicisation of senior bureaucrats whose promotions/appointments have little to do with competence in a particular sector. It may be recalled that during military and civilian governments appointing military men and strict civil service disciplinarians like Nargis Sethi to head ministries or SOEs have failed to produce results because they do not have the expertise to deal with long standing governance and technical issues.
Be that as it may, it was heartening to note that the report maintains that "at the provincial level the governments of Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas are formulating and implementing good governance strategies. These programmes are comprehensive and aim to improve government performance and service delivery by strengthening public finance management, revenue mobilisation, transparency, accountability and performance monitoring." One does note that there is no mention of the success or otherwise of the implementation of these strategies and one hopes that the pace of implementation is accelerated.
Friday, August 8, 2014
Pakistan: Poor governance
The World Bank in a widely-disseminated report titled Pakistan Country Programme Snapshot April 2014 identified a host of governance challenges that continue to hamper growth in the economy that include "rule of law, security and a legacy of corruption, to resource management and the effectiveness of the civil service." The report however, acknowledges that "in terms of political governance important milestones were reached with the adoption of the 18th Constitutional Amendment which delegated service delivery responsibilities and resources to the provinces and the completion of a full term in office of a civilian government for the first time in Pakistan's history." This statement is qualified in the report with the proposal to strengthen the system by "the parallel establishment of a professional police service and independent prosecutors." The significance of the latter statement is obvious at the present moment in time with the looming threat of the million-march by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf scheduled on Independence Day and the government's extraordinarily stringent measures to combat it. These measures are unfortunately reminiscent of not only how protests were dealt with by sitting governments during military dictatorships but also during civilian governments - an example being the long march led by Nawaz Sharif for the restoration of the judiciary in 2009.
While holding no brief for the PTI's list of untenable demands that include the resignation of the Prime Minister or indeed for the government's over reaction in deliberating on apprehending PTI leaders on trumped-up charges and closing fuel stations along the Lahore-Islamabad highway yet the fact remains that Pakistani politics has invariably worked to the detriment of the economy. One would, of course, urge the two protagonists to negotiate with the intent to resolve the underlying issue of electoral reforms and agree on the number of constituencies that would be audited immediately, and based on the outcome the year of the next general elections. The confrontation that the PTI and the government appear to be gearing up for is likely to have a massive economic cost, which our depleted treasury can ill afford.
The report also highlights the challenge of resource management and here one can place the onus on the federal as well as provincial governments mainly because the former is not focusing all its resources on resolving the energy crisis, but is supporting mega road projects that should not be the immediate priority, and the latter have no capacity to deal with the devolved subjects like education and health under the 18th Constitutional Amendment. In addition, the federal government expenses that should have been reduced as a consequence of the devolution continue to be just as high. The report also notes that "state-owned entities (SOEs) actual and potential losses as well as related flows of subsidies are a fiscal risk. These two challenges will require strengthening of tax administration and SOE corporate governance." And unfortunately the poor performance of the Federal Board of Revenue continues, as per the third review of the International Monetary Fund, and the government has failed to improve corporate governance because of its sustained failure to appoint heads of SOEs as per the rules laid down by the superior court.
And finally the effectiveness of the civil service remains a challenge for Pakistani governments, which is partly attributable to the politicisation of senior bureaucrats whose promotions/appointments have little to do with competence in a particular sector. It may be recalled that during military and civilian governments appointing military men and strict civil service disciplinarians like Nargis Sethi to head ministries or SOEs have failed to produce results because they do not have the expertise to deal with long standing governance and technical issues.
Be that as it may, it was heartening to note that the report maintains that "at the provincial level the governments of Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas are formulating and implementing good governance strategies. These programmes are comprehensive and aim to improve government performance and service delivery by strengthening public finance management, revenue mobilisation, transparency, accountability and performance monitoring." One does note that there is no mention of the success or otherwise of the implementation of these strategies and one hopes that the pace of implementation is accelerated.
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