Islamabad:
The government is considering the creation of new messages for the best bureaucracy in order to increase the depth of existing remuneration scales.
During a recent meeting, the Committee of Public Service Reforms examined the idea of introducing additional remuneration scales – BPS -23 and 24. It also discussed the proposals of ministries and bifurquer advantages in accordance with the workload, the merger of allowances and exempting tax allowances.
The members of the Committee asked whether the existing basic remuneration scales (BP) were to be kept. Responding to this, the additional secretary of the finance division said that the option was considered by a working group, but if the BPS was dissolved, the variation in remuneration would be difficult to manage because it would require distinct remuneration scales for various services, which were not achievable and achievable.
The chairman of the committee asked how things had been managed before the BPS system introduced in 1973. The additional secretary informed the meeting that before the existing BPS program, the salary was managed according to the classes and categories ranging from class I (highly qualified) to class IV (unqualified).
The Secretary of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives asked questions about the advice of the Salaries and Pensions Commission on the existing BPS system, to which the additional financial secretary said that the Commission had decided to keep the existing system.
The planning secretary approved the idea of categorizing ministries and divisions in accordance with the nature of their work and the workload and repairing their allowances accordingly.
The president said that the additional BPS-23 and 24 additional remuneration scales could only be envisaged for ministries and divisions with a technical work and a relatively higher workload. By giving his opinion, the additional financial secretary said that the idea of the national executive service could serve this objective.
In addition, the president stressed that the existing “one-sized” approach was no longer achievable and cited a case study of the Neelum-Jhelum hydroelectric project, which underwent a huge loss due to the lack of specialized human resources.
He pointed out that in the federal government, six to seven highly technical and division ministries such as power and energy required specialized human resources to improve their performance and these ministries should be encouraged to attract specialized talents.
The joint secretary of the Division of Economic Affairs, in his presentation, revealed that after the suggestions aforementioned during the initial sessions, other meetings of the working group took place, where she agreed with an analysis of federal services compared to provincial advantages, a regional comparison and to suggestions sought on the supply of a retirement house or the improvement of remuneration and benefits.
Following this, he explained, questions about the potential targets and their impact were raised and, in response, the working group has decided to focus on the bifurcation of ministries and benefits in accordance with the workload. The president added that in 2018, he had given the idea of a performance bonus, which was put aside by the following government. He gave directives to share this report with the members of the Committee.
In addition, the Committee discussed the question of hiring adaptation for federal government employees and has agreed that the system should be examined according to contemporary needs.
Most members have favored the monetization of the hiring installation. However, the additional financial secretary was of the opinion that monetization would have an impact of approximately 24 billion rupees per year on the federal government.
The secretary of the Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC) stressed that the monetization of hiring facilities could establish a kind of remuneration parity vis-à-vis the provinces and if the decision was taken, the staff, who was otherwise engaged in the process, could be considerably reduced, resulting by an economy for the government.
The president expressed opinion that the overall impact of monetization could be less than RS24 billion. The additional financial secretary did not agree, arguing that the impact could be greater than 24 billion rupees, because around 45% of employees, who obtained an allowance for rent of houses (which was very nominal) would also require monetization, which could increase the government’s financial burden.
The FPSC secretary proposed that in the first phase, monetization can be implemented only for employees of the federal secretariat or for employees whose offices were in Islamabad. The president approved the idea of starting the exercise of the federal secretariat.
The president concluded the meeting with remarks according to which the respective working groups would consolidate and present the final recommendations at the next committee meeting.
