Shaheer Ahmed
It is human nature that when we work hard and put in the best effort, we want to be appreciated. It encourages and boosts morale and spirits. It also makes us work to excellence. Prime Minister Imran Khan awarded appreciation certificates to the ministries that have worked hard to make a difference. Ministry of Communications topped the list for best performing ministry. Murad Saeed was given the award.
The Performance Agreement
The Performance Agreement idea was floated in 2014, but couldn’t see the light of the day due to complications. In 2020, it was given heads-up and tested on 11 ministries. Last year in 2021, the Prime Minister signed the agreement with 41 ministries. This is something very interesting as the public sector has never been accounted for its performance. Assessing the performance of the ministries is necessary to bring improvement to the bureaucracy. If successful, this will help the government to meet the goals it has set for itself.
Top Ten Best Performing Ministries
All the ministries were given a chance to set goals for them, the ones who had achieved the goals were awarded. The bonus and incentives would be given to the ministries. A ceremony was held in Islamabad to award the certificates. Prime Minister awarded the certificates to the top ten ministries. They are as follows :
- Ministry of Communications (Murad Saeed)
- Ministry of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives (Asad Umar)
- Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety Division (Dr. Sania Nishtar)
- Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training (Shafqat Mahmood)
- Ministry of Human Rights headed (Dr. Shireen Mazari)
- Ministry of Industries and Production headed (Khusro Bakhtiar)
- National Security Division headed (by Dr. Moeed Yusuf)
- Ministry of Commerce (Abdul Razak Dawood)
- Ministry of Interior (Sheikh Rashid Ahmed)
- Ministry of National Food Security and Research (Syed Fakhar Imam)
Ministries, that had a performance score of 80 % were also appreciated.
PM Praises Murad Saeed
Prime Minister praised Murad Saeed for his hard work despite being young. Other ministries should work together to learn from each other. He said, “Our ministries will get incentives to work hard, the more we publicize this.” This is a great initiative. The system of rewards and penalties helps to bring improvement to the governance system. He said that if there is no such system then there would be gaps between the private and public sectors.
He added, “When I came [into power] I had very revolutionary ideas to bring sudden changes but I realized our system can’t absorb sudden shocks [and only by] incentivizing will we bring positive changes in our bureaucracy and ministries.”
He gave recommendations on how the criteria can be more refined. The emphasis should be more on how the ministry can benefit the government by protecting the national interest. This will also motivate them to bring ‘out-of-box’ solutions and be more useful. The awards should not be announced beforehand so that all federal ministers attend the ceremony. The agreement will help to ‘improve performance, meet targets, address public issues, formulate effective policy and compile the data needed for good governance and to evaluate the performance of ministries, enforce a system of rewards and penalties for government officials and improve service delivery.’
پرفارمنس ایگریمنٹس کی بدولت گارگردگی میں بہتری، اہداف کی بروقت تکمیل، عوامی مسائل کے حل، موثر پالیسی سازی اور گوڈ گورننس کےلیے درکار ڈیٹا مرتب کرنے میں مدد ملتی ہے۔
— Prime Minister's Office (@PakPMO) February 10, 2022
Fawad Chaudry’s Ministry was not in the top ten ministries. He congratulated the awardees. He said, ‘ the performance was measured based on the implementation of projects that the ministries submitted to the PMO. The modified projects would provide more positive results next time.’
This is a good initiative taken by the government to assess the ministries holding them accountable side by side. Such measures help in the growth of the governance system leading the country ultimately on the way to progress.
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