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Governance
is a buzz-word these days. Leaving the political dimension aside,
the functional side revolves around a key player, euphemistically
called, 'The Competent Authority.'
There are very standard metaphors of officialdom that save so much
clarity, because clarity of thought means responsibility, which could
lead to accountability and that is odious and stupid for the Competent
Authority. Terms like, 'it is desirable', 'do the needful', 'at the
earliest', 'on the pleasure of' etc. are so convenient that they can
stave of action indefinitely. Humbler officials use the term 'the
under-signed' to keep familiarity at bay while the high and mighty
hide behind the ubiquitous term, 'the Competent Authority' - almost
belying the existence of an incompetent one. This term always intrigued
me, till I discovered through conjectural evidence that it actually
means that there is enough confusion in the Government of Pakistan's
Rules of Business 1973 for the lot sitting at the Ministry to get
away by issuing this order, directive, whatever, with impunity. To
protect the sacred cloak of anonymity, the 'Competent Authority' remains
invisible and a minion at the ministry signs the document, informing
the recipient that the Competent Authority desires such and such thing….
Having gotten over the mysterious existence of the Competent Authority,
over years, I have now developed an endearing empathy for it. I have
even developed rational friendships with some samples. Except the
diehards who address their house servants in official jargon and perhaps
their family too, most of them are quite human at heart really. In
private they would readily accept and even ridicule their phony position.
Many a times I have heard a stern retort from a senior official when
lamenting against complacency, "This is how Government works!
What do you expect?" Reverse snobbery is the ultimate of arrogance;
the Competent Authority flaunts it unabashedly.
Now I come to the crux of why I empathize with the 'Competent Authority.'
It is perched upon in an ivory tower of official grandeur while below
it is dismal setup of 'rank and file' which is only adept at 'massaging
fragile egos.' Ill-educated, ill-trained, deprived of motivation,
under-paid, directionless and without self-integrity it constitutes
a morass of in-efficiency through which nothing can pass without getting
subverted, advertently or inadvertently. The Rules of Business, 1973,
Government of Pakistan, protect and nourish their failings and plight.
There are six tiers of control at the Ministerial level, each obliged
by law to handle every input made to the Ministry. Rules permit three
days for processing every correspondence. That means eighteen days
one way for a correspondence to traverse the vine. Since the volume
of correspondence normally exceeds the ability to process by many
times, bulk of it is shelved indefinitely, until political rockets
are fired into the pile.
As a CEO of an important governmental agency, my experience was that
it takes at least six phone calls, three attempts at unreliable fax
machines to get a two pager in front of a Minister or a Federal Secretary,
and that too when I have had the junior functionaries at the ministry
in my good books through crafty means. If I begin at 10 a.m. I would
be lucky if I get the two pager on the recipients desk by 4 p.m. with
at least 40 minutes in phone line occupation costing about Rs. 500/-.
Communicating with Rainer Hartel at Asian Development Bank in Manila
normally takes a ten paisa email and half an hour. The Ministry of
Production and Industries has no less than 120 computers installed
in one building! SMEDA has less than that all over Pakistan and ironically
the Ministry officials considered SMEDA's IT setup wasteful and needlessly
expensive. Perhaps it is the efficient use of computers that pinches
the Competent Authority. If terminals were to be used to display 'Bismillah"
in colour all day like a desk top picture, that would be digestible.
Organisations are only as efficient as their 'rank and file'. This
simple reality eludes our governance gurus! In military allegory,
there are three components to a fighting force: the hand that wields
the sword, the body (weight) of the sword and the cutting edge. All
three need to be good before the sword can be effective. The most
skilful dirksman is impotent without a sword of good steel and sharp
edge. A sharp edge is useless if wielded by a poor fencer. And without
good steel and weight the blow is not effective! So, the hand that
holds the sword is the leader, the CEO, the Minister, the Secretary,
whatever. The body is the logistics and technology provided to the
organization, and the 'rank and file' human resources are the cutting
edge. Brilliant Ministers and Secretaries are powerless without logistic
support and well trained and motivated lower rank functionaries. The
'Data Darbar' coterie of support staff at ministries and departments
have a parasitic existence, sustained by a mindset of bureaucracy
and politicians to provide employment sans performance.
To give random examples, on 8th June, the day after the budget, I
opened the Finance Ministry website to download the much touted electronic
version of the Statistical Survey of Pakistan. In spite of a link
provided to AcrobatTM there was no Acrobat Reader version of the document
available for download. Instead Microsoft Word and Excel spreadsheets
were available. It opened a Pandora's box of scores of word processor
files and spreadsheets without appropriate titles. What I got was
a 'do-it-yourself kit' of the document. The files were not locked
and open for editing. Most of all, three of them had WM97family.exe
virus in them. The progressive sentiment of the Competent Authority
for dissemination of information in electronic format fell short of
standard cyber protocols. Next, the SRO 505(1)/2003 has 'dairy' spelt
as 'diary'. There is a grave possibility that the 'rank and file'
at customs would interpret the SRO in letter not the spirit. God help
those who import without checking the dictionary!
In a high powered meeting the then newly appointed, Chairman EPB,
Mr. Tariq Ikram made a stentorian presentation to General Musharraf,
claiming that exports could be made to cross the US $ 13 billion mark
in three years. Having post session coffee in Marriot, Islamabad,
he asked my opinion about his presentation. I said, "Tariq, it
was brilliant! I am only worried about you. You are sitting on a pile
of garbage and you have just planted a $ 13 billion bomb in it. I
dread imagining what will happen when it goes off!"
Tariq has occult powers of survival and the bomb hasn't gone off.
But I am afraid 'The Competent Authority' does not have any occult
powers with this 'rank and file' in place, however brilliant it may
have been at college and the Academy.
For a more authentic and detailed understanding of the issue, I suggest
the readers to view the 'Pakistan Development Policy Review', a World
Bank Report, available on http://lnweb18.worldbank.org/sar/sa.nsf/Attachments/Pakistan+DPR/$File/Pak-DPR.pdf.
I spent three hours convincing John Williamson (Task Manager) to include
a chapter on Governance, which he did and it's very enlightening.
It is all about the bane of the Competent Authorities. The donor agencies
are just beginning to understand why grand plans do not translate
into public welfare in Pakistan, and hence the recent emphasis on
'capacity building' in their development plans. It's a euphemism for
sharpening the cutting edge of the executive machinery which is as
blunt as a wooden sword.
The Competent Authority is belligerently defensive on this issue:
When questioned it invariably deploys the logic of a woman golfer
criticizing her opponent, "You cheat! You have been practicing."
The 'undersigned' is not gender biased; just an analogy to drive a
point home.
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