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Human Resource Management Report

Excise & Taxation Department Livestock & Dairy Development Department

Punjab Government Efficiency Improvement Programme 11 April 2011

Final

Contract Reference No. PGEIP TA Loan 2386-PAK

Crown Agents Reference No. T27111

Human Resource Management Report Crown Agents

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Crown Agents Table of Contents

List of Abbreviations (ii) List of Tables (iv) List of Figures (iv) Executive Summary (v)

Section Page

Section 1: Human Resource Management in the Government of Punjab 1

1. Introduction 2

2. Background and Context 2 2.1 Punjab Civil Service Reform 2 2.2 CSR – a brief historical perspective 3 2.3 CSR – Policy 3 2.4 CSR – Implementation 4 2.5 Implications for the HRM sub-component 4

3. CSR – HRM Component 4 3.1 HRM Component Deliverables 5 3.2 Method of Working 5

4. HRM Situation Analysis 6 4.1 Overview of Current Status of HRM in Punjab 6 4.2 Impact of Regulatory Bodies on HRM Reform 6 4.3 Institutional Issues affecting HRM 8 4.4 Summary of HRM Challenges in Punjab 10 4.5 Key HR Reforms Needed (but beyond the scope of this project) 12 4.6 Next Steps 15

Section 2: Excise & Taxation Department 16

5. Excise & Taxation Department 17 5.1 Demographics 17 5.2 HRM Resources 20 5.3 HRM procedures 21 5.4 Findings 23 5.5 Areas for Improvement in HRM 25

Section 3: Livestock & Dairy Development Department 29

6. Livestock & Dairy Development Department 30 6.1 Demographics 30 6.2 HRM resources 36 6.3 HR procedures 36 6.4 Findings 38 6.5 Areas for improvement in HRM 40

Section 4: Recommendations & Conclusion 45


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Crown Agents 7. Summary of HRM Issues and Recommendations 47 7.1 HRM System Recommendations 47 7.2 Department Specific Recommendations 48

8. Conclusion 51

Appendices Page

Appendix A: HR Procedure Audit Proforma and Guidance Notes 53

Appendix B: Demographic Data Proformas and Guidance Notes 57

Appendix C: Human Resources Information Systems 67

List of Abbreviations

ACR.............................................................................................................Annual Confidential Report

ADB ............................................................................................................... Asian Development Bank

ADP .............................................................................................................. Annual Development Plan

AETO.......................................................................................... Assistant Excise and Taxation Officer

AFI ....................................................................................................................... Area for Improvement

AIT..................................................................................................... Artificial Insemination Technician

APUG ......................................................................................................... All Pakistan Unified Grades

AVO............................................................................................................ Assistant Veterinary Officer

BLPRI .......................................................................... Barani Livestock Production Research Institute

BPR ...................................................................................................Business Process Reengineering

BPS ..............................................................................................................................Basic Pay Scale

BRI ................................................................................................................Buffalo Research Institute

CAF ..................................................................................................Common Assessment Framework

CSR....................................................................................................................... Civil Service Reform

DCO ...........................................................................................................District Coordination Officer

DDLO ..................................................................................................Deputy District Livestock Officer

DG ............................................................................................................................... Director General

DLO ................................................................................................................. District Livestock Officer

DMG ...........................................................................................................District Management Group

E&TD..................................................................................................Excise and Taxation Department

EDO (Agri) .................................................................................. Executive District Officer (Agriculture)

EDO (R).........................................................................................Executive District Officer (Revenue)

ETO ............................................................................................................... Excise & Taxation Officer

FBR ..............................................................................................................Federal Board of Revenue

FD.......................................................................................................................... Finance Department

FR............................................................................................Functional Review or Functional Report


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Crown Agents GoPb ..................................................................................................................Government of Punjab

HQrs ................................................................................................................................. Headquarters

HR/OD....................................................................... Human Resource / Organisational Development

HRD......................................................................................................Human Resource Development

HRM .....................................................................................................Human Resource Management

HRMIS..................................................................Human Resource Management Information System

L&DDD ........................................................................ Livestock and Dairy Development Department

LPRI ........................................................................................Livestock Production Research Institute

LSTC ................................................................................................ Livestock Service Training Centre

MPDD.......................................................... Management and Professional Development Department

MTBF........................................................................................... Medium Term Budgetary Framework

MTDF ..................................................................................... Medium Term Development Framework

NHS..........................................................................................................National Health Service (UK)

NPM ...............................................................................................................New Public Management

P&D ........................................................................................Planning and Development Department

P&E ................................................................................................................. Planning and Evaluation

PCS ................................................................................................................... Provincial Civil Service

PEDA.................................................................Punjab Employees Efficiency and Discipline Act 2006

PER ......................................................................................................Performance Evaluation Report

PGEIP .........................................................Punjab Government Efficiency Improvement Programme

PIT...........................................................................................................Project Implementation Team

PITB .......................................................................................... Punjab Information Technology Board

PLGA............................................................ Punjab Local Government Act (2010) (currently in draft)

PLGO .............................................................................. Punjab Local Government Ordinance (2001)

PMS................................................................................................ Performance Management System

PMS..........................................................................................................Punjab Management Service

POM ........................................................................................................Result Oriented Management

PPP ............................................................................................................ Public / Private Partnership

PPSC.............................................................................................. Punjab Public Service Commission

PRI ................................................................................................................Poultry Research Institute

PRMP ............................................................................... Punjab Resource Management Programme

PSHDDP ................................................................... Punjab Small Holder Dairy Development Project

RCCSC................................................................ Research Centre for Conservation of Sahiwal Cattle

S&GAD ....................................................................Services and General Administration Department

T&D ..............................................................................................................Training and Development

TA......................................................................................................................... Technical Assistance

ToR......................................................................................................................... Terms of Reference

UIPT ....................................................................................................Urban Immovable Property Tax

VA...........................................................................................................................Veterinary Assistant

VO ..............................................................................................................................Veterinary Officer

VRI .......................................................................................................... Veterinary Research Institute


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Crown Agents List of Tables

Table 1 - Summary of E&TD Functions 17

Table 2 - Workforce distribution by Position & Grade 18

Table 3 - Analysis of E&TD HRM Procedures 21

Table 4 - L&DDD Functions 31

Table 5 - Staff analysis by Wing & Directorate 31

Table 6 - Proportion of Ministerial Staff in Research Wing Institutes 32

Table 7 - L&DD Staff & Operating Costs 2006-09 32

Table 8 - Analysis of HRM procedures in L&DDD 36

Table 9 - Limited promotion opportunities for Veterinarians in L&DDD 40

Table 10 - Suggested promotion structure (alternative to "4-Tier" system) 42

List of Figures

Figure 1 - E&TD Summary Organisation Chart 18

Figure 2 - Suggested alternative promotion path 27

Figure 3 - Type-of-tax structure for Directorate General (E&T) 28

Figure 4 - L&DD Summary Organisation Chart 30

Figure 5 - L&DD Extension Wing vacant positions 33

Figure 6 - Reporting and Performance Management of a DLO 35

This document is submitted to the named client but remains the copyright of Crown Agents. It should not be reproduced in whole or part without the express written permission of Crown Agents.

It should be noted that the BSI Symbol and UKAS Accreditation mark signify that Crown Agents operate a documented Quality Management System registered with the British Standards Institution to the international quality standard BS EN ISO 9001:2008. The scope of this registration specifically covers the provision of consultancy services in revenue enhancement and expenditure and debt management including customs, taxation and trade, institutional development, engineering and procurement management, advice and reform.

FS 33234


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Crown Agents

Executive Summary


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Crown Agents Executive Summary This report presents the findings and initial recommendations of the HRM sub-component of the CSR project commissioned under the auspices of the Punjab Government Efficiency Improvement Programme. The terms of reference for the project specified two pilot Departments; Excise and Taxation and Livestock & Dairy Development.

Method of working

The HRM investigation comprised:

• A review of previous reports • An audit of the main HRM procedures by interview • A request for workforce demographic data by questionnaire • Interviews and field visits

All of these methods produced useful results and insights, with the exception of the request for workforce demographic data, which both Departments found difficult to produce (itself suggesting one of our main recommendations). Nonetheless, the authors are very grateful for the support and insight of the staff and management of both Departments.

Scope for HRM modernisation

The management of the Civil Service workforce is heavily regulated by statute and service rules, so that there is currently limited scope for unilateral action by a single Department which diverges from the service rules currently in force. Thus most of the HRM activities such as recruitment, promotion, training and development, appraisal, discipline, manpower planning are strictly defined and centrally controlled.

As a consequence, there is little opportunity to implement unilateral changes in either of the pilot Departments. While we attempt to make some practical suggestions in this report, until and unless there is a move towards more decentralised control of workforce management practices, human resource management within GoPb will continue to fall short of modern international practice.

Civil Service Reform Policy

Prior to the commencement of the present project, another initiative under the PGEIP resulted in the development of a Civil Service Reform Policy entitled “Calibrating the Civil Service Institutions for Enhancing People’s Wellbeing in Punjab”. The reform architecture proposed by this study includes a number of amendments to current management practices in the Punjab Civil Service which are of direct relevance to this project. The Policy has been approved by the Cabinet about a year ago, but little has been done in the meantime to put any part of the policy into practice.

Therefore an overarching recommendation emerging from this report is for GoPb to take urgent steps towards the actual implementation of this Policy.

Main Findings

The HRM investigation found that management of the Punjab Civil Service is subject to a high degree of central control and is strictly regulated by law and by notified rules and regulations. As a result there is little scope in practice for a Department to exercise discretion or introduce different procedures without going through a complex and usually lengthy process of submissions and approvals.

It was also found that, while both Departments officially followed the rules and regulations, there is a parallel unofficial movement which seeks to bypass the restrictions of central control by the use of personal political and socio-economic influence. This ‘safarish’ culture is both a benefit and an obstacle to effective management of the public service workforce. Individual senior managers can exercise their personal influence to secure the appointment of favoured people to their teams, which can be to the benefit of the Department. But it can also result in inappropriate postings and untimely transfers. The Civil Service has thus become embroiled in a vicious circle where the centre seeks to eliminate individual discretion by central control through rules and


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Crown Agents regulations, which encourages greater use of influence to get round the restrictions, which in turn leads to more central regulation.

Main Recommendations

Most of the recommendations concerning the modernisation of HRM practices really need to be applied across the Civil Service as a whole rather than piecemeal, department by department. There are therefore a number of global recommendations which need to be addressed, even if beyond the scope of this project. These include:

1. Creation of an HRM service group or cadre for HRM with designated posts in each public service body and clear career paths culminating in senior posts in S&GAD

2. Establishment of an HRM Policy Unit in the Chief Minister’s secretariat which is charged with developing and implementing changes to the current civil service rules and regulations in order to allow greater flexibility and devolution of control to Department level

3. More devolved responsibilities for recruitment, allowing Departments more direct control over the composition of their workforces

4. Shifting the emphasis for promotions from Seniority to competence and performance

5. Specifying minimum tenures (of two to three years) for middle and senior management posts to ensure sufficient time to initiate and complete projects

In addition to these global issues, the following recommendations are proposed for more immediate action by both pilot departments:

1. While the Departments are fixed to minimum pay scales, there is some flexibility to provide additional incentives, whether pay, emoluments or just sufficient operating expenses for field work. Both Departments should implement such incentive schemes, targeted at specific groups of employees

2. Each Department needs to develop up-to-date Training Strategies, and should set up a small team to work with the consultants in this regard, to address the fact that neither Department has a systematic plan to build the capacity of existing staff

3. In order to manage the workforce more efficiently, each Department needs to have a comprehensive and reliable employee database. Current initiatives should therefore be accelerated, or replaced with an off-the-shelf HRMIS product.

4. A common style of job description should be introduced with a section on performance targets agreed between the manager and jobholder. This document should be continually monitored and up-dated as necessary.

5. An effective performance management system is needed, but the time is not right to introduce such a system. However, preparation maybe begun by implementing job descriptions with targets and getting managers and employees used to thinking in performance terms.

6. Both organisations suffer organisational problems – L&DD’s de facto cadre system creates painful inflexibility, whereas in E&TD there is flexibility but insufficient specialist focus on either functions or type-of-tax. Both Departments should investigate and adopt medium term restructuring objectives – highly opportune given wider changes currently afoot in constitutional, policy and political arenas.

In conclusion

There are two key impediments to successful reform of the Civil Service. The first is the issue of unstable and unpredictable job tenures. The second is the existence of two parallel management cultures; the official regulation driven culture, and the unofficial culture driven by personal influence and political intervention which regularly bypasses the official procedures.

Unless and until these two key issues are addressed, there is limited realistic chance that any lasting reform of the Punjab Government’s Civil Service will be achieved. These issues therefore need to be addressed with sustained effort and commitment at the very top of the GoPb hierarchy.


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Crown Agents

Section 1: Human Resource Management in the Government of Punjab


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Crown Agents 1. Introduction The Punjab Government Efficiency Programme (PGEIP) is the successor programme to the Punjab Resource Management Programme (PRMP).

PRMP, focussed around an initial $500m concessional loan from the Asian Development Bank, was developed as an instrument to promote poverty reduction and pro-poor growth in Punjab. It began in 2003, and focussed on four key areas of reform:

• Public financial management (strengthening provincial revenues, rationalizing provincial expenditure, improving effectiveness, predictability and accountability in financial management)

• Pro-poor development (improving strategic programming of investments for poverty reduction)

• Civil service reforms (restructuring and strengthening government, administration and human resource management)

• Private sector development (public private partnerships, private sector policy development)

On the back of the success of PRMP, GoPb and the ADB designed a successor ‘umbrella’ programme, PGEIP, which was structured to continue and strengthen the reforms introduced through PRMP. It had four areas of focus similar to those of PRMP, although it also sought to further expand fiscal space by transforming pension liabilities into off-budget items and capitalizing Pension and Provident Funds.

The present project, undertaken by Crown Agents, comprises two major components. The first (MTBF) focuses on strengthening the GoPb’s fiscal management while the second (CSR) is focused on the strategic, administrative and people-management aspects of public sector reform. Within the CSR component of the project there is a sub-component focused on the human resources management (HRM) practices and procedures currently in use.

This document is the initial report of the HRM sub-component.

2. Background and Context The following sections discuss the background of the public service reform process in Punjab, and provide a context for the present project and its CSR component.

2.1 Punjab Civil Service Reform As is often the case with public sector reform, many of the reforms envisaged in Punjab are heavily influenced by reforms enacted in other countries. Indeed, part of the rationale for introducing international expertise to a reform project is to benefit from the experience of reform elsewhere. Countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, New Zealand, Canada and the UK have all attempted major public sector reforms in the past 20 years that have provided valuable lessons about the possibilities for public sector management beyond the traditional bureaucratic template that still dominates in much of the world.

However, while an interest in new ideas and a willingness to learn from the experience of others are undoubtedly very positive traits, it is important to be aware of the risks of ‘importing’ solutions from overseas, either in part or in full. While some countries may share similar characteristics that increase the ‘transferability’ of reform concepts – countries with Commonwealth backgrounds, for example – each country ultimately remains unique with its own particular mix of social, political and cultural needs.

Successful reform therefore depends on a mixture of political, social, economic and technical factors that are never completely identical in any two places. The most important lesson that international development studies teach is that each country must follow its own development path, and not be forced on to one that is not appropriate to local circumstances.

Civil Service Reform (CSR) in any country is a sensitive, complicated and political process, and in Pakistan, historically, this has been especially true. Change therefore happens slowly and often against considerable resistance.


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Crown Agents The Government of Punjab is clearly alive to the need for reform and has commissioned many studies and reports which have provided a multitude of recommendations on how the government machinery should be modernised. However, the complexities and interdependencies of the Federal and Provincial public service environment make it very difficult to know where to begin with reforming of the Punjab Civil Service. As a result, few studies have been translated into actual implementation.

2.2 CSR – a brief historical perspective ‘New Public Management’ (NPM) is a trend towards a different style of public sector management that is based on the recognition that traditional rule-based public administration systems are no longer sufficient for modern public sectors charged with more and more complex tasks. NPM-style reforms are popularly associated with the centre right governments in the US and UK in the 1980s, as well as with New Zealand’s 1980s and 1990s reform programmes (the most comprehensive NPM reform efforts yet attempted).

There are different perspectives on what reforms define the NPM movement, but some of the main characteristics include: • A move to professional management, with managers given more spending discretion but also

being held more closely to account for performance • The break-up of larger government departments into smaller, more focussed units or

agencies that are a step further removed from day-to-day political pressure • Increased emphasis on competition, either internally or through the increased use of the

private sector • Stress on private sector management practices and techniques • Greater emphasis on output controls to increase efficiency • Explicit standards and measures of performance • Budgets reworked to be more transparent and to allow resources to be allocated against

results rather than activities

In parallel with the emergence of NPM reforms, the Human Resources profession was undergoing change. Whereas it used to be focused on the quantitative processes of putting people in jobs, it was becoming more concerned with the qualitative aspect of getting the right person in the right job. Also, more and more of the day-to-day responsibilities of the former Personnel and HR sections were being devolved to the line managers. As a result, the modern model HR function comprises a central unit responsible for defining procedures and standards, while the implementation of the policies and procedures is devolved to line managers.

Many of these characteristics are present or implied in the Terms of Reference: an emphasis on performance; a stress on private sector management practices such as business process re-engineering and corporate planning; functional reviews to assess whether to privatise or corporatize particular parts of departments. But many of these concepts are also quite new to Pakistan: professional management removed from political control; a focus on holding managers to account for meeting targets; the use of competition. What is important, therefore, is to avoid a “big bang” package of reforms and, rather, to adopt a more measured approach which will hold a far greater potential for long-term success.

2.3 CSR – Policy Development of the GoPb’s overarching Policy on public sector reform has been the task of a separate project which has been running under the PGEIP umbrella for the past two years and is currently running alongside the present project. This CSR Policy project has produced a reform architecture which includes proposals for a number of far-reaching reforms of direct relevance to the present project. These proposed reforms will be discussed later in the Report.

The CSR Policy, entitled “Calibrating the Civil Service Institutions for Enhancing People’s Wellbeing in Punjab”, has been approved by the Cabinet, but at the time of writing there has been little action taken to implement any elements of the policy.


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Crown Agents 2.4 CSR – Implementation With the CSR Policy established and approved by the Cabinet, the CSR component of the present project is focused on providing practical support to the implementation of reforms in two nominated Departments – Livestock & Dairy Development (L&DD); and Excise & Taxation (E&T). The aim is to:

• Enable lessons to be learnt about the effectiveness and relevance of difference aspects of the ‘performance management’ reform agenda, and

• Create a ‘demonstration’ effect that helps to build a stronger constituency in support of wider civil service reform

Much as with the MTBF component, the challenge is to achieve successful short-term improvements in the two pilot departments while not losing sight of the longer-term goals that these reforms are intended to support. While a lot of work on CSR has already been done in earlier years, much of this work has been focused on cross-departmental issues. In contrast, the current project attempts to take a deeper view inside the client departments and assist with reforming the processes and systems within them to improve the departmental performance, through better processes, people and systems.

2.5 Implications for the HRM sub-component In addressing the issue of reforming and modernising the HRM policies and practices in two representative Departments of the Punjab Civil Service the HRM team have taken account of several implications.

• While international experiences of reform are undoubtedly worth learning from, Punjab’s reform programmes need to take into account its own needs, risks and constraints.

• The shift from the present highly regulated, centralised procedures to a more devolved style of professional and responsible management will require more time and effort to establish than is available to the present project.

• Many of the tools and techniques of modern HR management require people-management skills which are not yet sufficiently commonplace among public service line managers and will need time to develop

• In order to introduce modern HR management techniques many of the present Civil Service regulations and rules of business will need to be changed. However, the approval process for changing these rules and regulations is complex and will require a significant amount of time to complete.

Consequently the CSR component, and the HRM sub-component of this project will focus on initiatives that are both within the jurisdiction of the individual Departments, and achievable within the life of the project.

3. CSR – HRM Component The work of the HRM subcomponent seeks to address two main streams of work. First is a review of the existing human resource management policies and practices in the two client departments in order to establish a baseline for developing suggested practical improvements to current administrative practices. The second stream is to assist the client Departments and CSR team in implementing their proposals in the client Departments.

Modern human resource management (HRM) covers a very broad spectrum of activities, including recruitment, staff appraisal / assessment, training, promotion, transfer, performance management, professional development, career and succession planning, pay & grading, legal/regulatory compliance, and general workforce administration.

As explained in the technical proposal, any HR reforms proposed will need to be developed within the parameters and restrictions of the prevailing laws, regulations and rules of business. A key factor for meaningful HRM reform in this project, therefore, will be the extent to which the two client departments:


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Crown Agents • Are granted freedom by the Services & General Administration Department (S&GAD) to change or modify their policies, and

• Can achieve those changes within the framework of the Civil Service establishment code (Estacode) and Rules of Business.

3.1 HRM Component Deliverables The terms of reference specify the primary deliverable as this HRM Report to be delivered by 25 March 2011. Thereafter HRM activities and deliverables are to be driven by the needs of the two Departments as they seek to implement the priority reform actions which have arisen from the list of Areas for Improvement (AFIs) as agreed with the CSR team.

3.2 Method of Working The HR Team, comprising international HR specialist, Alan Gilmour, and national HR specialist, Asad Maken, started work on the HRM Component with a considerable amount of prior knowledge of the HRM scene in the Pakistan public sector. Alan has worked in Pakistan as HR Adviser in the public sector since 2002, while Asad has been associated with the development sector for the past six years, and has previously served in an HR capacity in the Civil Service. This prior knowledge has greatly facilitated the ability of the team to gather the available information quickly and efficiently.

3.2.1 Review of previous reports

The team had access to the many internationally funded previous reports conducted in recent years under the PRMP and PGEIP auspices. These reports contain many recommendations for improvements in the management practices of the Punjab Civil Service, and provided a useful background to the team’s own investigations

3.2.2 HR Procedures Audit

In order to gain a picture of the “ground reality” of how the specified people management procedures were being implemented in practice, an audit was conducted, using a standard proforma and focussing on the major procedures relating to recruitment, transfers and promotions. The proforma audit forms and guidance notes are shown in Appendix A.

3.2.3 Demographics Analysis

In addition to the Procedures Audit, demographic statistics were requested from both Departments. To facilitate collection of the data, the proformas, were provided to the two Departments as Excel spreadsheets. Hard copy versions of the sheets and guidance notes are attached as Appendix B. This exercise exposed the very fragmented nature of the HR administration in both Departments, with most data held in hard copy format and in a large number of locations around the province. Insufficient data was available in time for useful analysis of the Departments’ workforces to be carried out.

3.2.4 Interviews

A number of interviews were conducted with officers and officials who were located at the Departments’ HQs and were concerned with the administration of certain categories of the workforce. In addition some field visits enabled the team to gather information and opinions from a selection of officers and staff located in District governments.

3.2.5 Support of AFIs selected by pilot Departments

The CSR team have submitted Functional Audit reports on both Departments from which a number of Areas for Improvement (AFI) have been distilled. Each Department will nominate the high priority AFIs (and may add some new items), and will then receive targeted support and practical assistance from the project team.

In addition to any HR specific initiatives, the HR sub-component will also assist the Department and CSR team to arrive at practical solutions to support implementation of these AFIs.


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Crown Agents 4. HRM Situation Analysis

4.1 Overview of Current Status of HRM in Punjab In the past decade the Human Resources Management profession in the Pakistani private sector has progressed in leaps and bounds, but the same cannot be said in the public sector. People management activities are seen as administrative rather than professional. There are very few true HR sections or wings in the Federal or Provincial Civil Services; there is no dedicated career path for HR practitioners, and is there no HR cadre or service group. HR management in the public sector is still firmly anchored in the “personnel management” era.

Personnel management, by and large, focuses on the numbers: a given number of posts requires the same number of jobholders. HR management, on the other hand, is concerned with placing the right person in the right job, with the right qualifications and experience and at the right time. In other words, the focus should be qualitative rather than quantitative.

Personnel management in the Punjab Public Service, then, is performed by means of closely regulated rules and procedures which are designed to limit the opportunity for officials to exercise personal discretion.

Promotion, for example, is largely based on seniority and fitness. Seniority is derived from the year of joining the Civil Service and performance in the Final Passing Out Exam (FPOE). Fitness is derived from ratings from an individual’s annual confidential report (ACR), but since around 90% of employees get “A” ratings, the concept has little practical value in identifying the top performers. Selection for promotion therefore is a mainly mechanical process that has little to do with assessment of on-the-job performance or future potential.

HRM in the Punjab, then, is seen as a mainly administrative activity to be carried out as part of the routine administration of the public service. It is not recognised as a discipline similar to the Law or Medicine with practitioners trained to exercise professional skills and judgment in carrying out their work.

However, despite (or perhaps because of) the plethora of rules and regulations constraining effective management of the workforce, a powerful informal management network has grown up. This network can often influence who gets posted where and, in an unofficial way, plays a part in ensuring that good people are recognised and advanced. The disadvantage of this informal process is that it depends on personal relationships and because of this is uncoordinated and inconsistent in its effect.

4.2 Impact of Regulatory Bodies on HRM Reform There are three principal bodies with a regulatory involvement in HRM. These are: • Services and General Administration Department • Service Regulations Wing of the Finance Department • Punjab Public Service Commission

4.2.1 Services and General Administration Department (S&GAD)

The S&GAD provides a wide range of services to the Civil Service. The Department is headed by the Chief Secretary and acts as his Secretariat. From an HR point of view, there are four different Wings and one Section with responsibilities relating to the Civil Service workforce:

• The Services Wing deals with the postings and transfers of officers at BPS18 and above in the DMG, PMS, and other Federal service groups. It reviews submissions for promotions from Departments, and makes recommendations to the appropriate appointing authority, such as the Chief Secretary. It can also initiate moves without prior notice to the individual’s employing Department.

• Within the Services Wing is the Establishment Section, which deals with the appointments of specialist and technical officers at BPS 20 and above. It does initiate moves, but reviews submissions and makes recommendations to the Chief Secretary.

• The Administration Wing deals with promotions and transfers of BPS 17 officers


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Crown Agents • The Personnel Wing looks after staff up to BPS 16 who are posted to the secretariat sections in Departmental headquarters. Although these posts are located in the Departments, they are actually employees of S&GAD.

• The Regulations Wing in S&GAD is responsible for maintaining and interpreting the Service Rules and regulations which govern the Punjab Civil Service.

In 2005 a Public Policy and Change Management Wing was created in S&GAD with a remit, inter alia, to oversee employment policy and practices across the entire Punjab public service. This Wing would have been the ideal unit to drive the modernisation of service rules and practices, but it was deemed ineffective and closed down in January 2011.

Thus it may be seen that there is no single unit with an overview of the entire civil service workforce. With so many separate divisions of responsibility there is no capacity to identify early those with high potential and then to track and nurture them through the various stages of promotion and development. Nor is there any institutionalised mechanism for succession planning at the senior grade levels.

4.2.2 Service Regulations Wing, Finance Department

Its website says that the Wing “deals with cases involving the framing, interpretation and application of rules governing fixation of pay, grant of special pay, allowances, pension, deputation, re-employment, condonation of break in service and all other matters relating to pay and perquisites of government employees (except those assigned to the Pay Commission Wing), delegation of powers under Financial Rules and Civil Services Rules, revision of all Financial Rules, Treasury Rules and Civil Service Regulations is also the responsibility of this Wing. It also gives advice to the other Wings of Finance Department and other Administrative Departments on the interpretation and application of the aforementioned rules.”

GoPb conforms to the Federal pay rules and structure. It is understood that this is not a legal requirement, but there are strong political, financial and practical reasons for adhering to the Federal rules. The Service Regulations Wing therefore interprets and administers the rules in Punjab, and any attempt to introduce new cash-based incentive schemes must therefore be submitted to this Wing for approval. As with other aspects of the service rules and regulations, there is a strong reluctance to sanction changes, although some have been allowed, such as the incentive scheme being piloted in a few tax circles of the E&T Department.

4.2.3 Punjab Public Service Commission

The PPSC is a statutory body constituted under the provisions of the Punjab Public Service Commission Ordinance 1978 and the Punjab Public Service Commission (Function) Rules 1978. The Commission has the status of a special institution under the administrative control of S&GAD. Its declared primary function is “to ensure that all posts within its jurisdiction are filled strictly on merit, subject to the recruitment policy of the Government”.

It is responsible for direct recruitment into various posts in Grades 16 to 22. This is mostly accomplished by means of annual competitive exams to select entrants to grade 17 generalist posts. In the case of specialist posts such as L&DDD’s veterinarians, PPSC runs special selection exams and interviews in which Department representatives participate.

Recruitment for grades 1–15 is undertaken by PPSC only when specially authorized by the Government of Punjab. Otherwise these recruitments are handled by the Department or the District Government depending on the location of the posts.

4.2.4 Principal Statutory Instruments regulating HRM activity

There are around 25 statutory instruments which define the nature and scope of HRM activity in the Punjab Public Service. Of these the main ones are:

• Pakistan Civil servants Act, 1973 • Federal Service Tribunal Act, 1973 • Punjab Civil Servants Act, 1974 • Punjab Service Tribunals Act, 1974 • Punjab Government Employees Welfare Fund Ordinance, 1969


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Crown Agents • Punjab Government Servants (Benevolent Fund) Ordinance, 1960 • The Punjab Employees Efficiency, Discipline and Accountability Act, 2006 • Prevention of Corruption Act, 1947

In addition there are many notices and directives, such as the Rules of Business, which define and regulate the management of the Civil Service workforce. The Estacode is a compendium of these laws and directives and the 3-inch thick volume is the primary source of information on the very large body of regulatory instructions with which all officers and staff have to comply.

However, it is still possible for individual employees to circumvent or even by-pass completely the plethora of rules and regulations if they can deploy sufficient political or social influence either in their own right, or on their behalf. An unintended benefit of this “safarish” culture is that sometimes good people can be identified and, in effect, sponsored by more senior and/or influential officers. But this unofficial approach depends entirely on personal influence and is therefore inconsistent in its impact and results.

4.2.5 Regulation v. Professional Expertise in HRM

Human resource management activity is therefore primarily driven by compliance with administrative regulations rather than by professional expertise. These regulations are drawn up and maintained by different regulatory bodies such as S&GAD and Regulations Wing. There is no professionally expert oversight of the function, and therefore little scope to drive innovation. As a result, HRM in the public service has not progressed at anything like the speed with which the commercial sector has embraced the principles and techniques of modern HR management.

The shift from regulatory control to professional expertise in HR management is essential and overdue.

4.3 Institutional Issues affecting HRM The HRM function in the Punjab public sector lacks a professional core or centre of excellence, and different segments of the workforce are administered by different federal, provincial, district and attached bodies. As a consequence the HRM function of the Punjab public service is very fragmented.

The structure of the workforce comprises four overlapping segmentations which create a complex matrix of responsibility areas. This in turn leads to conflicts and gaps in the HRM coverage which effectively prevents Departments from implementing effective and properly co-ordinated management of their employees.

• First there is the straightforward vertical segmentation of the public service workforce into Departments and attached bodies based on their functions. The exact number is changing as some departments are currently being merged.

• Second, there is the Federal / Provincial / District split. Senior posts may be filled by officers from the federally administered DMG cadre or from the provincially administered PMS cadre. There are federally established quotas for DMG and PMS officers, but the allocation of each post is jealously monitored by the two cadres. A further split then occurs between the Provincial and District governments. The exact arrangements vary from Department to Department. In the case of E&TD, for example, appraisals are written by Department officers, while L&DDD employees are appraised by District officers. But provincial employees posted-out in a District are administered, accommodated and paid by the District while remaining responsible for their technical duties to the parent Department.

• Third, there is the horizontal segmentation of the workforce by Grade with different bands of grades being administered by different federal, provincial or district authorities.

• Fourth, there is a further vertical segmentation created by the Service Group or Cadre structure. These are occupational groups to which officers and staff are allocated at the time of their recruitment. Once allocated, it is extremely difficult to move individual employees across cadre boundaries

The administrative management of the Punjab public service workforce is therefore divided up in a complex four-dimensional matrix of responsibility areas, with overlapping and often unclear


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Crown Agents boundaries between them. While conceptually feasible, matrix management is far from easy and requires advanced skills and cooperation on the part of the managers, and a high level of flexibility and initiative on the part of the employees.

The four dimensions are discussed in the following sub-sections.

4.3.1 Functional Departments

The primary segmentation of the workforce is along functional lines. Until recently there were 34 Departments and a number of attached bodies. As a result of a recent major functional review, seven Departments have been deleted or merged with others, so the public service in Punjab currently comprises 27 Departments.

4.3.2 Provincial / District governments

While not all of the 27 Departments have employees who are out-stationed in the 36 Districts, those that do have to share control of their employees with the Districts. The arrangements between the two levels vary from one Department to another, but in most cases field staff are paid and accommodated from the District budget, and at least partially controlled by the District government.

As regards the level of administrative control, in the case of E&TD, an important element of operational control, the ACR or PER, is written by E&T officers. In the case of L&DDD staff, some of the employees’ PERs are written by District officers. As a result the boundaries of responsibility are fuzzy, which in turn creates potential conflicts between the Department’s operational management and the District’s administrative management and budgetary support of employees.

This situation has arisen as a result of the Punjab Local Government Ordinance (PLGO) 2001 which devolved many Provincial functions to District level. However, the transition has never been fully implemented leaving the present unsatisfactory and confusing state of affairs. It is important to recognise that there is no “one size fits all” solution which will remedy this problem. It will require a political decision to determine which activities or services may be applied differentially in the 36 Districts, and which must be applied consistently across the entire Province. The matter is currently under review and a draft Act, PLGA 2010, is being prepared

However, from an HRM perspective, it is not best practice to split control of a functionally cohesive workforce between different management teams who may well have conflicting agendas.

4.3.3 Grade

The present 22-level grading structure (called the Basic Pay Scale (BPS)) was introduced in 1973. The scale used in Punjab is basically the same as the federal scale. Responsibility for recruitment, promotion and transfers is governed by a complex set of rules and authority levels which vary to some extent from Department to Department. However the following statements may be taken as a general guide to the complexities:

• Entry to the gazetted grades is at BPS 17, and direct recruitment is by competitive examination handled on behalf of the Departments by the Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC). In addition there are specified quotas, which vary between Departments and service groups, for promotees from grade 16

• In most cases, entry to higher grades is by promotion, which is generally within the gift of the Department itself, but subject to rules and criteria set out by S&GAD.

• BPS 16 is a non-gazetted grade, and entry is normally by promotion from lower grades. But in many cases the job tasks and management responsibility are the same as for BPS17 although the pay rate is lower.

• Entry points at lower grades vary between departments, and there will usually be a defined quota for direct entry and promotion. In some cases the PPSC will handle the recruitment, in other cases, such as posts located in a District, recruitment will be done locally by the District Recruitment Committee.


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Crown Agents • The spread of grades between unskilled, semi-skilled, skilled, supervisory, middle management and senior management is disproportionate. There are only four grades covering the entire management population, while drivers for example may be found in any of the lowest five grades.

• In some cases the grade of a clerical post is determined by the grade of the officer being served rather than by any intrinsic difference in the job.

• Several grades are very sparsely populated and could be deleted. • In some cases, jobs have historically been re-graded in order to pay a competitive salary for

scarce skills. A better approach is to pay a non-consolidated market value supplement which can be adjusted as the market value changes

The BPS structure has not been overhauled in the 38 years since its introduction, and now has a number of anomalies and inconsistencies which have arisen as a result of successive attempts to patch up internal and external inequities. Jobs change, new jobs are created and old ones disappear. Job grading schemes therefore need to be maintained on a regular basis – good international practice would recommend a major review every five to seven years. The BPS is therefore overdue for an in-depth overhaul.

4.3.4 Service Group (or Cadre)

In addition to the horizontal categorisation by grade, there is a (more or less) vertical categorisation by Service Group or Cadre1. These usually relate to professional or technical occupational groups, and once an individual is recruited into a post which is allocated to a specific cadre, it is very difficult to cross the boundary into a post allocated to another cadre. Some cadres are legally constituted by law, others are less formal but through long practice are just as constraining on lateral postings. The matter is further complicated in that the cadre whose members occupy many of the most senior civil service posts in the Punjab, the District Management Group (DMG), is federally administered, so that senior postings and transfers are not wholly within the ambit of the Provincial government.

A major source of the negative impact of the cadre structure arises because an individual’s seniority, and hence promotion prospects, are determined by the number of sanctioned posts allocated to the cadre and the individual’s seniority within that cadre. While an individual may be loaned temporarily to a directorate with a different cadre, the individual’s seniority (and therefore his promotion prospects) remain with the original cadre.

The Livestock and Dairy Development Department is a good example of how the cadre structure can impede effective management of the workforce. At least two of the cadres, Animal Health and Breed Improvement, relate to veterinary activities and although there are areas of specialisation, the underlying professional skills and knowledge required are very similar. But because of disturbance to the seniority structures in both cadres, it is virtually impossible to transfer L&DD staff between cadres. This places a significant restriction both on the Department’s ability to place the right person in the right job and on employees’ opportunities to broaden their career prospects.

4.4 Summary of HRM Challenges in Punjab Distilling the discussion points above, the challenges facing the introduction of modern HR management may be summarised in the following manner.

Professional competence

• No professionally trained and dedicated HR Wings/Units • Rigid regulatory framework

1 Different terms are used for these groups. For the purpose of this report the term Cadre is used where a skill or function based group exists with boundaries which restrict movement of employees in or out of the group.


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Crown Agents • Limited departmental autonomy • No comprehensive Departmental HRMIS databases

Multiple Cadres and Streams

• Various provincial cadres and streams. • Supplemented by civil servants from the federal cadre of District Management Group (DMG). • Management cadres, including DMG and PMS, take the lead roles in managing the client

departments • Directorates are mostly headed by technical personnel • Multifaceted institutional structure and cadres system complicate and hinder modernisation

and reform

Recruitment

• Recruitments in provincial government are made under various government rules, which are formulated under the Punjab Civil Servants Act, 1974

• PPSC is responsible for recruitment for all positions in BP-16 + and for selected positions between BPS-11 and 15

• Other recruitments are made by the respective departments

Training and In-Service Capacity-Building

• MPDD - the focal point within the GoPb for in-service civil service training but is not effective at providing customised training of specialist technical subjects

• All the existing in-service training efforts are focused on management cadres and little or no in-service capacity development is done for technical or secretarial cadres/streams

Staff Performance Management

• Absence of well-defined job descriptions • Little or no accountability for sub-optimal performance • ACR / PER system is basically sound in design, but flawed in its implementation; over 90% of

employees are rated “A” so high performers are not identified. • Unpredictable job tenures especially at the more senior grades, therefore little commitment to

long-term performance improvement programmes • Technical personnel, mostly occupying the middle tier, generally have longer tenures but

have little say in managing the overall direction of the department • Much of the performance evaluation is carried out through the age PER system

Staff Compensation & Benefits

• Severe performance-reward misalignment • Job and personal pay grading structures are too closely linked and inflexible; this

discriminates unfairly against technical and professional employees who do not have the promotion prospects of administrative employees

• Where there are comparators, public service compensation and benefits are generally below open market levels

• In L&DD, the veterinarians often engage in private practice to supplement their income, • In E&TD, a collections-based incentive scheme is being piloted in a couple of circles, but the

design is complex and may prove less effective that expected

Most of these challenges are related to activities which are strictly regulated and will be difficult to change. Past experience clearly indicates that the rules governing recruitment, or pay, or promotions, to name only a few, will not be changed within the lifetime of this project.


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Crown Agents Nevertheless, it is heartening to note that most of the major areas of change are already included in the Cabinet-approved CSR Policy2. It is to be hoped that work on designing and implementing these essential changes across the Punjab public service will not be delayed too much longer.

4.5 Key HR Reforms Needed (but beyond the scope of this project) As noted in the previous section, it is unlikely that required changes in the regulations governing HR management will be implemented in the lifetime of this project. Nevertheless, it is worth visiting six of the key reforms which are essential pre-requisites for successful implementation of modern efficient management of the public service workforce.

4.5.1 Improve capacity of Line Managers to manage Human and Financial Resources

One of the significant developments in the reform and modernisation of Civil Services around the world has been the introduction of a results-oriented style of management (ROM). This shifts the focus of line managers from strict compliance to rules and regulations to the delivery of targeted results and outcomes. Properly implemented with adequate training and support, this approach gives line managers discretion to make operational and financial decisions relevant to the successful achievement of their targets.

Perhaps the single most important change in civil service reform therefore relates to the role of line managers. At present the manager/subordinate relationship is not sufficiently developed or consistently utilised. Managers at all levels must learn to set relevant performance targets in agreement with each subordinate, and then to monitor the subordinate’s performance regularly, intervening with guidance, advice, or training when necessary to bring the subordinate back on target. In turn, subordinates must learn to accept their performance being monitored and shortfalls being addressed promptly.

Related to this shift is the matter of job tenures. If a manager is unsure about how long he will be in-post, he is unlikely to be committed to the long-term management and development of his team. Nor will he seek to introduce innovations in working practices which will take time to establish. It is therefore essential that action is taken to increase the average tenure to at least two or three years.

In addition, line managers need to make more accurate assessments of subordinates’ performance, good or bad. At present over 90% of employees who are in scope to the ACR system receive an overall “A” score. This means that managers are awarding the top rating for average or satisfactory performance. However, if the high performers are to be reliably identified, managers must recalibrate their assessments so that the middle point on the rating scale is awarded for performance at the expected or 100% level. Then the “B” and “A” ratings may be awarded for performance over and above the 100% level.

Finally, line managers need to learn to think and act in a more commercial way. The popular conception that the public sector is completely different from the commercial or private sector is no longer valid. In reality, modern government is increasingly similar to big business. There are shareholders and investors in the shape of citizens and taxpayers; and careful financial management can lead to savings - or profits - in the form of an extra school, a new road, or an additional hospital. It is therefore incumbent upon each manager to consider the financial implications of his actions.

Until these shifts in skill- and mind-sets are embedded and consistently practiced across the public service, efficient and effective service delivery will remain inconsistent and dependent on individual initiative rather than Civil Service-wide professionalism.

4.5.2 Up-date Pay and Job Grading Structures

At present, the Basic Pay Scale (BPS) comprises 22 grades with a number of annual increments at each grade level. The same structure is applied to both the personal pay grade and the job grade. While it is possible to have a person at BPS 19, say, in a grade 20 post, the situation is

2 “Calibrating the Civil Service Institutions for Enhancing People’s Wellbeing in Punjab”, 2009


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Crown Agents rare and generally temporary. In practice, pay and job grade are one and the same. Thus two employees on the same grade and with similar seniority will be paid the same salary irrespective of their performance.

There have been a few experiments with incentive schemes, such as the one currently being piloted in the E&T Department. But in general, pay is not related to performance.

Having pay so closely linked to the job grade also means that pay progression beyond the small annual increments is linked to promotion to a job in a higher grade. The scheme makes no provision for the situation where an employee has reached the final increment but for whatever reason has no prospect of promotion. Veterinarians in the L&DD Department are a case in point; the highest grade available is grade 19 apart from only two posts as DG available for further promotion. As a result the majority of L&DD veterinarians spend most of their public service careers on limited salaries which almost inevitably leads to rent seeking behaviour, and/or the pursuit of other income earning opportunities such as private practice or other second jobs.

Since 1973 when the current grading scheme was established, there have been occasional piecemeal attempts to correct pay inequities in the grading structure. But it has not been comprehensively reviewed and updated since its introduction 38 years ago. As a consequence, the grading structure has been gradually corrupted to the point where there are significant problems with the grading hierarchy and the associated pay scale. Good international practice recommends a major overhaul of a job grading structure every 5 years or so.

The BPS is therefore long overdue for a full-scale makeover. The target should be conversion to a broad-banded pay structure and properly evaluated job grading structure with flexible links between the two. This would permit differential pay on the basis of performance as well as ongoing pay progression for employees whose promotions are blocked.

4.5.3 Simplify Occupational Service Groups and Cadres

At the Federal level there are 11 recognised Service Groups such as Police, Customs, Accountants, etc. These are clearly linked to a function or professional skill-set. At the Provincial level, the picture is less well defined. In the case of E&TD, there is no recognised cadre structure which limits staff movement, while in L&DDD there is, in effect a cadre for each directorate which prevents movement between directorates even where the skills and knowledge are the same.

Originally created with the intention to lock specialist skills into specific locations in the public service, the need for this mechanistic control is inappropriate in a modern, professionally managed workforce.

There is an extremely strong emotional attachment to the concept of cadres largely because of the perceived protection they are seen to provide to seniority and promotion prospects. It will be very difficult to make changes until there is wider understanding and acceptance of the benefits of open career paths within the public service. Indeed, the ultimate goal would be a situation where employees could have a greater say in their own career paths. In this scenario, all vacancies in the Punjab public service would be internally advertised and employees would apply for vacancies related to their skills and experience irrespective of the department or attached body owning the vacancy.

4.5.4 Devolve recruitment and manpower planning to Departments

Associated with the Cadre issue is the question of recruitment and selection procedures. As jobs in the public service become increasingly specialised the justification for central recruitment and selection of civil servants becomes increasingly weak. Similarly, the central control of sanctioned posts at each grade level also becomes less appropriate. Modern practice now tends towards setting a payroll budget and allowing the Department to decide how to allocate the seats between the grades and sections.

With a professional HR capability in each Department, it would be both feasible and desirable to carry out recruitment, deployment, and even promotions within each Department in an integrated and coordinated manner.

While the CSR Policy recommends a number of very significant changes to the workforce management practices currently in use, it does not specifically recommend the development of


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Crown Agents professionally competent HRM sections or wings in the individual Departments. However, it is difficult to see how many of the proposed changes can be successfully achieved without creating such sections.

4.5.5 Clarify fuzzy definition of Provincial / District relationships

Both E&TD and L&DDD have departmental staff located in the Districts. Responsibility for these out-stationed staff is divided between the Department and the District government, but the arrangements vary between Departments.

In E&TD, out-stationed officers and staff are paid by the District, and lower grades are recruited by the District, but the Department controls the operational activities of its staff, and Department officers carry out the ACRs. In the case of L&DDD, out-stationed employees are again paid by the District government which also controls the budgets available to L&DD employees, but non-L&DD District officers carry out the ACRs as well as recruiting lower grade workers.

In practice the lack of clarity and potential for conflicts created by these arrangements are confusing for everyone concerned. The ultimate result is that neither of the Departments enjoys full control over their workforces. This is a situation which is detrimental to the efficient management of Departmental service delivery across the Province, and thus needs to be reviewed and clarified.

4.5.6 Implement HR Information System(s)

Modern HR management is dependent on an in-depth knowledge of the individual and collective strengths and weaknesses of the workforce. At the present time neither Department has a comprehensive employee database, and it takes considerable time and effort to gather information from the different directorates and District governments. Around the middle of December both departments were asked to provide some basic demographic data that should have been available within minutes at the press of a few keys. Seven weeks later partial returns have just been received from L&DDD, but none from E&TD.

In L&DDD the Deputy Secretary (Admin) is currently working with the Director P&E on development of a database of information on grades 17-20 officers which, when completed, will be a potentially useful tool, depending on the level of user driven functionality provided. It is, however, limited to a relatively small portion of the total workforce.

In E&TD the HRM consulting team were initially informed that there was no HRMIS available to the Department. However, during the latter stages of the review it became apparent that this was not correct. Following the transfer of a new Director General, E&TD have been working with the Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) to develop an HRMIS system. This work apparently started during a previous tenure, but was not continued in the interval. Work has recommenced since the DG’s return and the HRM team were treated to a brief demonstration of a working HRMIS. An initial review suggested that user functionality might be limited, but there is no doubt that a useful tool is in an advanced state of development

As a general principle, databases which have been developed in-house often lack effective specialist ‘front ends’ to provide both full functionality and a user-friendly interface. For this reason it is usually preferable to acquire a commercial, off-the-shelf HRMIS. A more detailed treatment of this issue is given in Appendix C.

Similarly, it is often more practical to develop systems on a department-by-department basis. In the past a standard approach would be to acquire a single HR system for the whole Civil Service. However there is ample evidence that the larger the software development project, the greater the likelihood of failure3.

3 The Standish Group monitors major IT & Software projects and its periodic reports consistently show that around a third of all software projects are abandoned before completion and only one project in ten is completed on time and within budget. The £12.7 billion National Programme for IT for the NHS in the UK, for example, which was an organisation-wide IT change initiative, was five years late and way over budget when it was finally scrapped in September 2010.


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Crown Agents With the advancement of software capability, a more practical and manageable approach is for each Department to acquire a dedicated HRMIS which suits its own unique requirements. This system would then periodically upload certain specified data to a central database, probably located with S&GAD. This approach is quicker and easier to install since there is no requirement to wait for all departments to agree on a single system structure and data dictionary. And maintenance and updating support is usually less costly than for a large single Civil Service-wide system.

If E&T and L&DD Departments wish to adopt modern management practice, a modern HRMIS will be an essential tool to enable management to realise and exploit the full potential of the workforce. It is therefore heartening to learn that both Departments are working on developing an HRMIS. Nevertheless some questions remain over the approaches being taken by each of the departments (and PITB), and GoPb may yet be able to benefit from experience of similar IT-related change projects worldwide.

4.6 Next Steps None of the above items is new; all have been referred to in one or more of the many reports which have been written over the past few years. And each of the six critical areas of change is also present in the 2009 CSR Policy.

Current public service management practice dates from an era when Civil Services sought to prevent individual employees from exercising personal initiative or judgement in the execution of their highly demarcated duties. Modernisation of workforce management will require a major shift in the current management style and practices, as well as the acquisition of new skills and attitudes.

These essential changes cannot realistically be implemented unilaterally in either of the two pilot Departments; they need to be applied across the public service. To this end we commend the CSR Policy and strongly encourage its advancement from theory into practical implementation as soon as possible.

In the meantime, the focus of the HRM component of this project will be on pragmatic, short to medium term solutions to a selection of Departmental priorities.

The following sections of this report deal with the two pilot departments in more detail, and make an initial assessment of the type of HR support that will be needed in addressing the priority AFIs.


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Crown Agents

Section 2: Excise & Taxation Department


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Crown Agents 5. Excise & Taxation Department The Excise and Taxation Department is one of the key departments in the provincial government. It is responsible for the implementation and collection of several taxes, levies and fees (from UIPT to MVT), as well as several regulatory functions regarding motor vehicles and controlled substances, such as narcotics. A summary of its functions is given in Table 1.

Punjab generates only 15% of its total annual revenue through its own sources, with the majority of resources being provided by grants from the Federal Government. Of these own sources E&TD has a share of only 12-15%, partly because many taxes are the responsibility of Board of Revenue, but also because of ineffective tax administration within the department4. Tax collection has grown over the last few years but it has not been commensurate with increases in provincial expenditure. This widening of the gap between expenditure and revenues is a cause of concern for the Department and for the Government as a whole.

A plethora of analytical reports have already been commissioned to assess the causes of this weak administration. Most of these reports have come to similar conclusions, and while systems and processes are considered important, all of the reports also describe sub-optimal management of human resource as a key factor5. Table 1 - Summary of E&TD Functions6

Functions Activities

Tax Administration

• Determination of rates, rebates and concessions • Tax assessment and imposition • Tax collection • Review of appeals • Management of customer service centres

Regulation and Licensing of Controlled Substances

• Management of license and permit regime for controlled substances • Crime detection and reporting relating to controlled substances • Management of the Opium Alkaloid Factory

Regulation and Licensing of Motor Vehicles • Regulation and licensing of motor vehicles

Policy, Planning & Management

• Policy Formulation • Preparation of ADP/MDTF and PC1s • Budget preparation • Human resource management • Project implementation & monitoring • Support to legislative framework • Information & awareness campaigns

5.1 Demographics

5.1.1 Staff

The Department has a total sanctioned strength of 3,203 employees. It consists of a Secretariat and a single attached body, the Directorate General of Excise & Taxation. The Secretariat provides policy direction and management, whereas the Directorate General is responsible for

4 Pakistan: Provincial Government Taxation, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, International Working Paper 08-07, Roy Bahl, Musharraf Rasool Cyan and Sally Wallace 5 See recent reports commissioned by PRMP and produced by AF Ferguson (2005) and GHK (2009) 6 Functional Review of the Excise & Taxation Department, PGEIP/Crown Agents, February 2011


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Crown Agents management of operations. The 8/9 staff in the Secretariat are mainly from the DMG/OMG cadres, although occasionally employees are taken on loan from the Directorate.

The Directorate of course reports to the Secretary E&T, but also operates with a degree of autonomy. As well as the Head Office it consists of 10 regional directorates, one of which (Lahore) has three further divisions. Staff working at district level are considered to be E&TD employees for all practical purposes, although they are paid out of district government budgets (as discussed further in 5.1.1.1). The staff positions within the directorate have been sanctioned on the basis of different taxes, but the Department has the freedom to post employees to any tax, or any position, once they have been recruited. A summary organisation chart of the Department is shown in Figure 1. Figure 1 - E&TD Summary Organisation Chart

Of the total 3,203 sanctioned positions, 353 currently lie vacant, representing 11% of the total workforce. The most significant number of these vacancies – 89 - are for Excise & Taxation Inspectors, a key position in the Department (there are 719 sanctioned Inspector posts in total).

Of the total establishment:

• 1,259 posts (39%) are support positions (including office boys, sepoys, guards and drivers) • 996 positions (31%) are technical or professional in nature (including Inspectors, AETOs,

ETOs & senior managers) • 947 positions (30%) are clerical in nature

The distribution of the workforce of the Directorate is as follows: Table 2 - Workforce distribution by Position & Grade

Position Grade Sanctioned Filled

Senior Management Positions

Director General, Excise & Taxation, Punjab 19/20 1 1

Additional DG, Excise & Taxation, Punjab 19 1 1

Professional/Management Positions

Director, Excise & Taxation 19 12 12

Senior Excise & Taxation Officer 18 12 9

Excise & Taxation Officer 17 49 48

Assistant Director, E&A 17 6 6

Assistant Excise & Taxation Officer 16 162 140

Secretary

E&T

Director General

E&T

E&T

Secretariat

Additional DG

E&T

Director E&T

(Headquarters)

Director E&T

x 10 Regions

Manager, Gov’t Opium Factory Director

Enforcement/Audit

Ass’t Directors

E & A (x 6)

System Analyst Punjab

E&T Regional Staff (x 10)


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Crown Agents Excise & Taxation Inspector 14 719 630

Senior Auditor 14 11 3

Other Positions

System Analyst 18 1 1

Programmer 17 2 2

Superintendent 16 20 16

Clerical Positions

Senior Scale Stenographer 15 5 5

Computer Operator 14 3 2

Assistant 14 67 46

Chemical Assistant 14 1 1

Accountant 14 1 0

Key Punch Operator 12 24 20

Stenographer 12 51 19

Data Entry Operator 11 90 83

Senior Clerk 9 107 86

Junior Clerk 7 598 571

Support Positions

Head Constable, Excise & Taxation 7 33 30

E&T Constable 5 993 916

Laboratory Assistant 5 1 1

Patwari 5 3 2

Driver 4 70 59

Daftri 2 3 2

Lady Detective 1 5 4

Naib Qasid 1 17 16

Mali 1 18 16

Chowkidar 1 53 44

Sweeper 1 44 38

Water Carrier 1 1 1

Sepoy 1 2 2

Labourer 1 8 8

Factory Guard 1 8 8

There is an on-going debate about the public sector being over-staffed but in the case of E&TD staff presence seems inadequate in some areas. This may be because of an overall shortage


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Crown Agents (the sanctioned staffing level has not changed since 19947), and/or a misallocation of resources, resulting in scarce staff where they are needed. For instance there are 13 inspectors for the Excise wing in all of Lahore and only two lady inspectors.

The same staff shortage applies to all three taxes, and in some districts at times one official is dealing with all the taxes.

While staff do tend to specialise in either UIPT, MVT or Excise on a day-to-day basis, there is neither functional nor type-of-tax segmentation of the department. Thus in the districts staff work simultaneously on enforcement, audit and legal issues; and in some districts on all the taxes. If the department decides to restructure along functional lines or with respect to different taxes then there would be a need to realign the workforce accordingly.

Recently E&TD has had 742 new positions approved by the Chief Minister. These positions have been created to strengthen the department and to cope with the upcoming challenges as a consequence of 18th amendment. Their placement will help to address the current staff shortages.

5.1.1.1 Relationship Dynamics – E&TD vs District Government

Excise and Taxation operations in the districts are funded by the District Governments: this includes staff salaries, operational costs (e.g. office accommodation) and any development expenditure. However, despite this, the ETO (who runs E&TD operations in each district) is actually responsible to the Director (E&T) and Director General. The only functional relationship the ETO has with the district government is in relation to the revision powers which EDO (R) exercises on cases relating to UIPT.

As stated in a number of previous reports, the objectives of PLGO have never been fully met, and the resulting system is a confusing arrangement that is neither devolved nor centralised. With regards to budgeting in particular, while costs are met by district budgets, District Governments have little practical autonomy. Staff positions, for example, are mandated by the Finance Department and the districts have no choice but to meet these costs.

5.1.1.2 Management Feature in E&TD - Functional Integration

The Department is organised mainly on a geographical basis, rather than (as mentioned above) a functional or type-of-tax basis. Most senior staff in particular (ETOs, AETOs and Inspectors) are posted to divisions and districts and are then responsible for a wide variety of work relating to licenses, background checks, detection, enforcement and any other type of proceedings for recovery/ regulation. There are also no specialist functional units at HQ level (for example on tax audit or enforcement). An audit wing does exist at the HQ level but it primarily audits the tax receipts rather than providing input on policy or guidance on tax audits/assessments.

However, at lower grades staff may well specialise in a particular tax – if only through occupational experience rather than specialist training and/or planned professional development. And there are exceptions in the more populated divisions, where even an ETO may specialise in one or other of UIPT, MVT or Excise (for example this occurs in each of the five city districts in Lahore).

But as a general rule the Department operates on a functionally integrated basis, with far more emphasis placed on geographical distribution of resource (alongside some, mostly informal, ‘type-of-tax’ specialisation).

5.2 HRM Resources

5.2.1 HRM staff

Excise and Taxation, like most public sector departments, has no specific HR department. All workforce management matters, as defined by the relevant service rules, are managed by the Administration function. Administration staff are present at all levels of the organisation: the

7 GHK: 2009


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Crown Agents Secretariat, the Director General’s office and the offices of the Directors. In the Secretariat it is the Deputy Secretary (Admin) who is responsible for personnel administration; whereas in the DG’s office it is the Director (HQ) and in the offices of Directors it is the ETO (HQ). Almost without exception these individuals have received no specific training in modern HRM skills and practices.

5.2.2 HR records and HRMIS

Personnel records management is critical for making right decisions for HR management, planning and development. A good HR database enables quick access to HR data which is integrated, transparent and structured with respect to different fields.

Under the manual system relied upon up until now by E&TD, records relating to different officials and officers have been held in many different locations. And, on occasions, data has been maintained by one office whereas the actual function was being carried out by another office. For instance in case of promotions the ACR dossier and other personal record is with the DG’s office, but decisions on promotions for grade 17 and above are either taken by Secretary E&TD or by a higher office.

It has thus traditionally been difficult to obtain a consolidated picture of the Department because one has had to access several sources to get this information. This lack of information hinders the management’s ability to make informed decisions.

Very recently, the Department has begun work to address this, using a web-based HRMIS system provided and maintained by Punjab Board of Information Technology. While an in-depth review of this system’s functionality has not yet been possible, meaning comments on functionality, data validity and security and reliability are not possible, it is a highly positive step in the right direction.

A more detailed discussion of HRM database systems may be found at Appendix C: .

5.3 HRM procedures GoPb HR procedures are laid down in different statutes, acts and laws, as outlined in the earlier part of the report. In addition to these the department has its own service rules which govern recruitment procedures, mentions Authority for different positions and other administrative issues.

The following table describes how each major HR procedure is handled by the Department, along with some accompanying analysis. Table 3 - Analysis of E&TD HRM Procedures

HRM Procedure Analysis

Recruitment and Selection

Recruitment for junior positions, from grade 1-9, is managed either through recruitment committees at the directorate level or though district committees with representation of directorate and district government. For positions of Inspector and grade 17 and above recruitment is managed by through Punjab Public Service Commission.

On selection by the PPSC or the Recruitment Committee the services of the person are placed at the disposal of directorate or the district government.

Recruitment to junior positions is susceptible to political pressures in the districts. Recruitment Committees are a mix of representatives of the department and district government.

E&TD does not have a say in recruitment of grade 17 positions (i.e the ETO) as PPSC holds a general exam and based on the result candidates are placed in different departments.

Training

Foreign trainings are received through E&TD in the DG office from where these are routed to the directorates. Directorates then ask its officers to express interest or make nominations of their own. Nominations are finally considered by

No structured induction training programs exist. On the job training has no academic content. Local trainings by the department are rarely organized, and mostly depend on MPDD.


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Crown Agents HRM Procedure Analysis Planning and Development Board for consideration and approval of nominations.

Local trainings providers contact the E&TD or DG office about the available trainings. Nominations are either made by the DG/ Directors.

No rolling training programs or system for training of the junior official exists.

Foreign trainings at times lapse because of delays and complexity of procedures and processes.

Services of those who avail foreign training are not properly utilised.

Transfers and Postings

Secretary E&TD has authority for the transfer of Directors. DG has authority for the transfer of ETOs and AETOs. DG is also involved in case of transfer of officials from one directorate to another. Directors are competent to transfer officials from grade 6-15 within their zones ETOs can transfer officials up to grade 5 within the district.

Transfer and postings seem to be fairly distributed as the operational head, the DG, is responsible for transfer of the key field officers.

Occasional bans on transfers, however, by the DG office does impede smooth functioning of the directorates.

Also, while ETO is responsible for the management of staff and the meeting of revenue targets, he has limited discretion in transfer of his technical staff. Therefore some additional delegation of this authority from the Director would seem advisable.

Compensation

Compensation is in line with the public sector salary structure. Compared with the private sector salaries are very low.

Officials in the district government do get perquisites in the form of official residence and vehicle.

Public sector salary structure is less than satisfactory.

Salaries that are not commensurate with market rates do not provide sufficient incentives for staff to perform at maximum efficiency. Rent-seeking is an inevitable consequence. There are also no additional allowances which could be approved/ implemented on the initiative of the department.

However, a pilot/experiment on results-linked pay is currently underway in selected circles.

Performance Management

Annual evaluation system is used for performance management. Performance Evaluation Report proforma is used for this purpose. The annual report is not shared with the reported upon official; it was considered to be confidential up to now but now it is considered classified.

Report of the ETO is written by Director and countersigned by the DG.

There are no clear outputs and deliverables in the PER proforma.

According to modern management practices annual confidential reports are shared with the employees.

Promotions

Seniority is the supreme criteria for promotions. Promotions of grade 16 and 17 are approved by the Departmental Promotion Committee (headed by the Secretary) and 18 to 19 are approved by a Provincial Promotion Committee, headed by the Chief Secretary.

For officials 15 and below (other than inspectors) promotions are considered and approved by the

Promotions are slow not only because of availability of the positions but also because of the irregular meetings of the Departmental Promotion Committees.


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Crown Agents HRM Procedure Analysis respective Director.

Discipline and Efficiency

The PEDA is the supreme document for carrying out proceedings on basis of discipline and efficiency. Any action is initiated either on the basis of a complaint or report of the supervisory officer - this is followed by fact finding report and enquiry. Exoneration or penalty imposition lies with the Authority.

The Act provides for initiation of enquiry without fact finding in circumstances where authority is convinced that there substantial evidence against the accused official.

This is an effective tool for accountability of the officials of the department. PEDA compared with its original version is a more balanced law, apart from discretion of the authority to initiate enquiry in some cases without a fact finding mission.

5.4 Findings

5.4.1 Performance Management:

In the standard ACR system, now called the PER, standard proformas are used for performance evaluation, with different proformas being used for gazetted and non-gazetted staff. Each supervising officer is responsible for reporting on the annual performance of his subordinates. For instance, the PER of a Director will be written by the Director General and will be countersigned by the Secretary.

In public sector environment high performance is only sustainable if an effective HR institutional framework has been laid down8. An essential component of this framework would be an objective, transparent and competency-based appraisal system. It is important that outputs are a key for measuring performance in any Performance management system. There are broadly three aspects to improving performance:

• An effective Performance Evaluation System • Incentivising performance:

Performance-based promotions and postings Rewards Accountability of non/under performers

• Identification of performance gaps for improved results

In E&TD’s case the PER of an ETO is written by his respective Director and countersigned by the DG.

The PER does not consist of specific outputs and targets despite the fact that the nature of work in E&TD is such that their outputs could be quite clearly measurable (e.g. tax collection, tax base and number of audits could be measured).

Changing the proforma may not be possible in the short term, but, a possible exercise may be carried out to add a page of specific evaluation indicators along with the standard PER proforma. This would help evaluate performance against specific targets.

5.4.2 Promotions

E&TD, like other departments in the government, has a hierarchical structure. The operational unit that is the office of Directorate General is headed by the DG which is a grade 19/20 officer. As per the service rules this position is meant for an officer of E&TD service but the last few DGs

8 Kim and Hong, 2006


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Crown Agents have been either from DMG or the PCS. The Additional Director General is a grade 19 officer, who has traditionally been promoted from within the Department. The post of Director of a division has recently been upgraded from grade 18 to 19. This is a step in the right direction because the position of Director entails significant revenue responsibility. However, of the 13 positions of the directors, 7 are manned by grade 18 officers who await their promotions.

Promotion in E&TD is very slow. It takes more than ten years for Excise and Taxation Officers to reach the next grade (18), despite the fact they are recruited through a competitive examination at grade 17. Of course it then takes them as many years to reach grade 19, seen as the pinnacle for an E&TD officer (this is the grade for the Additional DG and/or DG).

The Government of Punjab has 978 grade 20 positions, of which E&TD has only 1 position at present This is hardly commensurate with the importance of the Department or the scope of the job. Overall the slow pace of promotion leads to frequent turnover and poor morale of officials of the department. The Department should continue to attempt to address this,

5.4.3 Pay and Job Grading Structure

E&TD uses (has to use) standard public sector pay scales. Pay packages are determined in accordance with this basic pay scale, which determines the minimum salary an official can receive in his/her grade. In addition to this grade the emoluments vary from one position to the other. These emoluments are generally in the form of official residences, conveyances, telephone costs and other contributions to the cost of living. The value of these emoluments on occasions can be significant and thus employees who do not have these emoluments are comparatively at a disadvantage.

There is an incremental increase in salaries on completion of each year of service, up to a specified ceiling. These annual increments amount to only a few hundred rupees per month but the increase on promotion to the next grade is more generous. No standard reward mechanism exists for staff, although last year was almost an exception when it was announced that 5% of collection was to be paid as an incentive – only for it to be diverted to the flood fund. The use of such incentives is not unusual: it is common practice in many other countries and even the federal tax agency has some system for rewarding officers, particularly in the Customs department.

PRMP has recently launched a pilot/experiment on incentives and salaries which will see pay being linked to results in 11 circles. Different incentive options have been put in place; for example, a fixed allowance or a certain % of collection shared among the employees . If successful, the project will be expanded in phases. Certainly, E&TD should be considering whatever means are at its disposal to link rewards to performance, whether those are financial, allowance-related, or status-based.

5.4.4 Training

A training wing existed in the Department up to 2000, when it was disbanded. Now, the only source of training available to the Department is the centralized agency, MPDD. There is no formal induction training programme: inductees do get attached to different offices but there is no academic training as such, which deprives officers of a theoretical basis on which to understand the application of taxation laws. Similarly there are no refresher programs or training on any changes in business processes or new investigative or audit techniques.

In consequence, the knowledge base of the work force is becoming outdated with regards to new developments and changes in the department in particular and taxation regime in general. There is no calendar for local training and so the department has to spare employees as and when convenient to MPDD and not as per its needs and requirements. E&TD requires specific training for specialist skills, knowledge and technical expertise such as audit, enforcement, regulation and legal issues. MPDD is not currently set up to deal effectively with such special requirements

Foreign training courses are used as and when available, and subject to final approval by a committee based at P&D.


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Crown Agents 5.5 Areas for Improvement in HRM Human Resource is of critical importance to the E&TD. Without a professional, committed and enthusiastic workforce, tax collection cannot be improved. HR reforms will have to be carried out simultaneously with other reform areas. Necessary HR reforms will emerge as a consequence of functional changes and redesign of business processes. Any proposed changes in HR, as in other realms, will require commitment of the leadership and will need engagement and buy-in of the workforce. Based on analysis of HR procedures and diagnostic study of existing HR strength, capacity and engagement, the proposed areas for improvement have been identified which can be divided into the following: • Recommendations flowing from HR Procedures Audit • Impact of Functional Review on HRM • HRM implications from proposed AFIs in E&TD

5.5.1 Recommendations flowing from HR Procedures Audit 5.5.1.1 Compensation package

The compensation system of a tax authority is very critical because any excuse on this account can mar efficiency and transparency of the processes and work force. Without improvement in the package, any change therein will not be sustainable. But it also is a fact that changing the compensation package in the public sector is not easiest of the tasks. The special incentive scheme proposed by a team of experts and being implemented experimentally in pilot districts is a step in the right direction. But in order to improve efficiency, transparency and commitment, a possible option may be to give an additional allowance across the board. One additional basic salary or a fixed allowance for each grade may be given across the board and any incentive be built on top of this. This will give some sanity to salaries which will avoid any potential bickering in the department because of differential remuneration as a consequence of incentives. This proposal has been shared with the team of experts working on the incentives scheme, There have been successful models when a package different than the usual public sector has considerably improved service delivery, as demonstrated for instance by the Motorway Police. There has been no study regarding impact on service delivery of Punjab Police where salaries were doubled across the board. Additional allowance equivalent to one basic salary has also been given to the federal tax agency, FBR. However, the increase can be implemented in phases starting from the newly proposed Tax Policy Unit, pilot circles as proposed by PRMP, circles which achieved their budgets in the last year and any reform units created in coming years.

5.5.1.2 Training

A skilled and professional workforce is essential for efficient tax administration. A Training cell should be established in the Department which is responsible for: • Training Need Assessment • Training Policy • Training strategy for new inductees, including academic training • Commissioning of executive training programmes • Designing and commissioning training programs for support staff

These programmes should focus on: • Audit • Enforcement • Legal issues and • Tax policy

Training should take note of modern training techniques. A database of the officers going on different trainings should be maintained and their services should be utilised in accordance with the knowledge and skills acquired.


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Crown Agents The training cell would consist of a few full-time staff supported by a pool of instructors drawn from E&T technical / professional staff with some academicians and private sector tax professionals as required. The training cell should have a monitoring and evaluation system and should make periodic impact assessment of the training events provided.

This wing should engage with international institutes for arranging periodic foreign trainings for the E&TD staff.

5.5.1.3 Performance Management

An effective performance management system must clearly define the targets and outputs required. Compared with many other departments it is comparatively easy to measure performance in tax administration, but measurement should not be based on collections alone. Other objective criteria may include detection of new properties, identification of concealments, measurable improvements in the number of cases handled in a specified period, and so on. There is a need to build an associated incentive plan and/or system to reward improved performance on-the-job. The system will also include an agreement with the department on implementation and action plan.

A performance management system (PMS) may start with organizational performance benchmarking and personal objectives (including development / learning) for DGs and Directors.

Given the constraints of public sector regime it may not be possible to revise the PER at the outset but it may be possible to introduce it where the incentive pilot scheme is being implemented. However a proforma may be devised and introduced for all the employees in the field formations; this proforma may be annexed with the PER and will enable the reporting officer to make an objective analysis on the basis of results achieved.

Job Descriptions

E&TD employees do not have job descriptions; in absence of this accountability an effective performance management system cannot be put in place. Also staff remain ambivalent about their actual responsibilities and goals. Development of job descriptions for enhanced role clarification and alignment of individual responsibilities with organisational objectives is thus clearly necessary. The department realises its critical importance. Development of job descriptions can thus be an important area to work on.

5.5.1.4 Promotions

Slow promotion is one of the key factors for low morale and less than satisfactory performance. Officers who start their career at grade 17 are inducted after a competitive examination conducted by the Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC). However, it takes a new recruit as long as a decade to move to the next grade. Movement from grade 18 to 19 used to be even slower but is expected to improve after up-gradation of the position of Director to grade 19. However, despite this up-gradation, 5 of the 11 positions of directors are held by grade 18 officers because they do not meet the requisite years of service for promotion. These officers should be promoted on acting charge basis and could be regularized once they complete the number of years. Grade 19 is the pinnacle for ETOs because there is only one position of DG E&TD which is of grade 20 (that too is a floating position for grade 19/20), also this position is usually occupied by a DMG/PCS officer. The positions at the senior tier will increase in case the department decides to adopt a functional structure. If this does not happen the following promotion structure for the ETOs may be considered:


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Crown Agents

The central green coloured box represents a grade 19 position where an officer may be promoted as Joint Director if a position as Director is not available; in this case he/she may be doing the same work as that of a Senior ETO but will be promoted by virtue of his/her experience in grade 18. A Senior ETO will be promoted directly as Director where the position of Director is lying vacant.

The position of DG should not be a float between grade 19/20, instead it should be a grade 20 position. It should be ensured that officer of E&TD service be posted as DG.

There could also be the option whereby the organization is restructured in phases from the traditional public sector pay scales, possibly on the lines of PIA or OGDC. However, this may not be practical in the short run given the resource constraint, aversion of public sector employees to move to a non government status and because of legal implications.

5.5.2 Impact of Functional Review on HRM

The Functional Review conducted earlier under the auspices of PGEIP made a series of recommendations with respect to the structural organisation of the Department. This section briefly assesses what the HR implications of the recommendations would be if implemented.

5.5.2.1 Restructuring on functional lines

Functional integration of the department exists at Headquarters and in all districts except the city districts. Tax revenues over the period of time have not kept pace with the growth in the economy which is either because of poor planning or because of operational weaknesses. At the operational level focus is diluted because one officer and in most cases the staff is concerned with multiple taxes. Similarly at Headquarters policy-making and operational control is for all the taxes which results in not very specific input from the senior management. A possible option would be a hybrid structure comprising type-of-tax sections supported by several functional sections such as Audit, Enforcement, Intelligence & Investigation, Admin. . The proposed structure will look as follows:

Figure 2 - Suggested alternative promotion path


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Crown Agents

5.5.2.2 Motor vehicle and registration authority

If implemented, a separate motor vehicle and registration authority would disturb the existing service, seniority and prestige values associated with the existing structure. Thus a change management strategy will have to be developed to manage resistance from employees being hived off out of direct government service.

5.5.2.3 Assistance in establishment of Tax Policy Unit:

This unit is being established as of now in the finance department as a specialised unit, as has been recommended by various experts. The unit will require staff with a sound theoretical base in public finance and operational experience in the taxation field. PGEIP may help in developing job descriptions, defining the right skill set required and in devising the right structure for the unit.

5.5.2.4 Additional positions and creation of an IT unit

About 742 additional positions are being created in the Excise and Taxation department, which has already demarcated the positions with respect to different tiers. However, support may be needed in outlining the right tasks and duties for these positions in the changing environment.

IT personnel are also being engaged under the auspices of Tax Policy Support Unit and it will be important that they are effectively utilised for information processing by ensuring a broad based database of the taxpayers which is capable of being used for enhancing tax revenues.

Figure 3 - Type-of-tax structure for Directorate General (E&T)


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Crown Agents

Section 3: Livestock & Dairy Development Department


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Crown Agents 6. Livestock & Dairy Development Department The traditional role of the Livestock and Dairy Development Department has been to support the livestock and dairy sector in Punjab through a mixture of direct, state-funded and state-managed service delivery and the regulation of industry practices.

In the recent past, however, government policy has shifted in favour of a less direct, more facilitative role. The Livestock Strategy approved by GoPb in 2010 calls for a change in focus from direct service provider to multiple supportive and regulatory roles, with increased emphasis on value chain development and market strengthening.

The Strategy recognises that, despite the potential of the livestock sector, optimal results have not been achieved because of the Department’s extensive mandate, complex business processes and human resource limitations. In fact the Strategy states that lack of a proper policy and focus on human resource development is one of the main constraints in the sector’s development’9.

The Department therefore intends to shift its focus from direct delivery of curative services to market development, using appropriate regulatory and legislative instruments to ensure the private sector can play a full and efficient role. To do this, the Department simultaneously will need to diagnose the factors hindering employees from delivering effective performance and equip its workforce with the expertise to cope with their changing roles.

6.1 Demographics L&DDD is one of the few departments with significant staff presence in the districts. This is because the mainstay of L&DDD is its field services, through which it endeavours to provide curative services, support breed improvement and inform/encourage improvements in industry practice. These field services are delivered through the Extension Wing of the Department, supported by the Research Wing. The Directorate General Extension consists of 13 directorates, whereas Directorate General Research consists of 4 Livestock farms / experimental research stations located in different parts of the province.

9 Livestock Sector Strategy, 2010

Figure 4 - L&DD Summary Organisation Chart


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Crown Agents The Extension directorate has multiple functions including enhancing animal productivity, improvement in animal health, breed improvement, poultry development and production based research institutes. Directorate General Research deals with research into, and production of vaccines, and other biological activities.

The Department’s functions and activities are summarised in the table below. Table 4 - L&DDD Functions

Functions Activities

Research • General Research • Research through Livestock and Poultry Farm Management

Animal Health

• Vaccine Production & Distribution • Curative Health Service Delivery • Management of Diagnostic Laboratories • Development and Distribution of Quarterly Disease Surveillance

Report

Animal Productivity

• Provision of Artificial Insemination Services • Management of Feed Mills • Extension Services Provision • Running Farmer Helpline (Call Centre) and Awareness Campaigns

Veterinary Education & Training

• Oversight & Governance of the University of Animal Sciences • Management of Veterinary Training Institutes • In-Service Training of Technical Staff

Policy, Planning & Management

• Policy Formulation • Budget Preparation (incl. ADP) • Human Resource Management • Development Project Implementation & Monitoring • Legal and Regulatory Framework

The Local Government Ordinance 2001 changed the structure of the Department, theoretically granting an augmented role for District governments, but in practice the Provincial government still exerts primary influence on operational and policy matters, though in a diminished form. As with E&TD, this unfinished reform means that channels for policy transmission, operational strategy and pursuance of objectives have become vague.

6.1.1.1 Staff

L&DDD is one of the larger departments in terms of numerical strength. There are 13 directorates in the extension wing and 4 directorates in the research wing. The directorates of extension are then divided / grouped into different cadres. These directorates have their own sanctioned staff strength.

Currently there are 11,415 sanctioned positions in L&DD, comprising staff of both the Directorates General, as well as the Secretariat and the Directorate of Planning and Evaluation. The broad breakdown is shown in the table below. Table 5 - Staff analysis by Wing & Directorate

Institute/Wing Staff Numbers

Secretariat 60

Extension Wing, including District Government staff 9821

Research Wing 1505

Directorate of P&E 29

Total 11,415


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Crown Agents In the Directorate General, Extension there are 9,821 sanctioned positions, of which a very small segment (around 5%) is on contract.

The Directorate General, Research has 1,505 positions and similarly only a negligible percentage is working on contract.

The bulk of the positions in the Department are professional and technical in nature, primarily consisting:

• Veterinary Officers (more than 1,000) • Veterinary Assistants and Artificial Insemination Technicians (more than 3,000)

These positions are critical in the delivery of livestock services, but their overall effectiveness (especially their outreach and ability to deliver ‘doorstep’ services to farmers) has been questioned10. Bound up with issues of quality and effectiveness are issues of transparency: poorly remunerated vets are presumed to often charge informal fees for their services.

Consequently there is significant debate about whether these services should be privatised, delivered on some sort of formal cost-recovery basis or retained in the public sector on the current basis. As the recent functional review made clear, in principle it is easy to recommend privatisation/commercialisation and international experience shows there usually is a willingness-to-pay on behalf of farmers for genuinely quality services. But in practice such reforms can be complex and require effective regulatory regimes to ensure market failures do not result in the marginalisation of smaller farmers.

The percentage of ministerial11 and support staff is quite high in the research wing, for instance in two of the research institutes as shown in Table 6. Table 6 - Proportion of Ministerial Staff in Research Wing Institutes12

Institute Grade 16/17 + Ministerial Staff

Livestock Production Research Institute, Bahadarnagar 74 559

Poultry Research Institute, Rawalpindi 65 348

Although the budget allocated to employee costs has increased by 19.5% in recent years, staff strength has remained relatively constant. The increases, therefore, are primarily because of a significant increase in salaries for federal and provincial employees, as shown in Table 7. Table 7 - L&DD Staff & Operating Costs 2006-09

2006-07 2007-08 2008-09

Exp Type (Rs m) Budget Actual Budget Actual Budget Actual

Employee Expenses 487 462 555 512 544 612

Operating Expenses 304 309 344 368 362 470

L&DDD, through the Support Services Livestock Project, has recently embarked on establishing a Veterinary dispensary in each union council. This has increased the number of personnel required for manning these dispensaries and providing effective services to the farmers, but many of these positions remain vacant. Data for the Research wing is not available at the time of writing, but 622 positions in the Extension wing are currently vacant. Most of these positions have been lying vacant for quite a significant period which suggests that either these positions are not needed urgently enough to be worth the effort of recruiting, or that the terms and conditions are

10 Source: Livestock Sector Strategy, 2010 11 This means administrative or manual staff 12 Source: L&DDD Annual Report 2008-09


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Crown Agents not attractive enough. The lengths these positions have lain vacant are given in Error! Reference source not found.. Figure 5 - L&DD Extension Wing vacant positions

If the department is to continue providing these services to an acceptable standard then these positions will have to be filled so that investment in the infrastructure does not go waste.

6.1.2 Cadres

DGs Extension and Research are the two dominant organisational entities within L&DD, each with their own establishments, sanctioned staff and subordinate directorates. The Planning & Evaluation Directorate is the only directorate independent of both the DGs; this reports directly to the Secretary.

It has been difficult to determine exactly how many ‘cadres’ there are in L&DD. Our understanding is that there is not a formal cadre system (as per GoP Accounts, Customs, DMG cadres, etc). But historically the Department has sought to lock-in areas of expertise by limiting the mobility of staff, in practice resulting in each of the 16 directorates having its own de facto cadre of non-transferrable staff.

6.1.2.1 Directorate General Extension

There are almost as many cadres in the Extension wing of L&DDD as there are directorates; only the Animal Health Cadre covers more than one directorate: i.e. there are 13 directorates, and 12 ‘cadres’.

At the District level, however, three cadres are active: • Animal Health • Breed Improvement • Poultry

This is manifested most clearly in the roles of the three Deputy DLOs in the districts: each is responsible for breed improvement, animal health and poultry development respectively.

Animal Health dominates the other two cadres in terms of numerical strength and in terms of its representation in the District governments; for example Breed Improvement has a share of 6 ‘reserved’ DLO positions whereas Animal Health has a share of 24 such ‘reserved’ positions.

There is very limited horizontal movement from one cadre to another; only in very exceptional cases will Secretary L&DDD and DG (Extension) sanction an inter-cadre transfer, generally on a ‘loan’ basis. In the rare event of an official transferring from another cadre, the official retains his/her seniority in their parent cadre, in order to avoid confusion and protests amongst staff in the destination cadre: there is no functioning protocol by which seniority can be translated from one cadre to another.

There is only one position common to all the cadres, which is the position of Director General (Ext). AS (L&DD) and DG (Ext) tell us that the Department is currently considering a reduction in


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Crown Agents the number of Directorates in the Extension wing from twelve to four. Also it is being considered that a Veterinary Officer will, in future, be able to move from one cadre to the other in grade 19 and above.

This division of the workforce could only really be justified on the basis that each cadre provides particularly specialist services: i.e. niche services which require self-contained professional units, protected from ‘poaching’ by outside agencies. However, most interventions under the Extension Wing are interconnected and at times interdependent: curative health, breed improvement and extension & communication services require reasonably similar skill sets and are, in fact, interrelated components of the same system, all aiming to improve animal welfare and productivity.

Because of this commonality of objectives the possibility of movement between the cadres should be made more readily possible.

6.1.2.2 Directorate General Research

DG Research has four directorates with as many cadres and, again, movement from one directorate / cadre to another is rare. The directorates are working in different areas but the primary function being carried out is essentially the same, namely research into production and animal health, particularly disease control. There is therefore little operational logic in preventing mobility of staff between the directorates. It is the perceived impact on seniority positions which leads employees to cling to the cadre structures, when an open structure would actually increase the number of higher positions available to each employee.

6.1.3 Premises and Equipment

DG Research and DG Extension occupy purpose built premises. Most of the directorates of Extension Wing are located in the same building as DG Extension. This proximity helps in close liaison between the DG and his directors.

Providing offices to the District Livestock Offices is responsibility of the District governments. However, they are not always placed in the district government building. In Rawalpindi, for example, the DLO is located in Poultry Research Institute; while in Okara the DLO is based in a separate building, with other district government offices.

Under the Support Services Livestock project Veterinary Dispensaries have been established in all the union councils. Buildings for these have been completed in most cases, but many positions remain vacant, leaving many buildings unpopulated. Ambulances have also been provided but not all of these are being used for the intended purpose; there have apparently been instances where the vehicles have been used by district government for non-livestock related purposes (as staff cars)13.

The usual problems plaguing public sector offices also affect L&DDD: non-functional computers, telephone lines, faxes, and scanty repair and maintenance funds. Operational funding shortfalls often result in vehicles falling out of commission, poor washroom facilities and uncomfortable offices. The offices that were visited by the authors of this report showed that conditions for senior staff are generally acceptable, but for lower staff the situation is less than satisfactory.

There are no earmarked vehicles for the DLOs who have responsibility of looking after extension services in the entire district. As a result most of them utilize the ambulances provided under the project which diverts the vehicle from its intended purpose, thus impeding another important service.

L&DDD has a unique scheme under which the Veterinary Officers, VAs and AIs are provided with motor cycles on a lease basis, payable over a period of five years. These are to be used for field services. Fuel provided is, however, minimal, which provides an excuse for the officials to charge farmers for the travel. Because of this charge service delivery becomes skewed towards the large farmers, leaving those small farmers unattended.

13 Informal discussions with staff members in District Government


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Crown Agents 6.1.4 Department / District relationship

L&DDD is one of the Departments with a substantial proportion of its staff stationed out in the 36 Districts. As remarked elsewhere in this report, the department-district relationship is a complex one. The best way to illustrate this is to look at the dynamics of a District Livestock Officer’s relationship with Department and with District Management.

Extension staff in the Districts have a multi-layered reporting structure. As well as a formal relationship with the District government there is an informal link with Department headquarters. The scope and extent of this dotted relationship is not very clear, but the DLO has links with: • Secretary L&DDD • DG Extension • Director (Animal Health) • Director (Breed Improvement) • Director (Poultry)

The relationship with the District government is formal and direct as the DLO reports directly to EDO (Agriculture). It is EDO (Agri) who writes the PER of DLO, which is countersigned by the District Coordination Officer. Interestingly, Secretary Livestock has recently introduced a parallel system of quarterly performance assessments for DLOs which may at times serve as a basis for transfer postings or commendations / remedial action. DG (Ext) occasionally also holds monthly meetings. Targets are also set by the Provincial government. Secretary L&DDD has the power to transfer the DLOs from one district to another which gives him some formal control over DLO. Thus there are two sources to which the DLO has to look to: Secretary L&DDD and District government. The DCO can make a request/ recommend transfer of the DLO if he is not satisfied with the DLO’s performance, though this is not binding upon the Secretary14.

In a typical environment the three Deputy DLOs report to the DLO, but they also have to maintain liaison with their respective directorates on technical and policy matters. This dual relationship adds to the challenges facing staff working in the districts who already have an intricate balance to maintain between the District and Provincial governments. This impedes diversity in experience and retards vertical growth of the officials in the Department.

Because of this duality and haziness, objectives, outputs and accountability for service provision is likely to be impaired. There is no denying the need for policy transmission by the provincial government but the scope of such control should be clear and well defined so that the responsibilities and outputs of the extension staff in the district is clear. It is imperative that this be addressed.

14 As L&DDD and DG (Ext) feel that this has not been a particularly serious issue as they have the option of informing the district government if there are lags in performance of the DLOs. The officials in the district government feel otherwise as they have multiple reporting channels. Also channels of policy transmission are not clear.

Secretary Livestock and

Dairy Development

Policy Transmission Transfers Promotions

Quarterly Performance Meetings

Director General

Policy Transmission

Informal performance monitoring

District Government Budget Performance

Evaluation Operations/

Policy

Figure 6 - Reporting and Performance Management of a DLO


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Crown Agents 6.2 HRM resources

6.2.1 HRM Staff

There is no Human Resource wing in any of the directorates. Like other public sector departments there is an Administration wing which mostly looks after transfer and postings, leave issues and promotion cases. However, these administration wings do not follow modern HR management practices. There is no HR development or HR planning activity in these wings.

6.2.2 HRM Records and HRMIS

Personnel record management is critical for making informed decisions on HR management, planning and development. This requires quick access to HR data which is integrated, organised and reliable. Because different responsibilities lie with different directorates, L&DDD’s workforce data is scattered and being maintained at numerous different locations. As a result a holistic picture of the workforce is not readily available. There is no consolidated record of trainings; in absence of which the department has to rerun the procedure/process for making nominations because of which some of the training opportunities are lost in the course of following the procedure.

Through Directorate of Planning & Evaluation, L&DDD is currently working on developing a human resource information system under which records of officers in grades 17 to 20 will be maintained with respect to their personal details, academic qualifications, trainings received and other details. This information system is being developed in-house. The project started in 2008 and the expected date of completion is June 2011.

L&DDD feels that it has the capacity to develop and manage HRMIS itself. However, the progress to date has been slow and only basic data for about 60% of officers at grade 17 and above has been collected. There is no plan to gather data on any staff in grades 1 to 16.

6.3 HR procedures GoPb’s HR procedures are laid down in different statutes, acts and laws, as outlined in the earlier part of the report. In addition to these the Department has its own service rules which govern recruitment procedures, prescribe appointing authorities for different positions and other administrative issues.

The following table describes how each major HR procedure is handled by the Department, along with some accompanying analysis. Table 8 - Analysis of HRM procedures in L&DDD

HRM Procedure Analysis

Recruitment and Selection Recruitment for junior positions, from grade 1-9, is done either through recruitment committees at the directorate level or the district committees with representation of directorates and district government. For senior positions recruitment is done through Punjab Public Service Commission. On selection by the PPSC or the Recruitment Committee services of the person is placed at the disposal of directorate or the district government.

Recruitment to junior positions is susceptible to political pressures in the districts. Recruitment Committees are a mix of representatives of the department and district government. L&DDD has its representative in the PPSC when selections are to be made for L&DDD.

Training

Foreign trainings are received through L&DDD in the DG offices from where these are routed to the directorates. Directorates finally ask its officers for expressing interest or make nominations on its own. Nominations are finally considered by Planning and Development Board for consideration and approval of nominations.

No structured induction training programs exist. On the job training has no academic content. Local trainings by the department are rarely organized, though lately PRMP has organized trainings for Vets at MPDD.

Foreign trainings at times lapse because of delays and complexity of procedures and


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Crown Agents HRM Procedure Analysis Local trainings providers contact the L&DDD or DG office about the available trainings. Nominations are either made by the DG/ Directors. No rolling training programs or system for training on recruitment exists.

processes. There are few foreign training opportunities available to the officers.

The services of those who avail foreign training are not properly utilised.

Transfers and Postings Secretary L&DDD transfer DLOs and DDLOs from one district to the other. DCO can transfer VOs15 within the district. Secretary/ Director can make inter district transfers. Director General and Director transfer officials in the HQs and officials from one district to the other. Between the directorates DG makes transfers for junior officials and Secretary transfers officials grade 16 and above. For officials of grade 1-9 DLO is the authorized officer to transfer. Grade 10-16 officials within the district are transferred by DCO/ EDO (Agri). Transfers are either made on request of the officials, administrative needs and in public interest.

Transfer powers seem slightly centralized. Transfer of DLOs should be handled by DG (Ext) as he is the operational lead. Transfer of junior officials should be with the DLO rather than the DCO because it is DLO who is responsible for effectively providing livestock and dairy services.

Pay and Grading Compensation is in line with the public sector salary structure. Compared with the private sector salaries are very low. Officials in the district government do get perquisites in the form of official residence and vehicle.

Public sector salary structure is less than satisfactory. There are no extra allowances for those who are working in the research wing.

Performance Management Annual evaluation system is used for performance management. Performance Evaluation Report proforma is used for the purpose. The annual report is not shared with the reported upon official; it was considered to be confidential up to but now it is considered classified16. Report of the DLO is written by EDO (Agri) and countersigned by the DCO. Through monthly and quarterly meetings the Secretary L&DDD and DGs also monitor the performance.

There are no clear outputs and deliverables in the PER proforma. Targets are not laid down. Individual performance is not linked with the organisational goals. According to modern management practices annual confidential reports are shared with the employees.

Promotions Seniority is the supreme criteria for promotions. Promotions of grade 16, 17 and 18 are considered

Promotions are slow not only because of availability of the positions but also because of

15 Veterinary Officer is the initial recruitment grade; doctors in a Livestock dispensary are designated as VOs. They are promoted to grade 18 where they are either designated as Senior Veterinary Officer or posted as DLO in a district. 16 ‘Confidential’ means that the employee may only see the evaluation if it was adverse in which case the officer is asked to provide his version. ‘Classified’ means that an officer can see the report on request


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Crown Agents HRM Procedure Analysis by the Departmental Promotion Committee which is headed by Secretary. For officials below 16 grade promotions are dealt by the respective directorate and in case of district staff by a District Promotion Committee headed by DCO. In case of promotions beyond grade 18 the Provincial Selection Board approves the promotion.

the irregular meetings of the Departmental Promotion Committees.

Discipline and Efficiency PEDA is the supreme document for carrying out proceedings on basis of discipline and efficiency. Any action is initiated either on the basis of a complaint or report of the supervisory officer - this is followed by fact finding report and enquiry. Exoneration or penalty imposition lies with the Authority. The act provides for initiation of enquiry without fact finding in circumstances where authority is convinced that there substantial evidence against the accused official.

This is an effective tool for accountability of the officials of the department. PEDA compared with its original version is a much balanced law, apart from discretion of the authority to initiate enquiry in some cases without a fact finding mission.

6.4 Findings

6.4.1 Performance Management

In the standard PER, still often referred to as the ACR, proformas are used as a tool for performance evaluation. The supervisory officer is responsible for reporting on the annual performance of the L&DDD staff. Different proformas are used for gazetted and non-gazetted staff. The PER is written by the immediate supervising officer. The PER of a Director will be written by the Director General and countersigned by the Secretary.

In a public sector environment high performance is only sustainable if an effective HR institutional framework has been laid down17. An essential component of this framework would be an objective, transparent and competency based appraisal system. It is important that performance measures are based on outputs and outcomes over which the appraisee has some direct control. Performance management has broadly three angles to it: • Performance evaluation system • Incentivising performance • Performance based promotions/ postings

The PER of a DLO is written by EDO (Agri) and countersigned by the District Coordination Officer. Thus the appraisal is not carried out by anyone with whom he has a technical relationship. However, Secretary L&DD has introduced a parallel appraisal process to evaluate performance of the District Livestock Officers on the basis of which one can monitor and evaluate the service delivery of the respective district office. Weightings assigned to different factors in the matrix may not yet be fully in line with the priorities and strategic objectives of the department, so the matrix is being revisited by the Department. Nonetheless this is a positive step and the PGEIP team could help the department in revising the measurement criteria and standards.

L&DDD has neither any structured job descriptions nor Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for different positions. An effective performance management system will require clarity and agreement on the job description and KPIs.

17 Kim and Hong, 2006


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Crown Agents 6.4.2 Pay and Job Grading Structure

L&DDD uses (has to use) standard public sector pay scales, which run from grade 1-20. Pay packages are determined in accordance with this basic pay scale, which determines the minimum salary which an official can receive in his/her grade. Public sector salaries have not kept pace with inflation and salaries in the private sector, creating significant gaps (more stark at the senior level). In addition to this grade the emoluments vary from one position to the other. These emoluments are generally in the form of official residences, conveyances, telephone costs and other contributions to the cost of living. The value of these emoluments on occasions can be significant and thus employees who do not have these emoluments are comparatively at a disadvantage.

The movement from one pay scale to another is by virtue of promotion. Speed of movement from one grade to the other is dependent upon the cadre/ group one belongs to. Promotions (discussed below) in L&DDD are very slow, resulting in stagnation of pay levels. DGs Extension and Research are in Grade 20, whereas the directorates are headed by grade 19 officers. These officers have mostly some conveyance and other perquisites attached to their positions. Moving up the ladder is severely restricted because for most directorates there are only 1 or 2 positions of Grade 19. In the Directorate of Animal Health, for example, there are approximately 893 Veterinary Officers but only two positions of grade 19.

Some of the allowances provided are pitifully inadequate. A Veterinary Assistant gets a fuel allowance of Rs 45/- per month. This is less than the cost of one litre, which is clearly insufficient to cover the travel involved in carrying out field duty. Similarly, Rs 800/- is paid to Veterinary Officers who perform additional duty in slaughter houses, which entails starting duty at around 3am in the morning to inspect meat quality. There have been attempts at additional incentives: for example a request in the form of a summary for additional allowance to Semen Production Unit staff was moved in 2005, but is still pending approval or rejection. This situation clearly creates a strong incentive for rent seeking behaviour in the course of government duty.

6.4.3 Promotions

Promotion means movement from one scale to the higher one after completion of a certain number of years of service in a particular grade. This movement varies depending upon the cadre one belongs to, owing to the structure of that particular cadre. In L&DDD Secretariat there are three types of officials working; District Management Group/other federal services, Provincial Civil Service and staff from L&DDD directorates. The first two have their own promotion structure managed at the federal or provincial level.

Generally vertical progress is slow in the Livestock department. It is especially so in the technical and professional cadres because, in addition to recruitment at Grade 17, there is also recruitment in Grade 18, which slows down the promotions of Grade 17 officers. In the case of managerial staff initial recruitment is normally carried out at Grade 17. However, in L&DDD, 50% of Grade 18 managerial staff are directly recruited and 50% enter by promotion. Promotion from Grade 17 to 18 and from 18 to 19 is extremely slow and can take as long as 30 years – or more. There have been occasions when officers have retired in the grade to which they were recruited.

Two specific examples of the consequences of this are:

• A Grade 18 officer in northern Punjab was posted against a Grade 19 position in own pay and scale. He was selected in grade 18 by Punjab Public Service Commission under the direct recruitment quota. After 20 years of service he is still in grade 18. He is amongst the 5 most senior officers in grade 18 but is due to retire in one year. In case the promotion board meeting is not convened he will retire in grade 18.

• One of the DLOs, from the cadre of Directorate of Animal Health, was recruited in 1975, initially as AVO in grade 16, which was later on upgraded to grade 17. He was promoted to grade 18 only two years back as DLO - after 33 years of service.

Thus the promotion system needs to be revisited.

In KP a four tier system has been developed and successfully implemented. In Punjab too this four tier system has been developed but has not been implemented. According to this system an additional tier has been created at Grade 20 level for professional positions (originally only three


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Crown Agents management positions existed in Grade 20); the number of positions in each grade has been fixed in accordance with a formula.

The Directorate of Animal Health has also lamented that promotions are extremely delayed. There are 1,000 VOs but only one position of Director: so the odds of a person reaching Grade 19 are 1:1000. The present Director joined 33 years before in Grade 17. After being directly selected into Grade 18, he was promoted to Grade 19 after 20 years. His batch mates, who didn’t come through direct selection to Grade 18, are still in Grade 17 after 33 years of service. Table 9 - Limited promotion opportunities for Veterinarians in L&DDD

Position Number

Director/ Grade 19 2

Deputy Director/ DLO/ Grade 18 31

DY DLO/Veterinary Officer/Asst Dir/ BPS 17 893

This structure dampens initiative, retards efficiency and erodes staff morale. A Vet has an opportunity cost for working in L&DDD as he/she could have also utilized his/her services in the private sector. But there is a very small allowance for any additional qualifications, for instance an officer having a PhD is paid an allowance of Rs 8000 only.

In the Research wing too promotions are delayed. There is only one grade 20 position available to all of Grades 19 and 18. The initial recruitment Grade is 17 which means that all Grade 17 officers have very few promotion prospects.

6.4.4 Training

During discussion with the officers it was found that it was very rare for a professional vet to attend a foreign training course. Similarly there are very limited opportunities for local training. MPDD is responsible for providing this, but since it is responsible for all government departments, training courses are irregular and insufficiently specialist in nature.

There is a Livestock Services Training Centre at Bahadarnagar (with an additional campus at Sheikhupura), which trains livestock assistants and farmers and offers a two year diploma course for VA candidates. However, only around 330 VAs have received this training out of about 3000 VAs in total. Outreach to the field extension and directorates is not extensive because the directors were not satisfied with the trainings provided to their staff. This is despite the fact that technical and lower scale staff need to be trained in the latest techniques in breed improvement and animal health practices. Whatever trainings are conducted are on the personal initiatives of the directors, for instance Directorate of Breed Improvement organized training in 2005 in Qadirabad.

6.5 Areas for improvement in HRM Any effort at reforming the department must not preclude HR reforms to be considered later; instead these should be an essential part of any efforts to reform the Department. Doing it simultaneously with functional and business process changes will help to achieve the intended objectives of reform. Any proposed changes in HR, as in other areas, will require active commitment of the leadership and will need engagement and buy-in of the workforce. Based on analysis of HR procedures and diagnostic study of existing HR strength, capacity and engagement, the proposed areas for improvement may be divided into the following: • Recommendations flowing from HR Procedures Audit • Impact of Functional Review on HR • HRM implications from proposed AFIs in L&DDD

6.5.1 Recommendations Flowing from HR Audit 6.5.1.1 Incentives

It is important that staff are provided with adequate resources to undertake their duties, as discussed earlier in this report, the allowances paid to VOs and VAs for extension services


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Crown Agents are minimal. Ideally, rather than a monthly travel allowance, VOs, VAs, and AITs going out for extension services should either be reimbursed for actual expenses incurred or provided with Department transport. However, if a fixed allowance or quantity of petrol is the only acceptable option, the amount should be related to the individual’s usage, as measured, for example, by the monthly average kilometres travelled in the preceding year. This of course is the minimum required because payment on this account will be reimbursement of logistic expenses incurred, not an incentive for employees. Similarly as pointed out earlier in the report the allowance paid to VOs for additional slaughterhouse duty is minimal. Either this allowance should be increased or the slaughterhouse contractor be asked to contract a veterinarian directly.

The compensation package for L&DDD staff complies with public sector rules, and it is difficult to depart from the standard salary structures for the Extension staff. But L&DDD staff actually need more than mere reimbursement of expenses; there is a dire need to improve the overall compensation package. Ideally there should be an across-the-board increase in pay scales or additional allowances / incentives on top of the existing salary. However, given the resource constraints of the provincial government this does not seem to be a viable option.

Potential options which can be explored are:

• Field extension staff be given performance based monetary incentives- linking the incentives to successful vaccinations/ inseminations, spread of services provided;

• The performance monitoring proforma developed for the DLO may be replicated for other positions, this will help in identification of high performers. X% of high performers be rewarded by paying them a fixed amount of money.

• Special allowance for research institutes and extension staff working in peripheries.

Research wing staff are not given any additional allowance for working in an academic environment. Payment of such an allowance is not unusual: there are several instances in the public sector where research and development staff are paid an additional allowance for working in research and training institutes such as Pakistan Administrative Staff College, National Institute of Public Administration, Directorates of Training in FBR and Police training schools in Punjab. These allowances in the case of L&DDD are even more important because the experimental stations and research institutes are located in distant places. Other benefits such as children’s education, healthcare and transport should also be provided at these stations in order to retain staff and maintain their interest in the institutions.

The department may also consider allowing Veterinarians to undertake private practice after office hours. However, this must be managed so as not to affect service delivery during office hours and thus should be linked with clear performance benchmarks.

Another option could be to allow field staff to charge for their services, part of which should go to L&DDD and the rest be retained by staff member.

6.5.1.2 Cadres

One of L&DDD’s main HR issues is the compartmentalization of service delivering staff. In the Extension wing there are various cadres, such as animal health and breed improvement, which are essentially similar activities requiring the expertise of a professional veterinarian but which have come to operate as independent establishments. These services could be linked at the point of delivery saving resources and time and improving the experience of the service recipient.

As stated earlier we understand that a proposal for reducing the number of Directorates in the Extension wing is under consideration. We also understand that officers will be able to move from one directorate to another on reaching grade 19. While the option of merging cadres would be difficult because it requires settlement of seniority and placement issues, L&DDD needs to consider what best strategy it can employ to eventually free up the movement of staff and provide services in a more integrated and responsive manner. PGEIP can support the department in evolving the best possible option.


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Crown Agents 6.5.1.3 Promotions

Slow promotions within the Department, especially those for Grade 16 staff and above, have contributed to a perennially low state of morale within the department, and likely increase the incentives for rent-seeking behaviour. A four tier system for the Extension Wing has been approved but implementation is still pending. Though there could be other options - such as introducing a different grading structure or compensating staff through other incentives - such proposals may not be viable given the parameters laid down by S&GAD and the tendency of most staff to stay in public service. In these circumstances, the four tier system may well be the best solution. S&GAD has recently notified revised service rules for the Research wing of L&DDD. In addition, AS L&DDD and DG (Ext) have informed us that notification of service rules on the basis of the four tier system (discussed below) for the Extension wing is also in its final phase. The department felt that implementation of the four tier system will largely address, if not entirely, the issue of promotions of grade 17 and above.

In case the four-tier system is not implemented the department should consider moving 20% of officers to the next grade after completion of certain number of years while they continue to perform the same responsibilities. Only the most senior (who could eventually instead be identified on the basis of performance) would move to the position of increased responsibility. Table 10 - Suggested promotion structure (alternative to "4-Tier" system)

Grade 20 After 7 years in Grade 19 Progressive movement each year for 20% of those who qualify




6.5.1.4 Training:

The development of an informed, updated and vibrant work force is not possible in the absence of an effective institution for training and a skills-based strategy for capacity development. While some local training can be conducted by MPDD, it remains a generic training institute that is not well equipped to meet L&DDD’s very specialist requirements. If the Department wishes to provide training in-house It would be far more advantageous to strengthen the present Livestock Training Institute at Bahadarnagar. Or the Department could seek to use or fund the development of private suppliers (perhaps including Universities).

Generally the Department would benefit from the development of a training strategy, which would pay attention to:

The development of a specialist training institute(s) (either internally or externally) Regular Training Needs Analyses Induction training programs for VOs, VAs and AITs Technical refresher courses covering all functions and tiers in the management structure A training evaluation and follow-up system

The process for foreign training is lengthy and subject to centralized approval by non-technical persons in the Planning and Development Department. It was remarked that some foreign training opportunities lapse because of the lengthy application and approval procedures. It may therefore be worth considering that a budget for foreign specialist training may be allocated to, and administered by, L&DDD.

In case of the implementation of the four tier system mandatory training could be required prior to any promotion so that only those interested in improving their capacity and professionalism progress to senior positions.


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Crown Agents 6.5.1.5 Performance Management and Job Descriptions

Job descriptions are mostly unavailable or out of date, so that responsibilities and outputs are not clearly laid down. This effectively cripples any accountability mechanisms and restricts the effectiveness of (formal systems of) performance management.

The existing performance management system does not lay down the outputs and targets very clearly in the Performance Evaluation Report. As a pilot the form could be revised to include more specific details, responsibilities and outputs. The quarterly evaluation proforma currently being used could also be given weightings, after some revisions.

A possible exercise may also be carried out to illustrate performance indicators in the standard PER proforma, for instance in case of a Veterinary Officer/Assistant Artificial Insemination Officer/ AI Assistant, a linkage may be developed between the number of vaccines and outspread of diseases or number of inseminations with pregnancies. For the time being field staff are given targets for the number of inseminations and vaccinations, but this does not fully depict the impact that these have (e.g. what percentage of inseminations result in live births?) and so cannot be considered a reliable performance indicator. The department has expressed interest in developing a DLO-style performance evaluation proforma for other positions as well, particularly for the Directors of different Directorates and Farm Managers.

Perhaps more unusual is that, in case of the Research Wing, many staff have been given revenue targets. Even though this can be important in some respects, the primary responsibility of the research department is to carry out research, publish papers, introduce new medicines and develop new best practices for increasing livestock productivity. To bring performance indicators in line with the objectives and to improve quality of the services it is important that the performance management system be revisited and clear objectives and outputs be made part of the performance management system. If the PER itself cannot be revised, then some additional information specifying indicators could be annexed with the PER. These indicators should be specific to the job a person is doing.

For effective performance management it will also be critical that job descriptions are developed through a participative process involving both employee and his supervisor. A well-written and regularly up-dated job description with defined key result areas (as proposed in section 7.2.5 of this report) would be a good starting point for an objective performance evaluation system.

6.5.2 Impact of Functional Review on HR 6.5.2.1 Animal Health

The Department intends to make a transition from a purely curative health department to a support vehicle for market development. This may be done through public private partnerships or more radical privatisation. This would be a major shift and would require support to change management and communications strategy to pre-empt, avoid or mitigate adverse reactions from stakeholders and/or potentially redundant staff. There will also be a need to find politically and socially acceptable option(s) for retraining and/or redeploying staff and also investigate possibility of introducing “management by contract” relationship skills among key staff.

6.5.2.2 Breed Improvement

Improvement in the efficacy of artificial inseminations will require an improvement in the quality of semen and insemination techniques. This may need engagement of the private sector or improvement in supply chain. If retained in-house there will be a need to assess / enhance technical and management skills of Institute staff.

6.5.2.3 Buffalo Research Institute

Reorganisation of the BRI is required to make it exclusively focused on research-based development and for making it to responsive to local needs and circumstances. HRM implications include:

• Revised organisation structure & reporting lines • New job descriptions


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Crown Agents • New process to evaluate capacity of current management & staff against restructured organization

• Establish an HR section if BRI is to be separated

6.5.2.4 Vaccine Production

In order to increase supply and improve quality of vaccine there will be a need to:

• Improve understanding of PPP in terms of skills and processes needed • Develop skills to manage the arm’s length PPP relationship • Determine impact on staffing as soon as possible – e.g. would the L&DDD, VRI and any

would-be PPP investor/partner need some form of assessment centre / process to determine which staff should be retained etc.


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Crown Agents

Section 4: Recommendations & Conclusion


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Crown Agents 7. Summary of HRM Issues and Recommendations As has been remarked earlier, HRM activities in the public service are heavily regulated. As a consequence, there is limited scope for any Department to introduce new HRM practices unilaterally. Most of the areas where global changes to the HRM procedures are needed are addressed in the CSR Policy.

Recommendation: Our first major recommendation therefore is that implementation of the HRM-related elements of the Policy should be addressed as a matter of urgency. In addition the additional global HRM issues listed in Section 4.5 should be addressed.

7.1 HRM System Recommendations One of the major factors in the lack of progress in reformation of the Public Service is the lack of willingness to address the out-dated methods by which Civil Service employees are managed and developed. Until these HRM issues are addressed, progress will continue to be severely hampered, and the many internationally funded reports and studies which are being conducted will simply gather dust.

Accordingly, there are a number of recommendations which must be made at the Civil Service-wide level. Because of the global scope of these recommendations, all of which have been specifically or indirectly alluded to in previous reports, implementation is unlikely to be practical within the scope of this project. They are nonetheless of critical importance to the future of the Punjab public service.

7.1.1 Establish professional HRM Service Group

Modern HRM is as much a profession as Law, Medicine, Accountancy, etc. If GoPb is to realise its objective of improving the productivity and quality of its services, a professionally competent cadre of HRM practitioners is needed. Career paths would be available from HRM posts in Districts and Provincial departments culminating in senior posts in a new HRM Wing of S&GAD. One of the responsibilities of an HRM Wing in S&GAD would be to research modern workforce management practices, and to develop ways of bringing the most appropriate of these practices to the Punjab Civil Service.

Recommendation: A new HRM Service Group should be created through the appropriate legal process. Each Department should be allocated a number of specialist HRM posts, and these should be filled by a combination of training of existing employees and direct recruitment of already qualified professionals.

7.1.2 Establish an HRM Policy Unit in Chief Minister’s Secretariat

Modernisation of the workforce management practices of the public service is of critical importance to improving service delivery. However, there is currently no unit in the Punjab public service with a specific mandate to undertake “blue skies” thinking about the future of civil service management. Until very recently there was a Change Management Wing in S&GAD but this was not proving effective and has been disbanded. The creation of a HRM Policy Modernisation Unit to fill this gap is therefore strongly recommended. To be effective the Unit should be located within the Chief Minister’s Secretariat and report directly to the Chief Minister. It should be staffed by a small group of officers with a genuine interest in improving HRM policies and practices, and should be led by a professionally qualified HR practitioner ideally with practical experience of both public and private sector HR practices.

Recommendation: An HRM Policy Modernisation Unit should be created in the Chief Minister’s Secretariat with a clear mandate from the highest level of GoPb to research and identify ways to modernise HRM practices in the Punjab Public Service. Staffing should be as outlined, and appointments for an absolute minimum of three years.

7.1.3 Recruitment

No public service post can be filled without its written service rules being in place and officially notified. These rules have to be approved by Regulations Wing of S&GAD. So although Departments can request changes, ultimately the number and grades of jobs are centrally


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Crown Agents controlled by S&GAD and the Finance Department. However, as noted earlier, jobs in the public service are becoming more and more specialised and the justification for central control is weakening. In the longer term a more arms length means of control and measurement is needed which allows each Department more direct control of the size and composition of its workforce. However, it is only when each Department has its own HRM section that such as shift will be feasible.

Recommendation: S&GAD and Finance Department should be actively working towards a more devolved recruitment process which allows each Department more direct control of the size and composition of its workforce, with accountability being applied through GoPb policies and budgetary limits.

7.1.4 Promotions

At present, selection for promotion is determined officially by seniority rather than competence. The drive for transparency, fairness and equal treatment of all public service employees regardless of their performance has resulted in a two-tier system which achieves the opposite result. In order to get good people into specific jobs, senior managers and employees are forced to resort to unofficial methods where sponsorship and political or socio-economic influence get better results than can be delivered by the official processes. Until and unless the Punjab Civil Service finds an alternative to the present emphasis on seniority, significant progress in reform and modernisation will be very seriously hampered.

Recommendation: It is vital that the emphasis on seniority as a basis for promotion is reduced in favour performance based assessments. The initial step on what will be a lengthy and difficult path would be to up-date the ACR/PER system.

7.1.5 Tenures

Although job tenures in some cases are extremely lengthy, for veterinarians for example, the norm for gazetted officers (grades 17 – 20) is disturbingly short, and all too frequently is less than 12 months. The uncertainty about when the next move will happen is a strong disincentive for officers to get involved in initiating changes to the status quo, especially if the likely duration will be more than a few months. If reforms are to be successfully introduced, senior posts with a leading role in implementing changes should be identified and postings should be for a specified minimum term related to the expected implementation timetable.

Recommendation: Reform-critical senior posts should be identified and minimum tenures specified. Such posts should be firmly and resolutely protected from politically motivated transfers before the specified tenure period has expired.

7.2 Department Specific Recommendations As above, given the constraints to HRM innovation applied by current service rules and regulations, the options open to the departments to make meaningfully HRM-related changes are fairly limited. Nevertheless, there are a number of HRM support options which are available under the present rules.

7.2.1 Pay and Incentive Schemes

Pay is a hugely important and sensitive issue, but the BPS grading structure and the attached pay levels are centrally controlled. There is no prospect at present of individual departments being able to change to a more flexible broad-banded structure to address pay inequities. However, precedents do exist for the introduction of more-or-less targeted incentive schemes where additional benefits are given to individuals or groups.

In E&TD, an experimental incentive scheme is currently being piloted on an academic experimental basis. The Department is right to wish to monitor progress of this experiment, but could also investigate alternative cash and non-cash options for incentivising employee performance. It is most important to apply any incentive to appropriate behaviours. Research and anecdotal evidence shows that it is all too easy to create unwanted results by basing rewards on the wrong measures. Applying incentives to tax collections, for example, can lead to inappropriately aggressive behaviour on the part of collections and enforcement staff resulting in


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Crown Agents deteriorating relations with the tax paying public. Also, it is necessary to balance the size of the rewards between what will be effective and what the provincial budget can afford.

In L&DD, a proposed move to a four-tier system with the Research Wing is under discussion. Moves to improve progression options throughout the Department should be thoroughly investigated, and there should be a further review of the provision of operational expenses and emoluments for field staff. The aim should be to encourage staff to visit more distant and poorer farmers, moving closer to ‘doorstep’ based services. But this is unlikely to be achieved if staff are not paid for fuel costs, or are not given additional incentives to take up difficult postings.

Of course, in L&DD’s case such reforms should only be considered in conjunction with wider structural reforms being considered – for example if curative health services were to be delivered on a cost recovery basis, then additional incentives linked to this should be the objective (ensuring that ‘formal’ income increases to approximate the loss of ‘informal’ income, but with a link to service delivery).

Recommendation: Both Departments should prioritise the use of additional incentive schemes where possible, investigating alternative options targeted at specified key groups of employees such as E&T inspectors, veterinary officers, etc.

7.2.2 Training & Development

Although training, as with other HR aspects, is somewhat centralised (with most courses being delivered through MPDD), there is still scope for the Departments to develop and fund delivery of programmes of training and professional development for their staff. These programmes could be related to modern management skills, or they could be technical in nature. Neither E&TD nor L&DD currently run such programmes, relying on centralised promotion-related generic training and/or basic qualifications obtained prior to joining service. In many cases, therefore (in particular where staff remain in the same grade for many years) skills and expertise are likely to have become outdated.

The Departments can address this first by identifying gaps in the knowledge and/or skill sets of their employees (through a Skills Assessment or Training Needs Analysis); then by developing, costing and implementing a sustained and long term programme to build, or rebuild, the departmental skill base.

While the present project has limited resources for the delivery of training or development interventions, the HR team can work with nominated Department staff to support assessment and development efforts, as well as to identify potential training suppliers.

Recommendation: Establish a small team of Departmental counterparts to work with the HRM Team to develop a training strategy for the Department. The counterpart team should then continue to act as co-ordinator of on-going training and development interventions.

7.2.3 Implement (and use) Departmental HR database systems

The fact that neither Department was able to produce a comprehensive set of demographic data on its workforce in over seven weeks is clear indication that little importance is given to managing the workforce in a cohesive and integrated fashion. However, if either Department is serious about improving the effectiveness and efficiency of its service delivery it has to manage its employees in a much more proactive manner than is the case at present. And one of the essential tools to achieve this is a good computerised database of the entire workforce.

Both Departments have initiatives in progress which partially address this issue. First impressions are that the E&TD option looks the more promising one, though the issue of whether it is specific to the Department or generic for the whole Civil Service needs to be resolved.

This Project can support the continued evolution of these initiatives, as well as their embedding within departmental processes – critical to ensuring that demand for the systems’ outputs remains high, creating an incentive for ongoing maintenance. The Project can also support with analysis of the system’s data, once complete, for example to assess what long term plans need to be put in place given workforce age, seniority, specialism, etc.

Recommendation: Either: complete the development work being carried out by PITB, but adjust the end result to deliver a distributed structure with department-specific modules owned


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Crown Agents and operated by the subject department, but capable of up-loading core data to a central database probably held by S&GAD.

Or: Acquire and install a commercial off-the-shelf HRMIS in both Departments, but ensure that the systems are configured to transmit specified core data to the central database, probably in S&GAD

7.2.4 Job descriptions

When jobs change or new jobs are created, it is essential that job descriptions (JDs) are up-dated or written from scratch. Ideally, JDs should be active, living documents which are regularly referred to and updated as circumstances require. JDs are essential to any effective performance management process which may be introduced, and should act as a contract between a line manager and each of his subordinates. The HR role in this case would be to provide an agreed JD format and process and to train a core team of Department staff to prepare JDs initially for new posts, but eventually for all posts in the Department. The longer term aim should be to have a library of generic JDs for each type of job in the public service. These generic JDs would cover the substantial essence of the job, so that each line manager and subordinate can quickly add the final 10-20% of detail to make it specific to a particular post.

Recommendation: Both Departments should adopt a common style of Job Description which includes a section of Key Result Areas which have been agreed between the manager and jobholder. A core team of job description writers should be trained to assist line managers in the tailoring of generic JDs to specific posts.

7.2.5 Performance Management

One of the fundamental components in developing an effective and efficient Public Service is a shift towards results oriented performance management. The main tool currently used to manage workforce performance is the ACR, also called the PER. As noted elsewhere in this Report, the ACR is basically sound, but is somewhat flawed in the manner in which it is implemented. Few managers, if any, use it as a tool for improving subordinates’ performance on the job. Because of its role in the promotion process, the system cannot be changed in selected Departments and not in others. However, there is nothing to prevent either Department from introducing a simple appraisal process alongside the ACR. The HR role in this case would be assess whether this would be an appropriate approach, and if so, to assist in the design, implementation and training required.

Recommendation: In the short term it is not recommended that either Department should seek to introduce a formal Performance Management System because the pre-requisite conditions for a PMS are not yet in place. However, the process of moving towards a results orientated style of management may be started by making effective use of the job description format envisaged in the subsection immediately above. This could be linked with the planned project component on Performance Management, and/or the nascent ADB-funded Results Based Management initiative.

7.2.6 Organisation Restructuring & ‘Cadres’

It is interesting to note that the two pilot Departments, despite being governed by the same centralised HR rules and regulations, have some very significant differences. Perhaps the most important of these relates to ‘cadres’ and the overall structure of the Departments. While E&TD has a relatively flexible structure, it is organised geographically rather than by specialism (whether functional or type-of-tax). This means that although there is informal specialisation in UIPT, MVT and Excise, this is not formalised or institutionalised.

With L&DD, however, specialist focus in animal health, breed improvement, poultry and the other cadres linked to Directorates within Research and Extension are so institutionalised that they have become rigid and inflexible. The seniority system now means the Department faces huge problems in reforming this.

Both Departments now have an opportunity to think strategically about what their optimum structure should be. This should include consideration of how the Departments will operate at local government level, given the pending introduction of the PLGA.


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Crown Agents In E&TD’s case the increase in staff numbers of 25% and the likely addition of new functions following the 18th Amendment means now is an opportune time to consider reorganisation and/or specialisation of some type along either functional or type-of-tax lines. This needn’t happen immediately, but could become a medium-term objective towards which consensus and incentives could be built.

In L&DD, the increasing inevitability of the commercialisation or privatisation of traditional livestock service delivery should serve to focus minds on whether the existing de facto cadre system remains relevant or appropriate. While the problems with seniority are obvious, this issue will have to be addressed eventually, and various mechanisms can be considered to compensate those considered to ‘lose out’ during any integration process.

Recommendation: Each Department should consider options for the medium term restructuring of the Department, begin discussions on these options with staff and wider stakeholders and consider how any resistance to such changes can be lessened or avoided.

8. Conclusion There is little in this report which is new. The need for modernisation of workforce management practices in the Punjab Civil Service has been documented in numerous previous reports, yet has received little practical support or effort towards implementation.

S&GAD say that there are mechanisms for change already in place, and they are correct. But in practice the procedures are complex, time-consuming and can be very lengthy. In an environment where few senior officers can predict how long they will be in-post, there is little enthusiasm for initiating major change.

The rigidity of the service rules governing every aspect of the Civil Service has resulted in two parallel and conflicting cultures. There is the official regulation-driven culture, and there is the unofficial culture driven by personal influence and political intervention which regularly bypasses official procedures. While many public reports and statements describe a system under gradual if difficult improvement, a more ‘realist’ or hard-headed description might be that the system is in a process of slow decay, which has not been arrested in recent years. In any case, few would disagree that a sense of urgency is required.

Unless and until these two key issues of unstable tenures and dual management cultures are addressed, there is limited realistic chance of substantial or lasting reform of the Punjab Government’s Civil Service. And these issues can only be addressed by sustained effort and commitment from the very top of the GoPb hierarchy.


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Crown Agents

Appendix A: HR Procedure Audit Proforma and Guidance Notes


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Crown Agents Proforma for HR Procedure Documentation

Procedure Name

Status

Owner

Effective from

Statement of Underlying Policy

Purpose of Procedure

Description of Procedure Step Action Taken by Approval by

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.


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Crown Agents

Description of Procedure (continued) Step Action Taken by Approval by

13.

14.

15.

16.

17.

18.

19.

20.

Snags and/or Strengths of the procedure

Amendments (if required)

Additional notes

Interviewer: Date:


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Crown Agents Proforma for HR Procedure documentation – Guidance Notes

Procedure Name

Status Note 1

Owner

Note 2 Effective from Note 3

Policy Statement

Note 4

Purpose of Procedure

Note 5

Description of Procedure Step Action Taken by Approval by

1. Note 6 Note 7 Note 8

2.

3.

etc

Snags and/or Strengths of the procedure Note 9

Amendments (if required) Note 10

Additional Comments

Notes: 1. Enter “Discussion Draft” or “Operational” as appropriate 2. The Owner is the person responsible for maintaining the procedure, and to whom any

suggestions or comments should be addressed. A name, job title, phone number and email address should be given.

3. Enter the date from which the latest revision applies 4. This section should contain a short statement of the policy on which the procedure is based; this

will give a reason why the procedure is as it is 5. This section should contain a short statement of what the procedure seeks to achieve 6. The procedure description should be structured as a series of discrete actions 7. This column identifies who takes each step 8. If an approval is required, this column identifies the person who must approve the action 9. Identify any specific advantages or disadvantages of the system 10. Propose any changes in the procedure for improvement


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Crown Agents

Appendix B: Demographic Data Proformas and Guidance Notes


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Crown Agents Guidance Notes for completing demographic data sheets

Introduction

There have been many analyses carried out and reports written about the Department in recent months. In these reports, any reference to Human Resources has been at a very high level. The present project (PGEIP18) is focussed on the actual implementation of selected high profile initiatives rather than just producing a report. To help the planning and implementation of these initiatives it is necessary to have a more detailed “base line” of information about the Department’s workforce than is available from previous reports. For this reason we request your assistance in providing the information requested in the attached data sheets. We know that the data is held in many different places, and that it will take time and effort to extract and consolidate the specific statistics for which we are asking. But please be assured that the information is necessary, and that your effort is very much appreciated. Please provide the requested information for your division or section to […designation…] by Saturday 8 January 2011 for consolidation. If you are completing an electronic copy of these sheets, the spreadsheet will complete the totals and any other calculations in cells which currently show a “0”. If you are completing a paper copy, just enter the data, do not worry about the totals. The following paragraphs give guidance on the information we are looking for. If necessary, further guidance may be obtained from the national HR consultant on the project, Asad Abbas Maken (email: <[email protected]>; cell phone: 0321-516 2352) or from the international HR consultant Alan Gilmour by email at <[email protected]>.

1. Staff by BS grade / Directorate / HQ or Field

The BS grade structure is well known to all and needs no further explanation. The Directorate columns in the table are based on the organogram provided to us and discussions with [,,, designation as above…] will help us to understand where the Department’s officers and staff are currently clustered. The HQ or Field columns under each Directorate may need clarification. By “Field” we mean the officers and staff who carry out Departmental functions, but report to other management structures (eg. At District level).

2. Staff by BS Grade and Cadre

By Cadre we mean the service group or Directorate to which the employee was recruited and to which (s)he belongs for seniority, posting and promotion purposes. Some of the cadres are already shown on the sheet, but please add others if necessary. For this analysis please combine all officers and staff who carry out Departmental duties at the Centre or in the field.

3. Staff age profile by BS grade

18 Punjab Government Efficiency Improvement Programme


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Crown Agents The age profile of a workforce is one of the important analyses which management needs to have in order to plan ahead. It is this profile which identifies many of the anomalies and concerns affecting the future effectiveness of the Department. Again, please list all employees who carry out Departmental duties, irrespective of location or cadre

4. Gender by BS grade and Directorate

There is increasing pressure on employers, including the Civil Service, to provide equal employment opportunities for men and women. It is therefore necessary to know the current distribution of male and female employees throughout the workforce. As before, please list all employees who carry out Departmental duties, irrespective of location or cadre.

5. Sanctioned & Vacant posts by BS grade and Directorate

On this sheet we would like to know how many sanctioned posts there are in each Directorate / Cadre which carry out Departmental duties whether at HQ, in Departmental field stations or based in District hierarchies. We also wish to know how many of these posts are vacant at 31 December, 2010.

6. Length of time posts have been vacant

For each of the posts which are vacant at 31 December 2010 we wish to know how long it has been vacant. There are six categories; four for the 6-month periods up to 2 years, then one for up to 3 years, and a final column for any posts that have been vacant for more than 3 years. The number in the “total” box should be the same as the total for vacant posts in table 5.

7. Most recent ACR / PER score

We know that completion of ACRs is not a favourite activity and often they are not completed until a promotion board is due. But we would like to get an indication of the profile of scores being given. So we ask for the most recent ACR score for each of the officers and staff who come under the ACR scheme. If the most resent ACR result is more than 3 years old, please do not include it I the chart.

8. Education level attained

For each employee in the Department, we would like to know the highest level of education they have attained. Some will have no form of educational certificate, but most will have reached at least intermediate level. Among the higher grades there will be a high proportion of Graduate and Masters degrees, and some will have obtained recognised professional qualifications (doctor, veterinarian, accountant, etc) or technical qualifications (vet’s assistant, para-medic, tax inspector, bookkeeper, etc). And finally, a number of officers may have continued to complete a PhD in a particular subject. In this table we just want the total number in each category

8a. Professional / Technical qualifications; PhD topics


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Crown Agents In this table we ask for some details of the qualifications included in the fifth and sixth boxes of table 8. At this stage we are looking for the general picture or pattern of qualifications in the Department, so we are perfectly happy for similar qualifications or PhD topics to be lumped together. We also understand that the results are unlikely to be 100% complete or correct, but please do the best you can. For example, there are several categories of economics degrees, but for our purposes they should all be listed as “economics”.

Thank you

We thank you for your assistance in this task. The data you collect and provide will be extremely helpful over the coming months as we work with the rest of the Civil Service Reform (CSR) team and the management of your Department to implement several high impact reform initiatives which will help the Department to meet its objectives and targets more efficiently and effectively. 20 December 2010


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Crown Agents

1. Staff by BS grade / Directorate / HQ or Field -- as at 31 Dec '10 Secretary

L&DD Dte Gen

Extension Dte Gen

Research Director P & E

L&DD Dept totals BS Grade

HQ Field HQ Field HQ Field HQ Field HQ Field All

22

21

20

19

18

17

16

15

14

13

12

11

10

9

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

Totals


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Crown Agents 2. Staff by BS grade and Cadre (for all L&DD staff in HQ & Field) Extension

BS Grade DMG PCS Animal Health

Disease Control

Breed Improvem't

other Dept totals

22

21

20

19

18

17

16

15

14

13

12

11

10

9

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

Totals


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Crown Agents 3. Staff age profile by BS grade (for all L&DD staff in HQ & Field)

BS Grade 21-30 31-40 41-45 46-50 51-55 56-60 61+ Department

totals

22

21

20

19

18

17

16

15

14

13

12

11

10

9

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

Totals

NOTE: Please take age at last birthday, as at 31 Dec 2010


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Crown Agents

4. Gender by BS grade and Directorate (for all staff in HQ & Field) Secretary

L&DD Dte Gen

Extension Dte Gen

Research Director P & E

L&DD Dept totals BS

Grade Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Female All

22

21

20

19

18

17

16

15

14

13

12

11

10

9

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

Total


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Crown Agents 5. Sanctioned & Vacant posts by BS grade & Directorate (HQ and Field)

Secretary L&DD

Dte Gen Extension

Dte Gen Research

Director P & E

L&DD Dept totals BS

Grade Sanc Vacant Sanc Vacant Sanc Vacant Sanc Vacant Sanc Vacant Filled

22

21

20

19

18

17

16

15

14

13

12

11

10

9

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

Totals

Note: Enter the number of vacancies as at 31 Dec 2010


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Crown Agents

6. Length of time posts have been vacant (HQ and Field) up to 6 mths 7-12 mths 13-18 mths 19-24 mths 25-36 mths over 3 yrs Total

7. Most recent ACR/PER score

E D C B A A+ Total ACRs

NOTE: Count total # at each level for all L&DD HQ and Field staff in scope to ACR/PER system

8. Education level attained

No cert Intermed Graduate Masters Prof/Tech PhD Other

NOTE: Count only the highest level attained

8a. Professional / Technical qualifications; PhD topics Professional/Technical Quals Number PhD topics Number

NOTE:

When several Qualifications or PhDs have different titles but broadly similar topics, they may be treated as the same and counted together. Continue on next page if necessary


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Crown Agents

Appendix C: Human Resources Information Systems


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Crown Agents Human Resources Information Systems

Introduction As discussed in the body of this Report, neither of the pilot Departments has a computerised database of their respective workforces. In both cases personnel records are held in hard copy format at the location where the individual is posted. This means that when the Departmental management need reports or analyses of the workforce demographics, the Admin section has to request the information from each of the field locations. As the field admin staff report to the local District management, not to the Centre, this process takes time to complete.

The time and effort involved often discourages line managers from seeking the kind of workforce analyses which can greatly enhance their ability to manage their subordinates effectively.

The availability of a modern HR Database System (HRMIS) will therefore be one of the fundamental tools for achieving any improvement in the effectiveness of the management of the Departments’ officers and staff

HRMIS sources HR systems come from three main sources:

• Custom built – a system developed from zero either in-house as L&DDD is attempting, or by a software development house for a specific client. Comment: These are costly and time-consuming (typically 18 to 24 months) to develop, and rarely deliver value for money from the HR point of view.

• Add-on – the major accounting packages (such as SAP) or databases (such as Oracle) have HR add-ons or “front-ends” which may be used with their main product. Comment: quicker to install, and may be offered cheaply as a loss leader for the main product. However, particularly in the case of the accounting packages, the HR modules are designed primarily to be compatible with the main product and may not particularly friendly to non-technical HR users. On-going maintenance costs, after the honeymoon period is over, can be very high.

• Off-the-shelf – a system designed by HR software specialists and marketed as a finished product to many clients. Comment: Designed by HR specialists for HR specialists, so usually much more user-friendly; always capable of adaptation, often by the user. The product is tried and tested, and with many clients, the purchase price is inexpensive compared to custom-built, ongoing product development is generally good, and maintenance is also comparatively inexpensive. It is generally perfectly feasible to have an HRMIS ready for full data entry within 6 months.

For small organisations such as E&TD or L&DDD with under 10,000 employees, the Custom-built option is almost never the best HRMIS solution. The Add-on option entails a commitment to another package which has no relation to the HR function and is rarely a good option in any situation. For most organisations, the best approach in the great majority of cases is a commercial off-the-shelf solution, of which there are many to choose from.

E&TD and L&DDD are departments within the Punjab Civil Service. It is likely that there will be pressure to adopt a single system for the whole Civil Service. However, in the case of HR systems, there are good reasons why separate HRMIS systems are the preferred solution. The wider an HRMIS is spread, the more it has to cope with an increasing list of requirements. Each of the two pilot Departments, for example, have differing requirements of a database system.

The central Civil Service management entities like S&GAD do not need access to all of the personnel data held by individual Departments. It is therefore sufficient for the individual HRMIS systems to transfer the necessary data to the centre on a periodic basis.

With modern software technology, and the benefit of the internet, the exchange of data between different database systems is not a problem. So data transfer should not be seen as a reason for insisting on different Departments sharing one HR system. Indeed, there are advantages to having different HR systems in E&TD and L&DDD. If there is one system, it must cater for the needs of both departments. Much of the E&TD database will be irrelevant for L&DDD, and vice versa. With separate systems, only the common data needs to be shared.


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Crown Agents Technical considerations

Virtually all HR systems comprise two main elements: a database, and an HR front-end to manage the database.

Database

The database is a software package which stores and manages large amounts of data. The data is stored as “records” which are made up of many “fields”. So an employee’s record comprises information stored in fields such as <name>, <address>, <age>, etc.

There are several products on the market, but the best known and most frequently used by the best of the off-the-shelf HRMIS products is Oracle. All of the major products are sufficiently compatible to make the transfer of data between different systems a technically simple matter.

HR “front end”

The HR front end is the clever part of the HRMIS. This is the software which organises the records and enables the user to interrogate the data in an easy and meaningful manner. This is the part of the HRMIS which delivers the user-driven functionality essential to an effective system, and is therefore the part on which the buyer’s attention should be focussed.

Many of these front ends are designed to emulate the Windows environment with which many users will already be familiar.

Network Because of the distributed nature of both Departments workforces, any HRMIS needs to be accessible from multiple locations. Most HRMIS products are now “web-enabled” meaning they can be accessed over the internet rather than needing an expensive in-house network (or intranet).

Data security

Access to sensitive personal data needs to be carefully controlled because it will not be appropriate for everyone to see all records of all employees.

Initially the HRMIS would be managed and accessed by a small number of users in the HR or Admin section at each Department’s Head Office. The next step would be to extend access to one or two nominated HR users in each field location. In due course each line manager would be given read-only access to the records of his staff, and it would be appropriate for the Secretary and Deputy Secretaries to have access to read the records of the entire regional workforce, but making changes to the records should be in the hands of a small number of trained HR users of the system.

All off-the-shelf systems have the facility to limit access to data in this way, and changes to the access authorities can be made by the system administrator who should be a member of the HR department, not the IT department.

Competences It will be important to check that the selected HRMIS is able record and analyse the competence framework which will be developed in due course. This is a relatively recent development and some HRMIS products do not yet support this aspect of the HR function.

Investment The final cost of installing an HR database system will depend on how the chosen supplier calculates the price. But it will be essential to ensure that the cost of support, maintenance, and upgrades is covered.

But the investment is essential. Without access to detailed data on the Department’s employees, the application of modern management and HRM / HRD practices will be greatly hampered.

User Specification


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Crown Agents An important element in the process of acquiring an HRMIS is the User Specification. This is the document which spells out what the non-technical end-user (usually the HR section and line managers) require the HRMIS to do. The following pages give an indicative sample of the information an HRMIS software producer would need to prepare a System Specification for the supply of an off-the-shelf HRMIS to, say, the Livestock & Dairy Development Department (L&DDD).


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Crown Agents Sample User Specification for HRMIS for L&DDD Introduction The following pages give an indication of the information an HRMIS software producer would need to prepare a tender for the supply of an off-the-shelf HRMIS to the Livestock & Dairy Development Department (L&DDD).

User Specification

1) Background

The L&DDD is currently engaged on an Efficiency Improvement Programme. As part of this programme, the Department will require to keep records of its personnel in order to facilitate a more efficient and effective management, development and deployment of its workforce.

Accordingly, L&DDD is seeking bids to supply an HRMIS capable to satisfying its HR Management needs. The HRMIS is intended to be an off-the-shelf19, stand-alone product, but should be capable of exchanging data with other management information systems running in L&DDD and relevant Punjab Government departments. In particular, the Government’s payroll is run by the Ministry of Finance, but each Department must provide regular up-dates on starters, leavers, pay rate changes, bonus payments, etc.

The requirements listed below should be taken as an indication of the users’ initial suggestions rather than a rigid specification. L&DDD will be open to suggestions for alternative solutions which can be delivered within the broad parameters of scope and functionality, and with due regard to overall purchase and maintenance costs.

Bids are invited from suppliers who can provide a finished or near-finished product which is already installed in more than one multiple-site client.

Bids must be submitted according to the accompanying bidding procedure. Any bidder not following the procedure will be disqualified.

2) Size of system

The system should be capable of handling the records of up to 10,000 active employees. Provision is also required for the off-line archiving of leavers’ records, but with the option of accessing or re-activating individual records with a minimum of technical expertise on the part of the user.

3) System language

The language to be used for the HRMIS system is English

4) Users

Initially, the HRMIS will be located centrally and accessed by a limited number of users in the HR Section. However, it is intended that the HRMIS will be made available to HR/Admin field officers and possibly selected senior line managers in the District premises of L&DDD. A web-enabled system would greatly facilitate the required distributed access. The system, therefore, must be capable of managing distributed access by limiting the range of records individual users are entitled to see or update. In addition, there must be some form of electronic “sign-off” or double check by an authorised senior HR manager for any significant changes before they are written to the database.

5) Functions required

a) Employee biodata

19 By “off-the-shelf” we mean a system which is to all intents and purposes complete and ready to use, but which is capable of minor adjustment by non-technical users during (and after) installation


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Crown Agents The system must be capable of recording the usual personal information of each employee. Data will include personal information, contact details, next of kin and dependents, educational history, academic and vocational qualifications, etc. The successful bidder will need to agree the final composition of the biodata to be collected and how it will be used.

b) Postings history (& future wishes)

In the course of an individual’s career in government service, he/she may change jobs as often as once or twice a year. The system must therefore allow for up to, say, 20 posting changes in the course of a lifetime career. Employees’ future employment wishes (in terms of location and / or specialisation) must also be accommodated. Where possible, spelling of job titles, locations, etc., should be constrained by the use of drop-down lists. Bidders should state in detail the capability of their product in this area including the maximum number & size of fields available, and the extent of customisation possible

c) Training / qualification records

Information to be recorded includes final educational level attained, details of formal certificates, diplomas or degrees attained, and dates, duration & topics of training undergone during their employment.

d) Payroll management

All GoPb salaries, including those of L&DDD employees, are paid through a central Government function, so a full-fledged payroll capability is not required. However, the Department will have some flexibility in determining the allowances and bonuses due to its staff. The HRMIS must therefore hold individuals’ records for current and past pay rates, bonuses, allowances and other extra payments. Some capability for modelling payroll changes against the payroll budget would be useful. And a facility to adjust performance pay elements on the basis of key entries in the Appraisal records section would be extremely helpful. Bidders should state in detail the capability of their product in this area, including the maximum number & size of fields available, and the extent of customisation possible.

e) Career & Succession Planning

Career and succession planning will be new undertakings for L&DDD. Accordingly, we are seeking proposals for how the HRMIS could best support this activity. It is important that career paths are established and known to Department employees. Similarly, succession planning should be done as openly and transparently as possible. Bidders should state how, if at all, their product can support these activities (over and above simply keeping records).

f) Appraisal records & Promotions

The appraisal system is still under development, and could be adjusted to exploit the capabilities of the successful HRMIS. The appraisals will be performance based, and assessments will be made against a framework of competencies or knowledge, skills & qualities (KSQs). Ideally, the HRMIS should be able to store up to three summary appraisals per year for approximately half of the population, and to perform gap analyses to match employee profiles against job profiles generated from the same framework. In addition, there should be a facility to link key performance ratings with performance bonuses in the payroll section. Bidders should state how their product can support these activities (over and above simply keeping records).

g) Competencies / KSQ profile

It is proposed to use a framework of knowledge, skills & qualities (KSQs) from which to construct employee and job profiles. It is envisaged that the framework will comprise up to 250 elements while an employee or job profile will comprise up to 30 items drawn from the framework. Each item in the profile would be rated at one of four or five levels. The


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Crown Agents HRMIS must be able to store the overall framework (say 250 items with descriptive labels), and to perform comparisons of employee profiles against a job (or target) profile, and be able to rank multiple employees in order of closeness of the match. Bidders should state how their product can proactively support this process (over and above simply keeping records).

h) Training Needs Analysis

Training needs will arise partly from the matching process described above and partly from the appraisal system. The HRMIS should be able to record any training needs identified for any employee, and to facilitate the management of training interventions to address individual and organisation-wide training needs. Bidders should state how their product can proactively support this process (over and above simply keeping records).

i) Grievances and Disciplinary record

The HRMIS should have adequate provision for recording grievances raised by employees, and disciplinary actions taken against them. Bidders should state clearly how their product handles these issues and indicate any limitation to the size of free text fields for noting descriptions of events, action taken and reasons.

j) Standard & Ad Hoc reports

Bidders should provide a list with descriptions of pre-defined reports produced by their product, as well as describing the process by which non-technical users may extract ad hoc reports.

6) Installation, customisation & commissioning

Bidders should clearly specify their proposed approach to the installation, customisation and commissioning of the HRMIS. The cost of, and reason for, any consultancy time built into the bid price should be clearly identified and justified.

7) User training & documentation

Bids should include on-site training and user documentation for up to [ xx ] users from the HRM/Admin team. User training modules and materials for training of future users of the system must also be included in the bid price. The cost of additional training events and/or materials should be clearly stated.

8) Technical documentation & maintenance

After initial commissioning and de-bugging, it is expected that basic system maintenance will be undertaken by suitably trained HR staff with on-line support from the supplier. Provision should therefore be made for technical familiarisation / training of two or three L&DDD-nominated individuals. If any bidder wishes to propose an alternative approach, he must state clearly why, what the alternative solution is, and any cost implication (once-off or on-going).

Crown Agents

Crown Agents St Nicholas House St Nicholas Road Sutton Surrey SM1 1EL United Kingdom

T: +44 (0)20 8643 3311 F: +44 (0)20 8643 8232

e-mail [email protected] www.crownagents.com

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