Foreign Expertise to Enhance Pakistan's Bureaucratic Capacity

Pakistan's Cabinet has relaxed foreign consultancy hiring rules to support the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) and attract investments. The move aims to address the perceived lack of skilled bureaucrats in project planning and execution. The decision highlights concerns about the bureaucracy's capacity and the need for specialized expertise in economic ministries, where generalists are often appointed as secretaries.

Pakistan's Cabinet has relaxed rules to hire foreign consultancy firms to make up for 'unskilled' bureaucrats and speed up official efforts to bring investment for various projects in the cash-strapped country from the Gulf and other nations, according to a media report. The decision was taken to support the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC), the top civil-military body created last year to bring investment into the country.

According to The Express Tribune, the Cabinet relaxed the public procurement legal framework to hire foreign consultancy firms to strengthen the SIFC to prepare various projects before offering them to foreign investors.

"The foreign consultancy firms will be hired for five years as a replacement for Pakistani bureaucrats who are found lacking in project planning and execution, according to government sources," the paper reported.

However, the decision will reflect poorly on the working of the bureaucracy, which could not provide quality assistance to the SIFC.

The Cabinet has approved a summary through circulation on the advice of the SIFC, which recommended granting exemption due to the poor capacity of Pakistan's federal bureaucracy, confirmed a senior government official on Saturday.

In case of circulation, the summary is approved without discussion in the regular cabinet meeting.

The sources said that due to an incapacitated bureaucracy, Pakistan was struggling to prepare projects for investment by Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom and Kuwait. The development came a week after Pakistan offered highly lucrative returns to Saudi Arabia for getting a USD 5 billion investment. The government was jubilant over its presentation to the Saudi delegation, which appreciated Islamabad's preparedness compared to the past. However, the bureaucracy is not trained in certain skills and compared to the Pakistani delegation the Saudi Arabian delegation was far better prepared.

One of the reasons for the lack of effective and efficient bureaucracy is that generalists are appointed as the secretaries of the economic ministries. These bureaucrats, mostly Pakistan Administrative Service (PAS) officers, get expertise on the job and then they are moved to any other ministry.

A federal secretary can at any time be appointed as secretary of finance, secretary of power, secretary of planning, secretary of the board of investment and secretary of petroleum without a requisite set of expertise.

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