Public sector organisations: Ahsan stresses effective performance management system

Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Reforms Professor Ahsan Iqbal on Tuesday emphasised the need for re-examining performance management system in public sector organisations to improve the public sector delivery system for the convenience of citizens. He stated this at the inaugural session of workshop "Government Performance Management System", organised by Management Services Wing of Establishment.
Speaking elaborately on the importance of performance management and its overall impact on an organisation and country Ahsan Iqbal noted that in the last several years, private sector has gone through radical changes to cope with fast changing needs; but the government sector didn't transform to improve its public delivery system. This deficiency, he pointed out on part of the government sector often creates frustration in the masses when public sector institutions are not able to meet the aspirations and demands of the people. He also talked about the wastage of resources in the public sector side and said that finance-constraints country like Pakistan can't afford such wastage of resources. He laid emphasis on competitiveness and stated; "Let's be competitive to survive or others will take over our markets".
Minister stated that the government is making efforts to respond to people aspirations but the government machinery is not tuned to realize this goal due to lack of capacity and motivations. He said that present government has transformational roadmap in the form of Vision 2025 and civil reforms, institutional reforms and modernization of public sector organization are among the seven pillars of this documented vision for meaningful change to happen.
Ahsan Iqbal termed the performance evaluation mechanism put in place in the public sector organisations "obsolete and outdated" and believed that this system has become redundant because the performance is evaluated on whims and wishes rather than work. Reform f performance evaluation system is on top priority under Civil Service Reforms Initiative. He said that "URAAN" civil reforms initiative of Ministry of Planning, Development and Reforms is aimed at uplifting the performance of public sector through both institutional changes and robust performance management system.
Minister called the workshop of government performance management system a positive development and hoped that recommendations of the workshop will enable us in re-designing the public sector management system. He stressed the organizers of the workshop to come up specific recommendations rather than generalized ones to suggest the ways and means for improvement in public sector management system.-PR