As per a decision that the Sindh government finalised at the recent Secretaries' Committee meeting, henceforth the required manpower for the province's departments of education, health, and works and services will be hired on contractual basis.
Some may resent the decision since contractual hiring does not offer job security that people tend to associate with government service. But the idea has more pros than cons. Aside from its usefulness in addressing the pressing unemployment problem, it is also expected to improve efficiency levels in the three departments.
According to the terms and conditions stipulated in the new plan, salaries of contractual employees would be raised on the basis of performance evaluation, and those found wanting would be sent home. This should help counter the complacency syndrome that is common among those working for government.
If good performance is to become the basis of promotions and renewal of contracts, people hired under contract will feel compelled to do their duty relatively more honestly and diligently.
Such performance evaluations can also be of use in eliminating the problem of ghost employees - people who regularly draw salaries from the government but hardly ever go to their places of work.
Under the existing system of promotions that includes the length of service criterion, unless something extraordinary happens, such people can actually go on collecting salaries without putting in any work, and even get promoted to the next higher grade.
An even more important condition is that contract-based recruitment would be made on district level, and there would be no provision for transfer or posting of such employees to other districts. Once they know that they have to live and work in the same place for a reasonably long period unlike at present, these employees may start taking an active interest in making things better in their respective professional fields.
In due course, professional interests thus created may act as an incentive for them to stay where they are rather than to look for the first opportunity to head towards a big city, adding to the fast growing rural-to-urban migration problem.
While the provincial government prepares to implement its new scheme, it also needs to guard against the scourge of nepotism, which, unfortunately, is a way of life in this country. It must create a district cadre, to which recruitment should be open to people of the district where the job opening is available, and if requisite talent is unobtainable locally only then candidates from adjoining districts may be invited to apply.
And to ensure that appointments are made on the basis of merit, recruitment should be made through the Sindh Public Service Commission. Hopefully, the government will take all these things into account while implementing its new recruitment plan.
If executed well, it can prove to be quite productive both in terms of creating jobs and enhancing the efficacy of developmental work at the district level. Its success can impel other provinces, too, to follow suit.