The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) is facing serious problem in implementing Human Resource Information System (HRIS), a database required to assess performance of tax officials for their promotion, etc.
Sources told Business Recorder on Saturday that the World Bank (WB) midterm review mission had expressed concern over the delay in implementation of HRIS containing service record of all employees.
The idea was to develop human resource database of its 24,000 employees from Grade 1 to Grade 21, which included personal profiles of 1,500 tax officials (Grades 17 to 21) to be used for transfer and postings, and eliminating favouritism.
Sources said that the data of employees has been collected, but the major problem is the development of software required to analyse tax officials' performance for further promotions, transfers, postings, etc. The FBR has been working on the system for the last many years, but it has not yet developed it. Due to the system's inability to work intelligently, there is no use of the database created at national level.
According to sources, tax authorities are unhappy over slow progress of HRIS. In a recent meeting, the FBR had decided to hand over the entire project to foreign consultant Alan Gilmour. During the meeting, the official responsible for development of HRIS was strongly criticised for poor performance.
Now, the foreign consultant was trying to make some improvement in the system. The project is an important component of Tax Administration reform Program, but it has still not been completed due to reasons not known.
The WB midterm review mission had conveyed to the FBR that the board should implement the HRIS through a separate implementation services contract. However, to avoid further delays in this area, the FBR should also keep working on finalising the bidding document for acquiring the HR application in case the department encountered roadblocks in using PIFRA solution.
Sources said that the data of the FBR employees has been collected for streamlining the HRIS. The data pertaining to person, education, training postings profiles, confidential reports and pay and allowances. This data is being constantly updated on the basis of information available with the Human Resource Management Wing; CBR Administration Wing and profiles furnished by the employees.
The personal profiles include educational background of tax officials, courses, training, ACRs, addresses, place of posting, tenure of posting, foreign postings and other relevant information pertaining to posting. The profiles would be used for career planning of tax officials.
The system was launched by former FBR Member HRM Zafar Aziz Osmani containing information on tax officials. The personal profiles include data on educational background of tax officials, courses, training, ACRs, addresses, place of posting, tenure of posting, foreign postings and other relevant information pertaining to posting. The profiles would be used for career planning of tax officials, training and development of these officials as well, sources maintained.
The data would also help FBR in ascertaining reasons of deputing tax officials on a particular position for a long time. The profiles have been computerised so that the tax authorities could retrieve data as and when required. The exercise was launched many years ago, but it seems that the tax officials are still unable to make the system operational despite compilation of a database.