Focal Persons Workshop 2008 Held from 25th to 28th January 2008

Government of the Punjab has initiated extensive reforms in the public sector to improve governance, public financial management, service delivery standards and efficiency. Achievement of these goals is predicated on the development of a culture of change backed by an efficient and effective civil service. To inculcate a culture of change and to enhance capacity in core service departments, Government of the Punjab organized a three day training workshop for Focal Persons and Select Change Agents in Bhurban Murree from 25th to 28th July 2008.

2. The Workshop aimed at providing an opportunity to the PRMP Focal Persons and Change Agents identified by Public Policy & Change Management Wing, S&GAD to get a clearer understanding of Punjab Government Efficiency Improvement Program (PGEIP) under PRMPII. The workshop included a dedicated session each on the Thematic areas of PGEIP, spreading awareness about the New Procurement Reforms of Punjab Government, half day workshop on Climate Change and Environmental Issues (conducted in collaboration with LEAD Pakistan) and an interactive training workshop on Team Building (organized by Centre for Management Development). The last day was meant for sharing the experiences of some of the programs with the audience. The workshop proceeded in the following manner and hereunder are the brief reflections of the 3 day workshop.

 

ACTIVITIES OF DAY-ONE
 

WORKSHOP ON CLIMATE CHANGE AND ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES CONDUCTED BY LEAD-PAKISTAN
 

3. The first session of the first day of the Focal Persons workshop was dedicated to an interactive session, covering the whole range of issues related to the notion of “Climate Change”. The purpose of this session was to spread awareness about the gravity of the matter related to Climate change among officers of the Public sector who will soon take on the responsibility of policy planning. The issues regarding climate change are not very well understood in developing countries. It is necessary that key policy makers of the country should know the actual ground realities in environment issues so that they may plan more desirably in future.
4. This part of the program was chaired by Major ® Shahnawaz Badar, Secretary Environment Protection Department, Government of the Punjab. The session was designed, facilitated and delivered by a competent team of professionals from LEAD Pakistan including (i) Mr. Ali Tauqir Sheikh (ii) Mr. Saeed Qutub (iii) Mr. Abdul Qadir Rafique (iv) Mr. Shahid Lutfi.

5. The famous documentary titled “An Inconvenient Truth” was aired at the beginning of the session which basically narrated the experiences of Mr. Al Gore, ex Vice President of USA, who is a renowned champion of the cause of climate change in the world. Another significant plank of the workshop was the thematic discussion on Mitigation and Adaptation strategies by two distinct groups who made valuable recommendations.
6. In sum, the session was useful in not only sensitizing the participants about the notion of Climate Change but also in contextualizing it within the provincial public policy framework for development. The session was also helpful in explaining several complex and technical notions related with the phenomenon of climate change for the benefit of PRMP focal persons. As was obvious from the many questions raised by the participants, the sensitization and exposure exercise would greatly help PRMP focal persons in their daily working while dealing with environment related issues and notions in an informed and technically sound manner.

DISCUSSION ON THEMATIC AREAS OF PRMP

7. A stimulating discussion on the thematic areas of PRMP was conducted dividing participants into groups on the lines of the streams of PRMP, i.e. Public Financial Management, Institutional Development, Private Sector Development and Capacity Building.
Public Financial Management;
 

8. The working group on Public Financial Management Reforms discussed the core policy areas related to Fiscal and Financial Management and Pension Reforms. The main issues that came up for discussion included MTBF and role of various departments including Finance, P & D, Health and Irrigation and Power in developing MTBF, setting up Strategic Policy Unit in Health Department, Fiscal Responsibility framework, operationalizing Punjab Pension Fund, actuarial assessment of Pension Liabilities etc.
 

CIVIL SERVICE REFORM

9. The group reviewed the activities enlisted in the work-plan and suggested the following improvements/additions/explanations.

• Activities under CSR may be geared towards strengthening of the office of DO (HRM) in District Governments and Change Management Agents in departments;

• District Coordination Officer should act as Principal Change Management Leader in the districts and the position of Additional DCO may also be created;

• Civil Services Rules and Contract Employment policies should be reviewed on priority basis;

• Innovative ideas like job description based contract between the employer and employee in the public sector may also be tried on pilot basis;

• All the departments should be taken up for performance based system’s piloting while the total number of such departments may be reduced.

CAPACITY BUILDING

10. The session comprised of group work on three major areas. These included:-

• Punjab Capacity Building Program II

• Institutional linkages

• District governments and devolution and CB networking

The group reviewed the various components of the CB activities and suggested improvements and modifications in the context of the Provincial government. The capacity needs of all the departments and organizations are huge, especially in the face of present day challenges where public demands efficient and improved service delivery from the public sector. This leads to challenges and constraints in terms of resources and opportunities at personal, professional, institutional and department levels. The group offered a threadbare discussion and made conclusive recommendations about job description, creation of information database, HR profiling, evaluation, professional networking, and last but not the least capacity building interventions. In addition to the above, the 4 volumes pertaining to PCBP were also reviewed and pertinent observations were recorded for requisite modifications by PRMP. The discussion conducted in this regard, would help improve PCBP-II as well as other capacity building initiatives and endeavours that PRMP is making.
 

PRIVATE SECTOR DEVELOPMENT
 

11. Under the component of Private Sector Development, the following aspects were covered and shared with the group during the brainstorming session:-

• Draft Rent Law
• Draft Agriculture Produce Marketing Act
• Restructuring of Public Sector Organizations (PSOs)
• Reduction in Provincial Taxes
• Improvements in Labour, Social Security and Boiler Inspection Regimes
• Beginning of a serious dialogue on PSD

In order to create an enabling environment for the private sector, a series of stakeholders’ workshops was conducted at Lahore, Faisalabad and Sialkot, in April 2007. The findings of the workshops included:

• Private sector needs help of government in some areas

• Cost of doing business and cost of regulatory compliance need to be rationalized

• The scope for PPPs need to be focused

Under PRMP-II, the principal components of Private Sector Development include:
 

I. Strengthen public sector support for private sector development through:

(a) Establishment of PSD Committee
(b) Communication Strategy to promote core compliance standards

II. Promote Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) through establishment of PPP Cell
 

ACTIVITIES OF DAY TWO
 

LET’S TEAM UP BY CMD
 

12. The second day of the Focal Person Workshop 2008 was dedicated to a full day training workshop “Lets Team Up” which was conducted entirely by Centre of Management & Development (CMD). It encapsulated a high energy action learning program built on the theme of team building. It extricated the participants from their comfort zones by executing activities which challenged both the mental as well as physical faculties of the Government of the Punjab officials. A multitude of activities was conducted to bring out the creative dimension of the human mind which, coupled with positive energy, led to the gelling of highly charged peak performing teams. The contents of the workshop traversed through a multitude of diverse topics fringing upon the main theme of transforming stigmatic and rigid attitudes towards team bonding and synergistic approaches
 

ACTIVITIES OF DAY THREE

13. Thos session was chaired by Mr. Sohail Ahmed, Secretary Finance Department, Government of the Punjab. The third and final day of Focal Persons workshop was mainly meant for sharing the various reform initiatives being undertaken in Punjab in the areas of

1. Civil Service Reform

2. Government Procurement

3. Public Health

In order to throw light on all these areas, key officers from these organizations made presentation before the participants enabling them understand the major initiatives that have been taken by them in their respective fields of work. Among the officers who made presentations about the key reforms/initiatives being undertaken in the province included Mr. Muhammad Mushtaq, Secretary/DG, Public Policy & Change Management Wing, S&GAD, Mr. Khurram Agha, MD, Punjab Procurement Regularity Authority , Mr. Jawad Rafique Malik, Additional Secretary, Health Department, as well as Mr. Zubair Khurshid Bhatti, DCO, Jhang.
 

14. Mr. Sohail Ahmad, Secretary Finance in his concluding remarks praised the efforts made by PRMP in coordinating reform programs in Punjab. He further stated that the interest shown by focal persons in the proceedings of the workshop and the useful input provided by them clearly reflects the commitment of the Provincial Government to undertake meaningful reforms. He further explained that the intention of the Provincial Government in undertaking policy reforms is to steer meaningful reforms that translate into improved service delivery and thereby reduction in poverty, of which budgetary support is a by-product. In the end, he distributed certificates amongst the participants of the workshop.