Pakistan's civil bureaucracy may be the top heaviest among
Third World countries with its 100 front-line civil servants
costing the government nearly half a billion rupees annually.
This would also make it the most expensive civil cadre.
On average, a grade-22
officer, the highest civil servant, costs the government
about Rs400,000 per month, according to figures obtained
by Dawn. Collectively, this elitist band of about 100
grade-22 officers, including 36 federal secretaries, provincial
chief secretaries and heads of police, and senior members
of the provincial boards of revenue cost over Rs480 million
annually.
Many officers and their
families may in cases cost the taxpayers as much as Rs1
million per month. The Civil Service Reform Unit (CSRU)
at the cabinet bloc, which has been given the task of
making suggestions in this regard, feels that if these
officers are given just 30 per cent in a lump sum of what
they cost the exchequer, they would live even more comfortably.
This is how it is done
all over the developed world. For instance, says a CSRU
expert, the only two people who get official residences
in the US are the president and the vice-president.
On average, a grade-22
officer in Pakistan gets a salary of Rs40,000 (between
Rs36,000 and Rs43,000). The average cost of housing provided
to the top 100 officers, taking into account the market
value of rent and maintenance cost has been worked out
at Rs125,000.
The value of government
housing varies immensely, depending on the city and locality.
For instance, a government house in F/6-3 sector of Islamabad,
spread over 3.5 kanals with servant quarters sized over
10 marlas, values at Rs50 million.
These dream houses, facing
the picturesque Margallas and located in what is called
'Baaoo Mohalla' by local cabbies, can be rented at anywhere
between Rs170,000 to Rs285,000 a month.
Government houses in G-6,
valuing at Rs30 million each, can be rented, on average,
at Rs85,500 and the ones in I-8 and G-10 sectors at approximately
Rs57,000 each. According to CDA sources, the cost of housing
maintenance in Islamabad alone comes to around Rs360 million
annually.
A grade-22 officer is entitled
to a telephone connection with unlimited billing at his
office as well as at his residence. This is in addition
to the prestigious green connection and a mobile phone
with, again, unlimited billing.
The minimum average cost
of these telephone facilities, excluding official usage,
has been worked out at Rs50,000. In many cases, the residence
phone bill alone can be Rs50,000. It can go higher in
families that have children living abroad.
VEHICLES: A grade-22 officer
is generally entitled to two vehicles along with drivers,
free fuel and maintenance. But the general practice is
to use as many vehicles as required from the fleet of
vehicles available at the disposal of the officer's ministry
or department.
The family uses them for
shopping and for children to go to school. The older children
are often seen showing off dad's sleek official cars at
popular city hang-outs. The average expenditure of these
vehicles is at least Rs30,000.
Technically, federal secretaries
are not entitled to be paid for utilities like electricity
and gas. But the heads of autonomous bodies and corporations
are. So there lies the loophole.
Almost all federal secretaries
are ex-officio chairmen of one or more autonomous bodies
or corporations. For example, the ministry of petroleum
has the OGDC, the ministry of industries has PICIC and
the ministry of commerce the State Life Corporation under
its wings.
The ministry of Information
has PTV, Radio Pakistan and Shalimar Recording. The average
of utility bills could be Rs40,000 a month. A grade-22
officer is entitled to two servants.
Only the hapless OSDs restrict
themselves to this number. Some grade 22 officers are
said to commandeer as many as 30 servants. A grade-22
officer and his family are entitled to first class medical
treatment.
The list of hospitals on
the panel reserved for them are the country's most expensive.
On average the monthly cost of medical facility could
be around Rs30,000.
TRAVELLING: A grade-22
officer, during official travel, is entitled to a daily
allowance of Rs530 and (multiplied into three) Rs1,590
as hotel accommodation. So how do they justify staying
in five-star hotels? Simple.
Their personal secretary
makes a call to the protocol officer in the respective
city and things get arranged. Nobody, including the audit
people and the NAB authorities, has ever bothered to question
this.
In the case of more lucrative
ministries, like commerce, which has State Life in its
domain, the latter maintains classy rest houses not just
in all major cities but also in Dubai, London and New
York. There is no way that the cost of staying at these
rest houses can be worked out.
The living of grade-22
officers in provinces is even more luxurious. A provincial
chief secretary has his house on 25 kanals that inhabits
a whole colony of servants, including a Dhobighaat.
Some still live like in
the good old days of the Raj with their houses stretching
into acres. They throw parties that become talk of the
town; their children get married in ways that makes even
the richest green with envy.
Interestingly, this is
the story of the legal side of their careers. Most of
what has been mentioned is perfectly legal and there is
hardly anything they can be nabbed for. Of course, there
are anomalies in the system.
For instance, it makes
no sense that the grade-22 officers should have Rs15,000
as house rent whereas they are allowed to use unlimited
amounts on their residential telephone. And then, after
giving them such luxuries, you cannot expect them to live
in a hotel in Rs1,590.
In the meantime, the cost
of general administration continues to balloon to Rs62.9
billion, which is 9.8 per cent of the country's total
expenditure. The GORs are becoming lavisher, their officer
messes more opulent and their golf grounds turning greener
by the day-all of this at the cost of taxpayers who are
sometimes barred even from passing through these GORs,
like it happened in Lahore recently.
