LAHORE: Within the week the Punjab chief secretary allowed honorarium to all administrative secretaries for their “hard work, zeal and commitment”, the chief secretary on Thursday asked them to prepare proposals based on short- and long-term measures to improve governance and service delivery.

Chairing the administrative secretaries’ conference at the civil secretariat, while all divisional commissioners and deputy commissioners were on video link, chief secretary Zahid Akhtar Zaman stressed that the officers should perform their duties with sincerity to resolve people’s problems, adding that poor performance and negligence would not be tolerated in any case.

He directed the deputy commissioners to pay special attention to the DHQ, and THQ hospitals and set a three-day deadline for ensuring better cleanliness and making fully functional all the air-conditioners in the health facilities.

The chief secretary asked the officers to start an operation for retrieving the state land from illegal occupants and take stern action against the land grabbers as per law. He said the use of modern technology was inevitable to enhance the efficiency of the departments, adding that the e-filing and office automation system (E-FOAS) had brought innovation in the working.

Except two, all officials on senior management course made OSDs for ‘focus on training’

Mr Zaman also issued instructions regarding the improvement of parks, repair of faulty water filtration plants and covering of open manholes in districts.

SMC: With the last batch of transfers on Wednesday, the Punjab government has made almost all senior bureaucrats attending their senior management course (SMC) OSDs except secretary to chief minister Sumair Ahmad Syed and administrative secretary Shoaib Amjad serving in the south Punjab secretariat.

The federal government requires that all officers attending SMC or the MCMC [Mid-Career Management Course] for their promotions should be surrendered and made OSD so that they could focus on their training requirements.

However, some bureaucrats continue looking for favours as they neither wanted to surrender postings nor facilities, perks and privileges.

On the other hand, a senior bureaucrat told Dawn that such officers did not justify their postings as they only get time in the evenings to mark their attendance in offices and do some file work.

Punjab chief secretary Zahid Akhtar Zaman did not respond despite repeated messages for his input.

Published in Dawn, June 23rd, 2023