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Punjab government to offer 5 PhD scholarships to
civil servants
* CM’s Secretariat reserves two out of five seats for DMG officers
By Anwer Hussain Sumra
LAHORE: The Punjab government will sponsor five PhD scholarships in
foreign universities fin the next academic session for the capacity
building of civil servants in policy making.
Sources told Daily Times the Chief Minister’s Secretariat had
allocated Rs 15.7 million in the next financial year 2009-10 to
initiate the scheme for civil servants serving in the province. They
said the scholarships were originally meant for officers of the
provincial services (PCS, PMS and PSS), but the CM’s Secretariat had
now reserved two of the five scholarships for officers of the
District Management Group (DMG).
BS-18 officers less than 42 years in age, with a Masters degree from
a foreign university, would be eligible for the scholarships, the
sources said.
The Planning and Development Board (P&D), in the second week of May,
moved a summary to the CM stating that the government was hiring the
services of professionals with doctorates as consultants in
formulating policies. The sources said the summary stated that the
consultants cost the government a hefty amount, and lacked empirical
knowledge of the local dynamics of delivering services to the
people. These consultants often relied heavily on foreign methods of
formulating policies. They completed the task at hand and did not
leave any mechanism to follow the results.
The sources said the P&D observed that in order to create a pool of
qualified and professional policymakers in the province, it was
worthwhile to consider a scheme of PhD scholarships for civil
servants. The P&D recommended that the scholarships must be offered
to a select group of civil servants on a highly competitive basis.
The P&D recommended that these civil servants should already have a
Masters degree in disciplines related to economic and social uplift
from foreign universities.
The CM referred the summary to the Finance Department for comments.
The department observed that the scholarships should not only be
limited to economics or social policy areas, and other disciplines
like transport planning and management, financial management, urban
planning and development, and human resource management should also
be included. The Finance Department recommended the improvement of
eligibility criteria in view of the existing educational profile,
age bracket, grades, length of service and service cadres, the
sources said.
The sources said the CM’s Secretariat observed that the programme
was specifically meant for policymakers, and only civil servants
working on policy formulation should benefit from it. The
secretariat reserved two of the scholarships for DMG officers, on
the condition that they would return and serve the province for
eight years. The sources said the decision was not strange as the
top civil administration was packed with DMG officers.
A number of officers alleged that the DMG officers got a lot of such
opportunities from the federal government, donor agencies and
foreign countries, but the provincial cadre had no such openings.
Daily Times: June 9, 2009 |
