The targeted austerity

LAHORE: Masses are confronted with never-say-die hardships. The flood victims are not the only ones in distress, an equal number of poor outside flood regions are living in abject misery. Pakistan may face more tragedies if their issues remain unresolved.

So it will have to think about cutting its expenses in smart way to free up funds for spending where they are needed the most.

There is no option but to make sincere efforts to mitigate the difficulties of the common man. We lack resources to resolve all the issues quickly. The planners must prioritise the problems that need immediate resolution.

They must create funds for this purpose from the available finances. Here again the economic managers must do an extensive exercise to prioritise the expenses that could be avoided in the current scenario. For instance, there should be an immediate ban on purchase or lease of new vehicles, the use of electricity in offices (not hospitals) must be cut.

The air conditioners must not operate for more than 4 hours per day. The purchase of furniture and fixtures should be stopped. Even the ministers or executives that are entitled to new furniture must be asked to instead select the furniture used by their predecessors. The use of stationery in offices should be discouraged. The government must go for paperless communications. It would also bring transparency in governance.

The state must fix targets for reduction in corruption just like it fixes targets for revenue collection. The prevalence of bribes in government departments is well-known.

The planners should take aim at specific bribes within a department and take strict administrative measures to eliminate them through technology. For instance, if someone requires an NOC (no objection certificate) from a government department, he/she must be provided with a list of documents and fees required.

Technology must ensure that every applicant provides those documents electronically. The NOC must be issued within 24 hours to the applicant.

This practice could be replicated gradually to all other departments to ease pressure on the public (bureaucrats currently feel no pressure as they issue NOC on speed money).

The flood affected population needs shelter, food and healthcare and resources must be carved out to address these issues as soon as possible. The poor living in non-flood affected areas need adequate food and healthcare as they have arranged some kind of shelter. They should be provided food items through targeted subsidies.

The healthcare facilities must be improved through administrative measures and transparency. The health budget of all provinces are enough to provide major healthcare free of cost to the poor if budgets are transparently consumed.

These steps would merely mitigate the urgent problems of the citizens that concern their hunger and health. We must devise medium-term and long-term irrevocable policies to create jobs for the destitute.

First step in this regard must be to ensure appointments on all key and regulatory posts on merit. The rulers or the bureaucracy must not have any discretion to condone the age or qualification for a job or bypass the appointment process.

The regulators must be empowered and their decisions could only be stalled by a two-third majority of the parliament.

No single person could reject the summaries for increase/decrease in petroleum, gas, or power rates evaluated on the given parameters by each regulator. The government would not get the flak or credit for these changes made transparently by the regulators.