Earlier this week, Prime Minister Imran Khan announced the 10 best-performing ministers of the federal cabinet, with the Minister for Communications, Murad Saeed, claiming the top spot.
Murad Saeed emerging as the best performing minister raised a lot of eyebrows as the public started questioning the criteria on which the performance of each minister has been gauged.
The federal government has publicized a document titled “Delivering Results Performance Agreement 2021-23,” detailing the goals of all ministries and divisions for FY 2021-22 and FY 2022-23. The document also gives insight into the process of selecting the top ministry as well.
According to the document, after assuming office, Prime Minister Imran Khan launched a new performance management system that brought the entire federal government together through one implementation tool: Performance Agreements.
The tool is simple, flexible, and agile enough to allow all ministries to plan, set targets, review, and improve along the way. All ministries have been ranked on the basis of the achievement of these goals.
Performance Agreements for only pilot ministries were prepared for a six-month period from January to June 2020. The federal cabinet met in July 2020 and approved the Performance Agreements, expanding the tool to all ministries.
For the FY 2020-21, a total of 40 ministries and divisions prepared their agreements. Over 1300 reform, policy, development, and administrative initiatives were chosen for delivery through 6000 targets identified on a quarterly basis. For these targets, over 1700 interministerial dependencies were tracked.
Murad Saeed and Ministry for Communications achieved almost all of their agreements for the FY 2020-21, which is why PM Imran Khan crowned him as top-ranking minister of the federal cabinet earlier this week.
Other countries have also followed a similar model to varying degrees to gauge institutional performance over time. Other than OECD countries, in Asia, a similar system has been used in Bangladesh, China, South Korea, and Sri Lanka.
