Chief Secretary Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Shahab Ali Shah on Tuesday presided over a meeting of the Secretaries Committee, where he emphasized measures to ensure transparency and responsiveness in the administration of public offices at both the departmental and field levels, including district administrations.
Addressing heads of departments, the Chief Secretary said that complaints from citizens must be treated as a top priority. He stressed that the functioning of departments should not only be transparent but should also be perceived as transparent, with citizens able to feel a direct connection to the process.
On the issue of drinking water quality in the province, the Chief Secretary directed the Local Government Department to bring forward sound proposals for improvement, in addition to the role already being played by the Public Health Engineering Department. He termed water quality the biggest challenge facing the province, adding that addressing it could significantly reduce the disease burden on the population.
The Chief Secretary further instructed departmental heads to focus, alongside routine affairs, on the effective implementation of the Good Governance Roadmap, the District Service Delivery initiative – described as a strategic framework for governance and development – and the Provincial Action Plan on Law and Order.
He directed that heads of departments and district administrations put in place effective complaint redressal mechanisms for the public, coupled with feedback mechanisms to solicit public input, so that citizens have direct access to departments and district administrations for the resolution of their issues and can actively contribute suggestions on service delivery and development matters.
“We have placed 27 departments on the governance roadmap framework, under which more than four thousand activities have been assigned and are being tracked for improvement,” the chief secretary said.
He also underlined the importance of better planning practices, prior preparation and stronger groundwork to ensure financial resources are aligned accordingly and in a timely manner. “As heads of departments, your planning should help the province achieve strategic progress, and it must be supplemented with data and clearly address the needs of the public,” he said.
The meeting was given a detailed presentation on departmental performance in the areas of the Good Governance Roadmap, District Service Delivery, and measures relating to transparency and responsiveness.
The meeting was attended by the Senior Member Board of Revenue, the Additional Chief Secretary (Home), the Additional Chief Secretary (General), and all administrative secretaries.