THE recent appointment of a retired bureaucrat as the managing director of the Sindh Education Foundation (SEF) is yet another example of a persistent trend in public-sector governance: the recycling of former civil servants into key leadership roles. The appointment took place a few months ago on a post thathas afour-year contractualtenure.
Apparently, due competitive process was followed. There were 92 applicants and only 12 were shortlisted. The advertisement for the said post, however, intriguingly required that the candidate`s age at the time of application should be between 55 years and 61 years. This specific age criterion strongly suggested that the hiring authorities had a particularindividual in mind.
Across the world, dynamic, energetic and talented leaders heading major organisations arein their 30s and 40s.
By imposing this age restriction, younger candidates were effectively excluded from the selection process. The practice of hiring familiar faces on a full time, nine-to-five job for years immediately aftertheir retirement actually contradicts the very rationale of the government`s own retirement policy. Unfortunately, the system tends to favour connections and loyalty over competence. As a result, the loopholesin the selection process are manipulated to bring back the favourite bureaucrats.
The retiredbureaucrats are seen as tested, pliable and obedient. Rather than feeling compelled to broaden institutional vision or strengthen internal accountability, they often tend to find enough reasons to prioritise appeasement over public service.
