Another Face Of Success “NADRA”

Despite daunting odds, some institutions in Pakistan have managed to succeed and effectively deliver core services, earn legitimacy in the eyes of the citizenry and forge resilience in the face of an otherwise tumultuous and prohibitive operational context, which proves after a long demonstration that there are certain organizations, which can show effectiveness in the face of overall dismal and unfortunate picture of Pakistan. But when we are referring towards success which dimensions we are talking about that made these organizations called to be successful?

Dimensions of Success

Dimensions of Success are as under:-

1.       Results:

Achievement of organization key objectives, outputs, or outcomes.

2.       Legitimacy:

In accessing legitimacy, the focus was given to both “output legitimacy” (what the organization does, or its outward performance and the perceived quality of services delivered) and “Procedural Legitimacy” (How institutions functions, or quality of its operational procedures that enable it to achieve success).

3.       Sustainability/Resilience:

An institution that is durable and resilient, can sustain and improve results over time and can adapt to changing circumstances, can anticipate new challenges, and can cope with exogenous shocks. 

Fortunately, these key dimensions of success are interlinked. An entity’s “legitimacy” is somehow dependent on the “results” or achievement of its key objectives. And similarly, more “resilient” institutions can earn legitimacy and achieve results.

Also, successful organizations choose the following general determinants by taking into account the above-mentioned 3 dimensions for maintaining their success in a de-stable environment (like Pakistan):-

1.       Successful organizations have a well-defined mission which is translated into proper outcomes or results.

2.       Successful organizations can attract and deploy skilled labor or staff.

3.       Continuity of leadership and management.

4.       Financially autonomous.

5.       Good internal communications and employees’ participation.

6.       Strong and visionary leadership.

7.       Building learning organizations.

8.       Results-oriented organizational culture and cohesive identity.

9.       Ability to cope with political pressures.

10.   Displaying results to mobilize support.

\     From the nine generally regarded as successful public and private institutions in Pakistan having both earlier mentioned general dimensions and determinants of success stated by Syed Turab Hussain in his well-written piece of paper named “Candles in the Dark”, NADRA (National Database & Registration Authority) is also one of the excellent successful entity from them which thrives day by day even with the uncertain environment in Pakistan.

 

NADRA (National Database & Registration Authority)

(Historical Background)

 

NADRA (National Database and Registration Authority) is an autonomously run and constitutionally established public agency in Pakistan. NADRA was established as an attached department known as “NDO” (National Database Organization), under the Ministry of Interior (MOI), Government of Pakistan, in 1998 (approximately about 24 years back). Later in March 2000, the NDO and Directorate General of Registration were merged to form one entity called “NADRA” with a mission statement well written NADRA ordinance 2000 states:

“To introduce new, improved and modernized systems of registration, databases, and data warehousing for the country with their multiple beneficial uses and applications to achieve effective and efficient running of the affairs of the State and the general public.”  

In 2006, NADRA’s mission statement was revised to include its commercial aspect with the establishment of National Swift Registration Centers (NSRC’s) and Mobile Registration Vehicles (MRV’s) enabled NADRA to undertake large public sector projects. Revised mission statement 2006 states that:

“To create and maintain a secure, authentic, and dynamic database that comprehensively covers the demographic, geographic, social and statistical aspects of the citizens of Pakistan, and provide to our own and foreign governments effective homeland security solutions and assistance in good governance.  We shall develop ourselves as a “learning organization” in a culture that fosters creativity, innovation, commitment, dedication, continuous improvement, and a desire to excel its employees.”

Why was NADRA inevitable?

Before the establishment of NADRA, data collection was handled manually, resulting in inefficiency and inaccuracy. The registration did not have an auditing system and the volume-based incentives resulted in a high risk of faulty data entries by the agents.

Dynamics Behind A Successful Entity

NADRA is a successful institution, thriving not only in domestic activities but also in international projects due to certain factors:

 

1.       Unequivocal mission statement:

NADRA’s mission as laid down in its 2000 ordinance and also in the revised vision statement of 2006 is very clear, specific and achievable. It is not burdened with peripheral objectives that could distract it from achieving its core objectives.

 

2.       Adaptability and seamless evolution:

NADRA has exhibited a remarkable ability to adjust to and take advantage of, evolving circumstances. As indicated earlier, a year after its establishment, it transformed the business model of registration based on manual data collection, followed by single data entry for automation. Software development and integration were also undertaken within the agency. In the case of multi-biometric passports, the agency was venturing into uncharted territory. The entire technology was developed in-house. The organization took a calculated risk and succeed.

3.       Attention to customer care and learning:

While there are occasional complaints about the quality of NADRA’s service, it has placed heavy reliance on customer care and responsiveness. It eliminated the need for presenting ID documents and facilitated a one-window operation by enabling customers to simply walk in and get registered. It devised a token system for queuing to serve customers on a first-come and first-served basis. All these measures have led to a cultural change towards customer service.

4.       Relatively young and competent staff:

NADRA has been blessed with an effective workforce, which is young, dynamic, non-bureaucratic, entrepreneurial, and sees change as a perpetual fact of life at the workplace.

Staff work under overall long-term objectives, but are also devising short-term solutions and firefighting on a day-to-day basis. NADRA has also the most computer-literate workforce in the country.

5.       Leadership and management style:

NADRA’s top leadership has been strong and involved, which makes the NADRA entity balance a democratic culture and an autocratic style of leadership. NADRA also has retired senior military officials in its management who follow a more hierarchical structure and approach in some of the departments. On the other hand, other departments exhibit participative styles of management and are marked by flatter organizations. These 2 management styles abide side by side under the overall leadership of the chairman.

6.       Entrepreneurial and risk-taking spirit:

A more commercial, proactive and business-oriented approach pervades in the technical and management portions of NADRA. Risk-taking is encouraged. At the same time, the control systems are very tight and help in bringing visibility and transparency into processes and procedures.

Periodic Achievements/Developments of NADRA

·         By taking into account manual handling as a problem and for the insurance of quality data entry, NADRA introduced double-entry operators at random. In the case of inconsistency between the operators, the query is moved to a third operator for the final data entry.   

·         Through the establishment of NSRCs throughout the country, the concept of a “live, interactive data entry” was introduced, which helped the largely uneducated population of Pakistan and for the reduction of bribes and corruption by agents.

·         Induction of MRVs to cover the applicants of remote areas.

·         Focus on in-house competence development for decreasing the load of outsourcing of data warehousing and project management and networking.

·         More focus was given to software development and software integration with the change of leadership in 2001, which made NADRA the most literate public service entity in Pakistan.

·         NADRA helped in changing the bill payment culture of the general public by reducing corrupt middlemen bill collectors by introducing the E-Sahulat app as the latest product contributing towards e-governance.

·         In face of the perpetually precarious budgetary situation of the country, NADRA has successfully managed to become a financially self-reliant entity that survives off its operating revenues.  

·         There is also a system of auditing NADRA staff’s staff to track revenue collection.

·         NADRA launched National Cash Remittances Program with the collaboration of the H&H Exchange Program in 2012 which has enabled Pakistani citizens to receive funds safely, easily, and on time. Those who are expecting remitted money can visit pre-designed NADRA outlets to receive and transfer money after taking confirmation of identity from the customer’s identity card.

·         NADRA outbid some of the strongest companies in the international homeland sector in a challenging competition to secure the contract for supply, installation and commissioning of the Passport Issuing System.

Enterprise Solutions & Services

Collaborating with the corporate world to harness technology for the growth and safety of the World.

Solutions

Secure Documents

E-Governance

Security & Surveillance

Multi-Biometric Identity Management

Civil Registration

Personnel Access Control

Multi-Biometric Passport

Integrated Border Management

Vehicle Access Control

Computerized Arms License

Voter’s Management

Intelligent Video Surveillance

E-cards (Health)

Social Protection

Safe City

 

Services

1.       Consultancy & Advisory

2.       Enterprise Software Development

3.       System Integration

4.       Data Warehousing

5.       Project Management

6.       Financial Services

 

 

Identity Documents

Apply for your identity document at any time from anywhere and get it delivered to your doorstep.


NADRA On-Going Local Projects In Pakistan

NADRA has been bookmarked as an expert enterprise solution provider, all around the world.


Left Over Challenges To NADRA

Despite being a vital player in the application of identification systems, technology and socio-economic environment, NADRA is facing some challenges, the resolution of which will determine the sustainability and more success of the entity.


Challenge No # 01

The organization has expanded rapidly, employing close to 18,000 staff in approximately 800 fixed and mobile offices. This expansion has not been accomplished by staff training and capacity building, resulting in erosion of skills.

 

Challenge No # 02

Missing of institutionalization of the operations on a systematic basis to ensure the sustainability of achievements beyond the tenure of leadership. Unfortunately, the seat of chairman witnesses continuous instability due to changing of the person after a short interval of time, and fortunately the second-tier management (Director Generals) has witnessed more stability of tenure, which has helped with institutional memory.

 

Challenge No # 03

Politicization of leadership is another big challenge for NADRA, as in the aftermath of the 2013 elections and allegations of possible irregularities, this fine line was crossed by certain statements of the previous chairman. The leadership of NADRA must strictly refrain from getting entangled in political matters.

 

Challenge No # 04

Another challenge relates to the organization’s financial situation, as during the Pakistan People’s Party government, the organization received important financial inflows from BISP and UN agencies. However, these are not the core services, which can improve the financial stability of NADRA. Even since 2005, there has been no financial support from the federal government, and the rising expenditures have started to eat into the profit margins.

 

Challenge No # 05

Sizeable decrease in the salaries of employees (especially of technical staff), due to 95% regularization of staff, caused nonfunctioning of a sliding scale structure as per applied before this regularization for the strength of NADRA.

 

 

 

Who we are?

&

What are we going to do?

 

As a proudly responsible citizenry of Pakistan with an aspiration of creating reforms and change, we the four undergraduate students of the 6th semester (Morning shift) from the Department of Governance and Public Policy under the noble supervision of Respected Dr. Athar Rashid from the National University of Modern languages, Islamabad are going to join hands together to put an effort towards address and reform all the above-mentioned and several hidden challenges, from which NADRA is currently struggling to move out to become a more durable and sustainable entity.       

 

Why to do so?

Because we are intending to be more practically perform our this 3 credit hours subject named “PUBLIC SECTOR REFORMS AND SOCIAL CHANGE” with the help of an opportunity created by our supervisor (Dr. Athar Rashid), rather than just learning from the literature review and theory available on NADRA.  

 

How to do it?

·         Taking on board all the stakeholders to our proposed NADRA Reforms Project.

·         Tried to arrange in-face meetings with higher officials of NADRA for the redress of all our concerns.

·         Webinars will be arranged with the appropriate persons relevant to suggest reforms for our project.

·         In-face suggestions with online suggestion polls for reforms are also part of our project.

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  References

  1. Syed Turab Hussain, Mahmood Ali Ayub (2016). “Candles in the Dark. Weak Institutional Environment, Part-1 (1): 1 – 15”
  2. Syed Turab Hussain, Mahmood Ali Ayub (2016). “Candles in the Dark. General Determinants of Success, Part-1 (2): 15 – 30”
  3. Syed Turab Hussain, Mahmood Ali Ayub (2016). “Candles in the Dark. National Data Base and Registration Authority, Part-2 (7): 109 – 122”
  4.  https://www.nadra.gov.pk/

 Written by:

Abdul Moeed Awan

Muhammad Hassan

Zaynab Tahira

Ahmad Faraz

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Comments

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