Umpteenth attempt: CDA forms two committees to verify staffers’ degrees

Previous plans to validate qualifications have ended without results.


Danish Hussain July 04, 2014

ISLAMABAD:


The incumbent Capital Development Authority (CDA) management has met the same fate as its predecessor’s in its efforts to verify the educational credentials of the civic agency’s 18,000 employees.


After failing to complete the degree verification exercise in the first attempt, the incumbent management is now contemplating to evolve a comprehensive mechanism to undertake the “gigantic exercise” successfully.

As questions continue to be raised over the presence of fake degree holders in the civic agency, the CDA administration wing has formed two committees to conduct verification of educational credentials of around 18,000 of the authority’s employees.



A circular has also been issued asking officials and officers of the authority to submit their degrees to the committees for verification from respective educational boards or the Higher Education Commission (HEC).

According to the notification, a committee headed by the CDA HRD-II director is mandated to collect degrees from officials in grades one through 16 and daily wage employees, while the secretary CDA board will head the second committee responsible for degree verification of officers of grade 17 and above.

There are currently 12,000 regular employees in grade 1 to 16, another 3,000 on daily wage basis, and around 3,000 of grade 17 and above working in the authority.

The officials have been asked to submit degrees within a month, according to the notification. It also states that appropriate action will be taken against officials failing to comply with the directions in the stipulated time.



“The exercise is not simple. The CDA will be holding meetings with representatives of the HEC and various educational boards to discuss the issue and find the best possible solution to complete the exercise successfully,” said CDA Administration Member Amir Ali Ahmad.

Ahmad informed that the parent departments of officers on deputation in the authority will be asked to verify the degrees of their officers.

History of questionable qualifications

This is not the first time the authority has issued a circular regarding degree verification of its employees.

In October, 2012, the cabinet division asked city managers to verify the credentials of their employees after news of induction of a high number of under-qualified employees emerged. It was alleged that most of those inductions in the previous government’s tenure were political appointments.

On October 23, 2012, the CDA board decided that degree verification for the authority’s employees should be completed within a month, but that deadline is well-past.

The previous management of the authority issued four circulars within a period of one year asking officials to submit their degrees with CDA, but the previous management failed to complete the exercise despite making special allocations for the purpose.

The incumbent CDA management had also issued a similar circular intending to verify degrees but the objective could not materialise.

During the past week, the Federal Investigation Agency registered an FIR against some CDA officials who inducted an official on dubious educational qualifications in 2010.

Ahmad said even though the exercise is a massive one, the authority “is optimistic that this time around, the process will be completed successfully.”

Published in The Express Tribune, July 4th, 2014.

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