Training authority: Recruitment rules, procedures violated

Tevta re-employs seven officials that had been either fired or had retired.

LAHORE: The Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority (Tevta) re-employed seven officials that had been either fired or had retired.

Two of the seven officials had been earlier fired by the chairman over misconduct and poor performance while five were re-employed after they reached the age of superannuation.

According to an authority official, the hiring of the officials also defied the ‘merit policy’ advocated by the Punjab government. “The officials were hired without following the proper procedure, which includes advertising the posts to invite applications,” he added.

According to Tevta recruitment rules, a committee interviews the candidates and decide on the most suitable person for an appointment. The Tevta chairman, Saeed Alvi, fired manager (Accreditation) Muhammad Nadeem Arif Durrani on October 7, 2010. However, Durrani was awarded a one-year contract on October 27, 2010 as manager (Monitoring and Evaluation) of the Operation Wing.

In the second such appointment, the chairman fired Zahir J Paracha, general manager (Academics) on March 18, 2010. Paracha was re-appointed in June 2010 after Alvi withdrew the termination notification. Paracha was also given a 180-day ex-Pakistan leave.

Javed Iqbal Malik, general manager (Academics) whose contractual appointment was to expire on April 1, 2010 was given a one-year extension in March, 2010. Muhammad Tahir Malhi, manager (Legal) retired on August 8, 2010 but was granted a two-year appointment. The authority also re-employed Sheikh Farooq Ahmed, an engineer of the Communication and Works Department, in December 2009. He was posted as projects adviser on contract. Ahmed had retired in November 2009.

Saeed Ahmed manager (Human Resources) who is scheduled to retire in March has also been offered a three-year contractual extension. Muhammad Iqbal Shah, the chairman’s private secretary, who retired during the first week of January, has also been re-employed for a three-year period, on contract.

Mustafa Kamal Pasha, spokesperson for Tevta told The Express Tribune that the rules permitted the authority to re-engage the services of any employee after he retired. He added that contracts had been awarded to terminated officials “in order to judge their performance”. He refused to elaborate any further. The people who were re-hired or given extensions also refused to comment when contacted.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 26^th, 2011.