Apply on merit: In CDA, criteria for jobs is political connections

CDA raising eyebrows among its own officials who accuse the civic agency of blatant political favouritism.

ISLAMABAD:

The recruitment policy of Capital Development Authority (CDA) is raising eyebrows among its own officials who accuse the civic agency of blatant political favouritism.

In its current tenure, the authority has allegedly inducted a large number of officials without following a fair competition formula.

“The authority’s regular employees and aspiring applicants feel deprived and agitated,” said an official.

Employees who were appointed by the CDA on daily wages either had strong links in political circles or an affiliation with CDA’s bosses, sources said. Moreover, influential officials were accommodated against lucrative posts on deputation, while many of them had already been absorbed in the civic agency.

The lists compiled by the authority and available with The Express Tribune reveals that the persons who were engaged with the authority on daily wages against gazetted posts included Dr Hifsa Babar, daughter of Law Minister Dr Babar Awan, who was recruited against the post of Medical Officer in BS-17 on December 12, 2009. Sons of various political leaders including Senator Maula Bux Chandio, former prime minister of Azad Jamu Kashmir Sardar Sikandar Hayat and former minister Najmuddin were also among them.

According to the record, during the period January 1, 2008 to January 31, 2011 the civic agency appointed a total of 2,266 persons. Out of them, 1,506 persons were appointed on permanent basis, 151 on contractual basis, while 607 were engaged on daily wages basis.

Out of these 607 daily wagers, one person was engaged against the post of BS-18, nine against BS-17, 22 against BS-16, 31 against BS-14 and the rest from grade 1 to 13. According to the CDA Ordinance, a daily wager is to be appointed for 89 days and his/her services is automatically terminated after this period. But it happened rarely in these cases, as the people extended their services for another tenure.

Four appointments were made in Accounts office of the authority against grade-17 that raised eyebrows among many permanent officials of the authority. They raised the concern that precious record in the accounts office could be tampered with. “It is strange how the chairman CDA gave control of financial matters of the authority in the hands of daily wagers,” top officials of the authority told The Express Tribune.

Similarly, CDA had received thousands of applications for various posts including assistant director, upper division clerks, assistants, sub-engineers and doctors last year after the authority advertised in the press. “The CDA human resource department also conducted tests and interviews of these candidates but did not make any appointments so far,” sources inside CDA informed The Express Tribune.  Director Human Resources Department Safdar Ali refused to comment on the issue.

The chairman CDA enjoys discretionary powers to engage anyone against any post either gazetted or non-gazetted keeping in view the shortage of staffers. However, a few days ago, the chairman CDA acknowledged before a standing sub-committee of the Upper House of Cabinet Secretariat that such appointments were made purely on political references.

CDA spokesperson Ramzan Sajid, when contacted, said CDA had appointed a small number of people on daily wages. He denied nepotism on CDA’s part and claimed that all appointments were made on merit. Responding to a question, Sajid said, “In the recent board meeting, CDA Chairman Imtiaz Inayat Elahi observed that no summary should be forwarded in future for absorption of the officials working on deputations,” he informed.

An official told The Express Tribune that efforts were going on to regularise services of a contracted official on a recently created post of deputy director. “This is in clear violation of the rules and regulations of the authority,” he said.

He added that at least five officials of BPS-18 were serving in the authority without any posting. “We are considering filing an appeal to the Chief Justice of Pakistan to take suo moto notice of irregularities in the civic body,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 10^th, 2011.