Workforce: Govt steps up to address LG staff shortage

Schedule of Establishment in two out of nine divisions completed.

LAHORE: Staff shortage in the new local government set up will soon be overcome as the Directorate of Monitoring and Inspection has sprung into action. The authority is preparing lists for the allocation of the necessary manpower, The Express Tribune has learnt.

Under the local government set up, introduced on 2 January, all seats such as executive district officers, district officers, deputy district officers and others have been dissolved. The new setup also absolved the towns created in cities and districts. Instead, seats for municipal officers were created to facilitate the local bodies system.

These MO’s, five in cities and four in the district council, are operating with the staff of the old set up, thus affecting performance.

Municipal officers in Lahore disclose they are unable to even perform routine tasks due to the shortage. An official says the entire workload of the old town set up and EDOs has fallen on the shoulders of MOs, but many of them are forced to defer these tasks for a later time. Requesting anonymity, he adds the staff of the district government, especially towns, is waiting to be posted to the new set up.

He says town municipal officers, an active and a powerful post of the old set up, were only asked to look over the sale of tomatoes by the Lahore mayor. The official adds this is the only exercise they conducted under the local government act.

He says the now defunct TMOs have been placed at the disposal of mayors and chairmen.

Sargodha District Chairman Sardar Asim says these concerns have been communicated to the authorities. He says other problems, such as the absence of zones, also hampered workings. He hopes that these problems will soon be resolved, saying glitches are understandable in new set ups.

DG Monitoring and Inspection Masud Tamana discloses that they have already completed allocations legally known as the Schedule of Establishment (SOE) in two out of nine divisions in total.

He adds the others will be complete in the coming days. He says once completed, the SOE will be notified by the Secretary LG&CD for the entire province. Tamana states the government’s priority is to make the new system properly functional. He adds staffers have been given to MOs under the interim set up to keep offices operational.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 6^th, 2017.