Nepotism, favouritism order of day in hiring daily wagers of CDA

Inquiry committee recommends legal action, scrutiny of documents of officials

ISLAMABAD: Gross irregularities were committed in hiring staff on contractual and daily wage officers of the Capital Development Authority (CDA), a probe committee has discovered.

A three-member inquiry committee, constituted to probe into the employment of basic pay scale grade (BPS)-16 to BPS-18 officers hired on contract and daily wages was headed by Sector Development Director Hamayun Akhtar,  and comprised Forest Deputy Director Rana Tahir Khan and HRD-III Deputy Director Abdul Manan Khan.

The inquiry committee was tasked with conducting a detailed physical inspection and take stock of the ground situation of engaging daily wagers and contractual employees hired between January 1, 2011, to December 31, 2012. The committee had been further mandated to determine what kind of irregularities were committed by the officers while engaging daily wagers and contractual employees. Moreover, it was told to determine the physical status of Marghzar Zoo in the capital and whether the project was completed.

Apart from determining the issues, the committee was told to fix responsibility on officers found committing gross irregularities.

In its probe, the committee found 15 cases where employees hired did not meet the minimum qualification, lack of course in 26 cases, lack of experience in 17 cases, while files for six posts created were not provided to the inquiry committee.

Further, the committee found that 45 people had been appointed purely on the basis of favouritism, one by tampering with the records, and there were six cases of nepotism.

The inquiry committee detected more than one violation in many cases. The probe revealed that between 2010 and 2012, daily wage appointments were made on pick and choose basis.

On the other hand, some people were appointed on daily wage basis in BPS-16 to BPS-18 grade even though the applicants had only submitted their curriculum vitae to the authority without applying for any particular post.

In technical cadres such as the Engineering Wing, where appointees must either possess a bachelors degree in telecommunication or electronics apart from being registered with the Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC) as a telecom or electronics engineer. However, some had been appointed in the Electrical and Mechanical  (E&M) Directorate where the appointee was required to have a bachelors degree in electrical with a major in power.

In some cases, the  Departmental Recruitment Committee (DRC) conducted the interview of a single candidate and the committee unanimously recommended them employment without pointing out any discrepancy.

The committee also found discrepancies in appointments under PM’s Assistance Package as well.

The inquiry committee further discovered that a quota for employing children, which amounts to 20 per cent as per CDA Service Regulations, was vagrantly misused while regularization directions from the Cabinet sub-committee on Regularization were ignored. The committee recommended that notifications for the appointment of daily wage employees not meeting basic eligibility criteria on a pick-and-choose basis in June 2009 should be denotified.

The inquiry committee further recommended that the credentials of daily wage employees noted in the report should be scrutinised as per CDA rules. Moreover, the experience certificates of these officers should also be scrutinized by specially constituted committee.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 14^th, 2017.