CM’s Secretariat: Section officers fume after official cars are withdrawn

Officials seeking transfers after losing ‘biggest secretariat perk’.

LAHORE:

The Chief Minister’s Secretariat has withdrawn 18 official vehicles from section officers in a bid to cut costs, but the move has caused resentment among the junior officers, The Express Tribune has learnt.

Over 150 official vehicles are in use at the Chief Minister’s Secretariat by the chief minister, political figures sitting at the Secretariat and officers assisting with official work.

Many officials criticised the decision to withdraw the official vehicles to section officers, saying that the coordinators, political assistants, special assistants and consultants at the secretariat got official vehicles and other resources but contributed little. Even assistant comptrollers were using official vehicles they were not entitled to. Section officers, on the other hand, were the backbone of any department and worked all day on their assignments, the officials said.

Some section officers have written to the secretary to the chief minister complaining that the withdrawal of official vehicles has made their jobs more difficult and they are looking for a posting elsewhere.

The motor transport officer (MTO), on the directions of the secretary to the chief minister, issued a circular in the first week of July to ask all section officers to surrender their official vehicles. In the future, one official car would be assigned to pick and drop three section officers to the secretariat. Twenty-four section officers work at the secretariat and they would be allowed eight vehicles. Following these directions, 18 officers have surrendered their vehicles to the transport pool.

Many complained that having to share cars with other officers created a host of coordination issues, as they usually finished at different hours and this often meant that officers were left waiting in the office for the car.

“Private conveyance is too expensive and public transport too time consuming,” said an official. “Surrendering these vehicles may help save one or two million a year but the political persons sitting in the chief minister’s secretariat as coordinator or political assistant are costing the government millions per month without any benefit,” he added.

Several officials said that getting an official vehicle was one of the major attractions of working at the Secretariat, the downside being the late hours. “Now the cars have been withdrawn, the job is not as attractive,” he said.

A senior official requesting anonymity said the surrendered vehicles would be sent back to the Services and General Administration Department.

He said more vehicles could be withdrawn as over three dozen vehicles were being used by officials who weren’t entitled to them.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 8^th, 2011.