New rules won’t let plea bargain official off the hook

Govt announces reforms to improve performance of bureaucracy and state institutions

ISLAMABAD:

The government on Wednesday announced a new set of reforms to improve performance of the bureaucracy and state institutions and ensuring transparent and effective internal accountability of the officials and bring efficiency and discipline to their service.

Sharing the details at a press conference, Education and Professional Training Minister Shafqat Mahmood said that for the first time, plea bargain and voluntary return had been included in the definition of misconduct and the civil servants involved in them would now be proceeded against.

He said the reforms were introduced in Civil Servants, Promotion (BS 18-21) Rules, Civil Servants (Retirement from Service) Rules, Efficiency and Discipline Rules, Revised MP Scale Policy, Rotation Policy, and Rationalisation of Cadre Strengthen-Induction in the Pakistan Administration Service (PAS).

Mahmood, who is also heading the Cabinet Committee on Institutional Reforms, said that considering the importance of the matter, the Prime Minister's Office had been directly involved in the process, adding Prime Minister Imran Khan had approved these Civil Servants (E&D) Rules.

“Under the new rules, inquiry against government officials will have to be decided within around 105 days – 14 days for submission of response, 60 days to inquiry committee and 30 days to authority to decide the case,” the minister told reporters.

“Earlier, no timeframe was fixed to conclude the proceedings, as a result cases lingered on for years,” the minister said. “Opportunity of personal hearing will also be provided by the authority or hearing officer,” he added.

The minister revealed that for the first time, plea bargain and voluntary return had been included in the definition of misconduct and the civil servants involved in them would now be proceeded against. “It is not possible to pardon a person [just because] he admits the allegations,” he added.

According to the minister, one of the main features of the rules is that in case of inquiry, the case will be heard by the ‘authority, ‘inquiry officer’ or a ‘committee’ instead of any ‘authorised officer’, who is assigned to decide the issue.

Mahmood said that it had been seen that whenever an officer, but not the authority, was assigned to hold any inquiry, the officer usually disposed of the matter either by awarding minor punishment or caving under some influence or pressure. “Now, the authority will have to decide the case in 30 days.”

In order to expedite the inquiry process, the tier of authorised officer has also been eliminated, leaving only two tiers – the authority and inquiry officer/committee. Timelines have been introduced at every step of the proceedings.

The procedural issues relating to provision of record, slackness on part of departmental representatives, suspension and proceedings against officers on deputation/leave/scholarship have also been clearly provided in the new rules.

The rules state that the Establishment Division has been authorised to issue subsidiary instructions to avoid any delay in finalising the inquiries. In case of multiple suspects in a single case, restriction of appointing a single inquiry officer has been imposed to avoid different decisions in a single case.

Similarly, the minister said that promotion of an officer could also be deferred If the inquiry, investigation or reference was pending in the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) or the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).

However, promotion can now be recommended in cases related to sub judice seniority and disciplinary or criminal cases pending for more than three years, he added, explaining the silent features of the rules for the promotion of the civil servants.

Mahmood said that the powers of the appointing authority had been categorically defined. He said that revised weightages had been notified which included Performance Evaluation Reports (PERs) 40%, training 30% and evaluation by boards 30%.

For retirement from service, he added that the composition of retirement boards/committee have been finalised, including the chairman of the Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC) from BS-20 and above, secretary from BS-17 to BS-19, Senior joint secretary from BS-16 and below.

(WITH INPUT FROM APP)