NAB request for change of employee status rejected

Govt says the anti-graft buster would lose independence if its employees were declared as civil servants

ISLAMABAD:

The government has rejected the National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) summary wherein the anti-corruption watchdog had requested it to declare its employees as civil servants, saying by doing so the anti-graft buster will not act as an independent institution and that its chairman will no more be its head.

A letter by the Ministry of Law stated that employees of the NAB were governed by the terms and conditions of service, 2002, adding that it was constituted by an Act of Parliament in 1999.

It noted that the purpose for which the national graft-buster was constituted required its independence.

“Their employees are enjoying much higher opportunities and privileges than civil servants of various occupational groups,” the letter stated.

“Further no cogent reasons have been mentioned by the NAB which satisfies the need to declare them, being only one institution, as one of the Occupational Group of Civil Service,” it added.

The law ministry maintained that NAB would no more act as an independent institution and work under some ministry or division if it was declared an occupational group of the civil service.

It was further said that the terms and conditions, pay, allowances and privileges of the anti-corruption watchdog employees would be same as admissible to the civil servants of other occupational groups if the request was adhered to.

The law ministry stated that the NAB chairman would no more be the head of the institution as well as the principal accounting officer in such a case.