NAB refuses offer letters to FPSC candidates

Graft buster says new appointments not needed; candidates allege discrimination

ISLAMABAD:

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has refused to issue offer letters to 13 assistant directors, who successfully passed a competitive examination conducted by the Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC), forcing them to allege discrimination.

According to sources, NAB claims that its decision stems from reduction in its workload because of the recent amendments to the NAB law. However, the affected candidates claim that this explanation contradicts several crucial facts.

The matter had now been referred to the office of the president by both the sides. NAB sent the summary to the president on Sept 27 for the cancellation of the new appointments, while the 13 affected candidates also wrote a letter to President Arif Alvi, urging his to intervene in the matter.

In their submission to the president, the candidates argued that NAB's decision to suspend the recommendations of the FPSC set a dangerous precedent and undermined the very foundation of merit-based appointments in the country.

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In 2017, it has been stated that the Supreme Court ordered that all appointments in NAB should be made through the FPSC.
Consequently, the FPSC issued an advertisement, seeking applications for 55 posts of assistant directors in NAB.

The candidates said that they sat the commission exams in Sept 2020. In Oct 2021, they submitted their documents and took psychological tests.

After that, the list of 54 successful candidates was published in Nov 2022. However, among those 54 successful candidates, 14 chose not to join the services, while NAB issued offer letters to the rest for joining the job. On Feb 20, NAB sought 14 more candidates of the FPSC to fill the vacancies.

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On NAB’s request, the FPSC released the list of 13 candidates. The candidates said in their letter to the president that during that period, the NAB chairman was changed and the newly appointed one decided to suspend the recommendations of the FPSC, saying that the work in the institution has decreased after the NAB law amendments.

The FPSC had already replied to NAB that the Estacode – the government officials’ administrative and establishment manuals – stipulated that once candidates were interviewed, the posts could not be suspended, therefore, the FPSC could not accept NAB’s request.

This is for the first time in the country's history that an institution has sent a summary to the president for the suspension of the recommendations of the FPSC. The affected candidates warn that this would set a dangerous precedent and might erode the importance of the FPSC in merit-based appointments.