Staff caught in RDA-WASA posting dispute

Seven employees' livelihood under threat owing to institutional incompetencies

RAWALPINDI:

The worsening state of governance in public institutions has once again been laid bare through an unusual case of irregular appointments to sanctioned posts.

Seven employees of the Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA), originally hired on a work-charge basis and later granted the status of workmen by a court order, now face an uncertain future after their unlawful postings to sanctioned positions in the Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) were struck down.

The RDA attempted to formally repatriate these employees to WASA; however, it has refused to take the employees, citing the unavailability and their lack of authority to take them in from the RDA.

According to reports, WASA in 2020 appointed seven individuals Muhammad bin Gul Raiz, Sub-Engineer (BPS-14), Bilal Farooq, Sub-Engineer (BPS-14), Muhammad Bilal, Junior Clerk (BPS-11), Ubaid Zafar, Junior Clerk (BPS-11), Raja Atif Mehmood, Driver (BPS-5), Muhammad Nadeem Khan, Driver (BPS-5), and Atta Muhammad, Chowkidar (BPS-3) on a temporary 89-day work-charge basis.

Following legal action, the court converted their status from work-charge to workmen, thereby affording them job security. In the wake of this ruling, they were unlawfully posted against sanctioned posts in the RDA, despite being ineligible for such appointments under their revised status.

For five to six years, the employees continued to serve in these positions without legal authority.

Now that WASA's competent authority is its own Director General at the provincial level, the RDA issued a letter requesting WASA to reappoint these employees. However, the WASA Director of Administration, on the instructions of WASA MD, has refused to accept these employees back to WASA. In a letter written to RDA on September 26, he stated that RDA, as the competent authority, had transferred these employees to RDA on a permanent basis through a formal written order, after which new appointments were made on the vacant posts of these employees in WASA.

Meanwhile WASA, under its own rules, has now changed the competent authority of WASA, under which it does not have the legal authority to accept the employees back as they now have permanent status as RDA employees. According to the details, the RDA had written a formal letter to WASA five years ago and issued instructions to transfer seven regular status employees to RDA on a permanent basis when the Rawalpindi Development Authority Water and Sanitation Agency was the competent authority of WASA itself.