Civil servants break law with private tuition

LAHORE: Many civil servants starting their careers are breaking the law by running private academies that train candidates for civil service examinations or by teaching courses at them, The Express Tribune has learnt.

The Pakistan Civil Servant Act of 1973 prohibits civil servants from working for profit in the private sector. The civil servants say they have to turn to the private sector because they don’t get enough money to live on early on in their careers when they are on probation or under training.

“We get Rs11,000 per month as pay during the CTP [centralised training programme]. To live on this low package is impossible,” said one probationer.

Once recruited, civil servants undergo a six-month centralised training programme, a period when they are said to be probationers. This is followed by placement in an occupational group and a six-month specialised training programme.

Each year around 10,000 candidates take the Central Superior Services (CSS) exams. Those who top the exams or get placed in the District Management Group (DMG), Police Service of Pakistan (PSP), Customs Group or Foreign Service of Pakistan (FSP) can expect offers for big money to teach at private academies training the next set of candidates for the exams, said one DMG official currently attending a specialised training programme at the DMG Academy near the Gymkhana on The Mall.

The same happens with the Provincial Management Service (PMS) exams, the DMG official said. He admitted that he had been paid handsomely to teach international relations at a private academy. “I know I was breaking the law,” he said, but added that his primary motive was to pass on knowledge to future civil servants.

Another DMG probationer said those who worked at the academies often ended up performing poorly in their own training because they were spending too much time teaching. He said he knew of seven major academies run directly or indirectly by civil servants. ”They sell promises of a better future to the CSS and PMS candidates,” he said.

One such candidate is Muhammad Afzal Wattoo, who has been looking for a CSS training academy with several other fresh graduates of FC College University. He told The Express Tribune that he had visited five academies so far. “They have various courses, with costs ranging from Rs40,000 to Rs70,000 for four to five months of classes,” he said.

He said that the most popular academy was located in Johar Town and run by a civil servant in the Pakistan Audit and Accounts Services occupational group who was currently on leave. Another academy in Garden Town was run by a PSP official, he said. The others in Defence, Shadman and near the Civil Secretariat were also run by civil servants, he said.

The Civil Servants Act names the Establishment Division as the authority expected to take action against any civil servant who accepts an office of profit in the private sector. Offending employees are meant to be tried in a service tribunal.

One academy owner told The Express Tribune that he was worried that the Establishment Division secretary would conduct raids soon and so he would close his academy in October after he finished his central training programme.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 6^th, 2010.