Legal loopholes: Deputationists holding back RDA’s own officials

Five officials have allegedly overstayed their tenures.

RAWALPINDI:

Officials working on deputation in the Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) have become a cause of annoyance for regular employees, it has been learnt.

Sources in RDA confided to The Express Tribune that five officials, mostly from the Punjab public health department (PHD), have been serving in RDA for more than five years now.

As per government rules, an official can not serve on deputation in a department for more than a period of three years, while the finance department can grant an extension of one year. After that, only the chief minister can extend the period of deputation for another year.

Among the five officials serving on deputation for the last five years, Akram Soaban, a BPS-18 officer from PHD who is currently holding four posts -- director Horticulture Department, deputy director, Water Supply and deputy managing director, Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa). According to sources, the position in Wasa is usually given to a BPS-20 official.

Similarly, Umer Farooq, also from PHD, is currently serving as deputy director engineering department. Azizullah Khan and Zahoor Ahmed, also deputy directors, are from the same department, while Arshad Masood, currently serving as deputy director horticulture, belongs to the social welfare department.

Sources say the officials were transferred initially on deputation to RDA under Rawalpindi Environment Improvement Project (REIP) and their services were retained by the authority after the project was wound up.

Under the REIP, the officials received an extra 20 per cent of their monthly salaries as deputation charges, which, the sources claim, they are still receiving.

RDA Director General Chaudhry Naseer Ahmed said “technically” there is no official who has completed his deputation term.

“There is only one official from Quetta who is in his last year of deputation after he got an extension from the chief minister,” he explained.

When asked about the five officials, Ahmed said their services under REIP cannot be considered as service in RDA.

“The project was run by the housing ministry and was not supervised by RDA or Wasa hence these officials have served in RDA for only three years,” he maintained.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 22^nd, 2012.