Blanket exemption: Ministry seeks waiver on contract extensions

Seeking extension for all employees without specifying reasons.

ISLAMABAD:

In a bid to retain its high-value contractual officers, the finance ministry has decided to seek blanket exemption from the ban on extending contract appointments, as imposed by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

Finance Secretary Dr Waqar Masood has prepared a general summary that seeks extension for all employees without specifying the nature of their jobs and reasons that could justify the extension.

The ministry has prepared a summary for the perusal of the prime minister, requesting him to allow over two dozen contractual employees to continue even after the lapse of their contracts, according to a senior ministry official.

The official said extension was sought for employees working in all categories that include management pay scale-I, which is the highest scale for technocrats, professionals working on fixed-packages, the prime minister’s assistance package and the contingent staff.

Currently, all the senior aides to Finance Minister Ishaq Dar are serving on contracts and the agreements of a few of them will expire in the next couple of months. At present, about half a dozen people are serving in MP-I, the same number of people are working under the fixed and the PM’s assistance packages.

The contingency staff consists of over a dozen low-scale employees whose contracts are going to expire by June 2014. The official said the summary was pending with the finance minister for his final approval.

On February 6, the Establishment Division issued an office memorandum, barring all ministries, divisions, autonomous bodies and corporations from extending contracts that expire in future.

The memorandum read that the ban on recruitment process imposed by the government shall be applicable to the already recruited contractual employees.

The memorandum did not carry any clause that allows the ministries to seek exemption from the ban on extensions, the documents showed. However, an office order of the Prime Minister’s Office – issued a month before the Establishment Division memorandum – directed the ministries that they could seek an exemption from the ban on case to case basis.

When contacted, the official spokesman of the finance ministry Rana Assad Amin refused to comment on the content of the summary and said it was ‘confidential’. “So far, no final decision has been taken to claim exemption,” he said, adding that if the finance ministry sought exemption, it would view it in light of the relevant orders and rules.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 15^th, 2014.