PHOTO: REUTERS/FILE
PESHAWAR: The provincial government has finalised its plan of taking back drivers and official vehicles from ministers and bureaucrats and instead providing them a conveyance allowance based on their grade.
The decision was taken in a meeting of the monetisation committee of the government held at the finance department on Wednesday. Chaired by Minister for Finance Muzaffar Said, the meeting was also attended by Minister for Public Health Engineering Shah Farman, Administration Secretary Hassan Mehmood Yousafzai, Secretary Finance Syed Said Badshah Bukhari and other officials.
Officials present at the moot told The Express Tribune the committee had finalised its suggestions which will be presented to the chief minister and cabinet for final approval.
Managing official resources
According to the insider, the monetisation committee is working on two cost-cutting projects for official vehicles and for government houses being used by officials and ministers. “The latter is complicated so we started with the vehicles because that can be easily implemented,” said the official, requesting anonymity as he was not authorised to talk to the media. “We are taking back government vehicles and compensating them with cash according to their entitlement under the rules.”
The conveyance allowance will not exceed Rs100,000 even for a Grade 22 officer who is technically entitled to 360 litres of fuel per month to use in a government vehicle, he said. “The allowance will be calculated from the amount of fuel an officer is entitled to, and will be according to the market rate. It will include a maintenance allowance of up to Rs10,000,” he said.
Field work
According to the insider, initially it was suggested the project would be implemented across the province, across the board, but it was found that policemen and officials who do field work would be adversely affected. “Now police and field officers like deputy commissioners, assistant commissioners and commissioners have been excluded. Officers working in the Secretariat and directorates as well as ministers and parliamentary secretaries will fall under the plan,” he said.
When contacted, finance minister Muzaffar Said confirmed the decision to take back official vehicles. “The aim is to control and stop the misuse of public resources and by taking this step we would save millions of rupees which are spent in fuel, maintenance and purchase of new vehicles,” he said.
At the losing end
Drivers working at the Civil Secretariat are not happy with this decision. “This is the destruction of the province’s resources because the bureaucracy would take the conveyance allowance and also use official vehicles that the government intends to keep,” said Manzoor Khan, the president of the secretariat’s drivers association.
Khan said they would resist the plan as they see no benefits for drivers in it.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 23rd, 2015.
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