Comedy of errors: AG office makes mess of payslips

Places high-ranking officials as watchmen, drivers

PESHAWAR: Staffers at Civil Secretariat and other departments breathe a sigh of relief with the arrival of pay day. A happy event but usually without much cause for notice. However this pay day, inscriptions on payslips have been a topic of discussion.

In the 2015-16 budget, the government announced it would increase salaries of its employees by 10%. The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Accountant General office nodded and set about making changes in the monthly payslips of all staffers. The end results were quite a sight.

High-ranking officials were ‘demoted’ to clerks, drivers, watchmen and watermen. Meanwhile junior clerks were made section officers and Class-IV employees were shown as secretaries and other bureaucracy bigwigs.

Officials at the secretariat shared that BPS-21 and 20 secretaries, including the additional, special and deputy secretaries, were all shown as low-ranking officials and janitorial workers.

The AG office confirmed the mistakes, adding “corrections are in progress.” The office issued directives to all government employees to help correct their names, designations and grades through the official website.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 1^st, 2015.