Back door opened for favourites
By Imran Ali Teepu.

ISLAMABAD, Oct 6: The government has quietly issued a notification allowing outsiders to be directly inducted into grade-19 of the Office Management Group (OMG) with the approval of Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.

The three-page notification, said a senior federal government official, allocates quotas for different categories of services: “Ten per cent quota each has been allotted to officers from the armed forces, the provincial services and semi-government and autonomous institutions.”

Positions in grade-19 and above are most sought-after as this more or less guarantees a place in the high-profile `Secretariat Group`. The notification was issued by the CP-II Wing of the Establishment Division that deals mainly with forming new service groups for the civil service and for the induction of the officers into the service.

The officer claimed that the move was aimed at better service delivery, improving the federal governance system and inducting professional officials of the semi-government and autonomous institutions in the federal government.

But the officers waiting in the wings are not going to be happy with this move. There are already nearly 300 officers of the Office Management Group (OMG) who are awaiting promotion to grade-19 and they will directly be affected if these slots get filled up with direct inductions and absorptions from the other services.

A senior bureaucrat of the Establishment Division elaborated that out of 750 officers in the OMG, nearly 600 were in grade-18: “The promotion of almost 300 grade-18 officers to the next grade is due and their services will negatively be affected by this move.”

He added that the move would have no positive impact on governance or running of the federal government. “The government`s claim for direct induction in the secretariat for better service delivery and improved governance is wrong,” he said.

He said that the move was aimed at attracting better qualified people to the service group but he cast doubt at the decision as the people in the armed forces or private sector got better salaries and perks and hence would not opt for the civil service. “Why would anyone with better emoluments in an autonomous institution or semi-government department prefer to be inducted in grade-19 [deputy secretary] given that the benefits for the latter are less?” enquired the officer.

“Take for instance the armed forces personnel. In 2009, their salaries were doubled. Why would an officer receiving routine promotion and better monetary benefits join the civil service and have his salary halved? The case is no different for a manager-level officer of Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) or Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL),” he asserted. Therefore, the critics allege that the government is going to use the move to favour certain people.

In fact, insiders claim that the notification was delayed by the bureaucrats for this reason. The summary was proposed by the Establishment Division a few weeks ago. “The summary trundled through the bureaucracy and got stuck at several levels: from a section officer to secretary Establishment Division and even at the level of Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister – everyone was aware that it would affect OMG officers,” remarked an office management group officer, who did not wish to disclose his name.

He adds that the current notification was kept a secret and held back within the confidential file mechanism of the Establishment Division. “This is because the government can be taken to the court over it,” he added.

OMG officers are traditionally inducted via four channels: direct induction through section 10, routine promotion in the federal government, promotional exams, and direct induction through the competitive exams.

Previously there was a bar on hiring OMG officers from 1999 to 2008. “Then president Pervez Musharraf was advised that officers from other departments should work on deputation in grade-17 and grade-18 on rotational bases; he was told that OMG officers would not serve any purpose,” said the senior bureaucrat of the Establishment Division.“But Musharraf`s idea was not effective. Officers were not willing to serve in the civil secretariat,” said the bureaucrat. “A grade-17 customs officer will never opt for one step above deputation in grade-18 for just five years and that too for serving in the civil secretariat.”

The bar was removed once the new government took over in 2008 and grade-17 officers were inducted after almost a decade.