Tightening the belt: Go after secretaries, say provincial civil servants

LAHORE: The Provincial Management Service Association (PMSA) has urged the Punjab government to consider cutting the perks and privileges of senior bureaucrats and tackle corruption if it is serious about ending its financial crisis.

The Punjab government is considering abolishing a number of posts in order to cut its expenses. The PMSA represents officers of the Provincial Civil Service and the Provincial Management Service.

PMSA President Rai Manzoor Nasir told The Express Tribune on Saturday that the Punjab government’s idea to abolish redundant posts sounded good, but he believed it would prove no more than a political stunt.

“The Punjab government’s proposals do not explain how much money it will save,” he said. Nasir said that by cutting hundreds of BPS-19, BPS-20 and BPS-21 posts the Punjab government would save only around Rs550 million per month.

He said that 11 PMS officials of BPS-21 and 11 of BPS-20, who recently completed the National Management Course and graduated from the National Institute of Public Administration could not get seats because the Punjab government’s proposals would cut the quotas for these grades.

Nasir said that the Punjab government’s only serious option to end the financial crunch was to take action against pilferage. “Each secretary has six to eight vehicles, huge medical, travel and other allowances and much more,” he said.

He said the government should take action against the senior member of the Board of Revenue and the chief secretary, who he accused of corruption along with patwaris.

Sources in the Services and General Administration Department told The Express Tribune that the senior member of the Board of Revenue and the local government secretary had presented, to a cabinet committee working on cutting the government’s non-development expenditure, a list merely naming the posts to be abolished, without details of how much cutting these posts would save.

The cabinet committee has approved the cutting of several senior posts in the police and four executive district officers in each district government. It is also considering downgrading the posts of divisional commissioners and DCOs of five district governments in Punjab.

The posts of EDOs for information technology, law, literacy and revenue are to be abolished. Also to go are a post each of member (general) and member (judicial) in the Chief Minister’s Inspection Team, as well as one post each of planning and development member and joint chief economist.

The posts of commissioners of divisions not having city district governments would be downgraded from BS-21 to BS-20, but the posts of commissioners of divisions having city district governments would continue to be in BS-21. All divisional commissioners would be downgraded from BS-21 to BS-20.

The committee approved the downgrading of the DCOs of Lahore, Faisalabad, Multan, Gujranwala and Rawalpindi from BS-21 to BS-20 and the DCOs in the 31 other districts from BS-20 to 19.

The police jobs to be abolished are additional IGs for vigilance, research and development, and operations, and DIGs for sports and administration.

An additional IG told The Express Tribune that many DIGs are already working on the additional IGs posts, like at the Crimes Investigation Department and the Investigation branch. He said that additional IGs Sarmad Saeed, Chaudhry Tanveer, Humayun Raza Shafi, Kalbe Abbas, Muhammad Rafique and Muhammd Waseem were working in BS 21 and would not be affected.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 23rd, 2011.

Source:
Tightening the belt: Go after secretaries, say provincial civil servants – The Express Tribune

LAHORE, Jan 23: The slashing of senior posts in the Punjab government’s civil bureaucracy has largely affected officers belonging to district management group (DMG), reducing career prospects (promotions) for them at least in the province.

“We are promoted against available notified seats in each province. Reduction in seats means reduction of promotion prospects,” a senior official said.

A number of mid-career DMG officers seeking anonymity told Dawn that the officers belonging to provincial services had also lost posts but their career would not be affected as they would be adjusted against 200 to 250 posts lying vacant at present.

Provincial Management Service (PMS) officers are occupying 36 each posts of deputy district officer (staff) revenue and coordination and 18 posts of registration which are going to be abolished. As many as 36 posts of executive district officers-revenue (EDO-revenue) are also being abolished and PMS officers hold 17 of them.

DMG officers said that as per the government decision they had lost nine posts in BS-21, 18 in BS-20, and over 13 in BS-19. “This means there will be no promotions of DMG officers against these posts,” said one of the officers.

The lost BS-21 posts include four commissioners of divisions having no city district government, and five DCOs of city district governments. These posts have been downgraded to BS-20.

The BS-20 posts include secretaries of the seven abolished departments, two each members of the Planning and Development Department and the Chief Minister’s Inspection Team, and seven special secretaries.The lost posts in BS-19 include that of the withdrawn cadre of EDO-revenue and of additional secretaries of the abolished departments.

The officers said presence of senior DMG officers against junior posts in Punjab was another major hurdle in the promotion of mid-career officers.

There is only one post of BS-22 in Punjab which is of the chief secretary. But four BS-22 officers are staying here against BS-21 posts, blocking the posting of officers of the same grades. They include P&D Chairman Javaid Aslam, Senior Member Board of Revenue Akhlaq Tarar, Additional Chief Secretary Sami Saeed and former chief secretary Javed Mehmood.

Some senior officers in BS-21 belonging to the Seventh Common are also staying here to block posting or career progress of the officers junior to them. “They must go to the federal government to create room for the promotion of mid-career officers,” an official said.

Source:
Career `pitfalls` for DMG officers | DAWN.COM

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When you have to shoot, shoot. Don't talk. ~ The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

Commissioners may regain powers to post revenue officials

PESHAWAR, Jan 24: The divisional commissioners in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are likely to regain powers to post revenue officials, Dawn learnt here on Monday.

A decision to re-delegate authority to divisional commissioners to reshuffle tehsildars and naib tehsildars was expected in the next meeting of provincial cabinet, which had conditionally empowered the revenue department last year to exercise those powers, an official told Dawn .The powers to post the officials had been a contentious issue between the divisional commissioners and revenue department since the formation of the incumbent provincial government.

The commissioners in the pre-devolution era used to exercise these powers, however, the revenue department got this authority after the dissolution of commissioner`s office.

Again in mid-2008, the powers were re-delegated to the commissioners, when government restored their offices. The decision annoyed the high-ranking officials of the revenue department and its minister, Syed Murid Kazim.

Mr Kazim, during one of the high level meetings, had complained about lack of powers to transfer and post these officers. He had pleaded for withdrawal of these powers from the commissioners and handing them over to the department again.

Chief Minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti while chairing a cabinet meeting had conditionally allowed revenue department to exercise the powers for a period of one month only.

It was decided that the chief minister himself would review the performance of the department and in case of unsatisfactory outcomes, the powers of reshuffling tehsildars and naib tehsildars would be withdrawn from it and handed over back to commissioners, the official said.

Similarly, the chief minister had also constituted a committee with Minister for Law, Human Rights and Parliamentary Affairs Barrister Arshad Abdullah as its head to look into the matter and submit recommendations in this regard.

The committee had also put its weight behind the commissioners and recommended that powers of making transfer and posting of tehsildars and naib tehsildars should remain with them, the official added.

He said that recommendations of the committee and reports compiled after months of monitoring, in line with the chief minister`s directives, had been forwarded to the Chief Minister`s Secretariat. “These will be discussed in the cabinet meeting, whenever it is convened,” he said.

The posting and transfer of revenue officials including patwaris, tehsildars and naib tehsildars had been highly politicised during the last one decade, the official said, adding it was the reason that commissioners were allowed to exercise those powers both in settled and tribal areas.

In all the three provinces, posting and transfer of officials from grade 14 to 16 were made by the field offices just to have a mechanism of accountability at local level, he said.

Source:
Commissioners may regain powers to post revenue officials | DAWN.COM

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When you have to shoot, shoot. Don't talk. ~ The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

The civil service-convict link

As far as is known, the civil service can trace its roots to the personal servants of the privileged elite in the Roman Empire, who were placed in charge of the administrative structures that were needed by the elite to administer their lands and holdings. As the elites’ influence and power grew, so did their possessions, and with it the influence and power of their servants, who administered the possessions. This is documented in detail in Notitia Dignitatum, a rare document of that period which includes administrative details of the time, and lists of the more privileged.

In more recent times there is historical “civil servant-convict” link going back to the time when Australia was a British penal colony in the 18th century, and a convict assigned to work on a public project was referred to as “civil servant,” much like a literary reference to a sanitary worker in this part of the world is “halal-khor,” or “legitimate breadwinner,” to confer dignity to him, and to his work.

In many European countries “civil servant” is also used for a “conscientious objector,” or one who does other work in lieu of compulsory military service, which his “conscience” may not allow. Since “conscience” is a must for someone to be a conscientious objector, and there is also no compulsory military service in Pakistan, the issue in the context of this country is probably redundant.

In 1947, out of 1,157 Muslim officers in the Indian Civil Service and Indian Police Service, a handful who opted for Pakistan, plus one Christian officer, made up the core of the country’s civil service, which also included senior officers from non-administrative services. This was the first and last group of civil servants who stayed the course as bureaucracy, offering sound advice and working under the direction of a political government made up largely of feudal elites, or the local equivalents of the Roman privileged elite.

After Liaquat Ali Khan’s assassination in 1951, however, the civil servants broke loose, when under fellow-civil servants, first Ghulam Mohammad, and then Iskander Mirza, they took charge of the country, relegating the politicians to virtual servitude. Their bureaucratic minds, which had little use for democracy, came up with adjustment to the concept, such as “controlled” democracy and “guided democracy.” Plato and his devotees must have turned in their graves. Because of their actions, the Pakistani civil servants came close to disproving any ancient work bonds with the Roman “personal servants” as they are recorded in Notitia Dignitatum.

Ancient wisdom, however, is not to be trifled with. When the army under Gen Mohammad Ayub Khan sent Iskander Mirza packing in October 1958, the civil servants kowtowed before him and jostled to gain his patronage. However, some of the best work delivered by the civil servants was during the ten-year rule of the later Field Marshal Ayub Khan. This could be because Ayub dismissed hundreds of civil servants soon after seizing power, and those who survived the chop worked extra hard to save their own jobs. It could also be that the mindset of civil servants in Pakistan, inured through training and through their larger-than-life places in the hierarchy since independence, was not of public servants but of masters, and were well-suited to better performance in the controlled environment of dictatorship.

Gen Yahya Khan, who succeeded Ayub in March 1969, struck terror in civil servants’ hearts by dismissing three hundred and three of them. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who followed Yahya Khan as civilian president, and then prime minister, outdid both Ayub and Yahya, by dismissing 1,600 civil servants. These dismissals, starting from Ayub, reinforced by Yahya and doubly emphasised by Bhutto, were a clear message to Pakistan’s civil servants that their role, as it was recorded in the ancient Notitia Dignitatum, had not changed.

With regard to the demise of our civil service, some of the worst damage done in this period was by the judiciary, just as it had done since 1954 when it legitimised the dismissal of the constituent assembly by Governor General Ghulam Mohammad. The judiciary likewise legitimised Ayub Khan’s seizure of power under the 13th- century “doctrine of necessity,” thereby subordinating itself to the executive, a positions where it has remained since. The present judiciary is exerting itself to regain its independence, but the rulers are sparing no efforts to obstruct that effort.

All democratic civilian rulers who replaced dictators have wanted, almost neurotically, to keep the judiciary subservient, and “safeguarding” judicial subservience has been their priority No 1. One such democratic ruler launched a physical assault on the Supreme Court in 1997, while the present, the latest model of this kind of democratic rulers, is doing his frantic best to subdue it.

Through its “reforms” in 1973, which ended cadres in the service and thereby constitutional protection of service to civil servants, the PPP government under Zulfikar Ali Bhutto sounded the death knell for it. And this applied not only to the most elite among the elite, the CSP cadre. Through its “lateral entry” scheme, the PPP stuffed the civil service with its own nominees, with most damaging consequences for the effectiveness of the service, as well as integrity. The civil service in Pakistan was unable to recover from the blow dealt it by Bhutto. Whatever remains of the civil service today is a highly politicised skeleton of the original, whose main attributes are servility to politicians in power, and incompetence.

Establishing a “civil servant-convict” link will not be hard. Scores of civil servants in every country have been convicted, with many perhaps for crimes no less than of convicts in Australia when it was a British penal colony. With all that is in the news in Pakistan pertaining to various government institutions and ministries – including the ministry of religious affairs, and now even the Foreign Office – such link would appear patent.

This link was most glaring in the hasty presidential pardon granted to a former civil servant, the powerful interior minister in the present federal cabinet, immediately after he was convicted by the Supreme Court. Mr Rehman Malik will now no longer be a “convict” on record, but a “pardoned convict.”

Source:
The civil service-convict link

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When you have to shoot, shoot. Don't talk. ~ The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

Umer Rasool elected president of DMG officers’ association


LAHORE: The District Management Group (DMG) officers elected their association’s office-bearers for the year 2009-10 at Punjab Civil Officers Mess on Sunday.

Implementation and Coordination Secretary Umer Rasool was elected president of the association, while Muhammad Mehmood, staff officer to the Punjab chief secretary was elected senior vice president. Local Government Director General Hassan Nasir Jami was elected vice president, and Suqrat Aman Rana was elected general secretary. A female officer, Shan Aman Rana was elected treasurer of the association.

Only 80 of the total 265 registered voters cast their ballots.

Rasool defeated Dr Nasir Javed and Punjab Health Secretary Anwar Ahmed Khan for the president’s slot. Mehmood defeated Shafqatur Rehman Ranjha, while Rana defeated Lahore District Coordination Officer Sajjad Bhutta.

The association also elected 11 members of its executive committee. They are Directorate of Staff Development Project Director Muhammad Aslam Kamboh, Services and General Administration Department Additional Secretary (Welfare) Ahad Khan Cheema, Silwat Saeed, Ali Jan, Lodhran DCO Khurram Khan, Karim Khurshid, Dr Nasir Javed, Amar Khan, Ahmed Aziz Tarar and two women – Salah Saeed and Ayesha Hameed.

Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan

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No matter how fast i run or how far i go it wont escape me, pain, misery, emptiness.

Civil servants launch Rs80b counter proposal

LAHORE: The association of provincial civil servants has drawn up its own financial plan that would save the Punjab government Rs80 billion a year, according to the president of the Provincial Management Service and Provincial Civil Service Officers Association (PMSA).
The plan includes a cost-cutting component worth Rs30 billion and reforms that would generate Rs50 billion per annum, said PMSA president Rai Mansoor Nasir.

The Punjab government announced on Sunday that it was cutting 550 posts in the province to curb non-development expenditure. It said the “rightsizing” measure would save Rs6.1 billion a year.

The PMSA’s cost-cutting plan targets perks. Nasir said civil servants should get no more than one official car. At present, he said, District Management Group (DMG) officers got between three and eight cars for official use.

He said all official vehicles should be converted to run on compressed natural gas, which would save millions of rupees spent on fuel each day.

Nasir said that official residences should be less luxurious. “The official residences are over acres. We recommend that the maximum size of an official house should be one kanal. The extra land should be sold or used for some other purpose,” he said.

He said the allowance for the repair of these residences must be curtailed. He claimed that a DMG officer had spent Rs8.8 million on the repair of his official residence in 2010.

Nasir said that the practice of giving officers special wage packages disguised as project allowances must be abolished. Officers’ medical allowances should be curbed, he said. “The medical bills run into millions in the case of DMG officers,” he said.He said the utilities allowance given to provincial secretaries at Rs30,000 per month should be withdrawn because it was “discriminatory” and made the other officers jealous.

He suggested that foreign trips by senior officers be kept to a minimum. Officers with dual nationality should be banned or dismissed from government service, he said. He did not explain how this would save money. Nasir said the government should minimise transfers, since each one lost money in the form of transfer grants. It should also stop posting junior officers to senior seats, he said, as this gave the junior officers the salaries and perks of higher grades. He said all officers on special duty (OSDs) from the federal government must be returned to the Centre. “Why should the Punjab government pay them when they are not doing any work? Even the rules framed by the DMG make it illegal for OSDs in BS-22 to stay in Punjab.”
Nasir said the provincial government sends provincial civil servants for training to the National Institute of Public Administration at a cost of Rs650,000 per officer. The province could save millions by sending them instead to the Management and Professional Development Department. By developing the MPDD, it could start training officers from other provinces and generate an income from this.

He said commissioners, district coordination officers and other field officers should seek donations for health and education projects. “Each year religious institutions get billions of rupees in charity. Why can’t this be channelled into the health and education sectors?”

He said over 60 federal officers not in the All Pakistan Unified Groups should be sent back to the federal government.
Revenue Dept reforms

Nasir said that a PMSA committee had proposed a set of Revenue Department reforms to the Punjab government in 2008 and 2009 which would double the revenue generated by the province.

These reforms would curtail various corrupt practices, he said. For example, the government should draw up a schedule of property prices in rural areas, like it does in urban areas, to prevent pilferage

Nasir described the government austerity plan as “the brain child of DMG officers” which would block the already delayed promotions of provincial civil servants. He said the government’s claim that the job cuts would save Rs6.1 was “totally false”.

He said: “Even if officers are recalled from the field and placed at the disposal of the Services and General Administration Department, they will still be getting salaries so where are these savings coming from?”
Published in The Express Tribune, January 27th, 2011.

Source:
Civil servants launch Rs80b counter proposal – The Express Tribune

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When you have to shoot, shoot. Don't talk. ~ The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

PCS officers declare staff reduction conspiracy to block promotion

Staff Report

LAHORE: PCS officers have declared the recent step of reducing the staff from government departments a conspiracy to block their promotions and not a move to save billions of rupees.

They blamed the District Management Group for hatching the conspiracy against their colleagues as PCS/PSS officers were denied promotions, especially in higher grades like BS-21 and BS-20. The PCS officers said that their association had proposed reforms in different areas, including the Revenue Department, to the Punjab government, through which it could save more than Rs 80 billion annually. PCS Officers’ Association President Rai Manzoor Nasir told Daily Times that the proposals were handed over to Raja Zafrul Haq and Senator Pervez Rashed. He said that the proposed reforms were aimed at reducing corruption and fraud in the government departments through different ways and a great amount can be saved through stopping leakage of revenue.

Source:
Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan

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When you have to shoot, shoot. Don't talk. ~ The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

New administrative restructuring of FBR

RECORDER REPORT

ISLAMABAD (January 27, 2011) : The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has reduced the number of FBR Members from 12 to nine under the new organisational structure with a view to eliminating overlapping of functions and continuation of reforms in the tax administration. Under the administrative restructuring of the FBR, the Board has created a new post of FBR Member RGST/ERPS to exclusively deal with the issue of the Reformed General Sales Tax (RGST) and Expeditious Refund Payment System (EPRS).

FBR Member Strategic Planning and Statistics Abrar Ahmad Khan has been appointed as Member RGST/EPRS. The time bound position of FBR Member RGST/ERPS would continue till January 2012. Sources said that Asrar Rauf FBR Member Direct Tax Policy would be appointed as Additional Secretary Revenue Division to look after the tax policy matters of the FBR. The government would appoint FBR former Member Tax Policy and Reforms as Afzal Naubahar Kayani as FBR Member Inland Revenue Service after merger of FBR Member Direct Tax Policy and FBR Member Indirect Tax Policy.

Mumtaz Haider Rizvi, (BS-21), Member, FBR, Islamabad have been transferred and posted as Member (Customs), FBR, Islamabad, Mahmood Alam, (BS-22) Member Indirect Tax Policy as Member Strategic Planning and Statistics. Ahmad Dildar, (BS-20) Chief (Admin) has been transferred and posted as FBR Member Legal (OPS), FBR, Islamabad. Tahir Raza Naqvi, (BS-21) an officer of District Management Group would join as FBR Member Administration, FBR, Islamabad and Abrar Ahmad Khan, Member (SP&S), FBR, Islamabad has been transferred and posted as Member (RGST/ERPS), FBR, Islamabad.

Under the new organisational structure of the FBR notified here on Wednesday, the Board has abolished the slots of FBR Member Domestic Operations North and FBR Member Domestic Operations South whereas the post of FBR Member Direct Tax Policy and FBR Member Indirect Tax Policy has been merged into a single post of FBR Member Inland Revenue. Similarly, the posts of The FBR Member Customs Operations and FBR Member Customs Policy have also been merged into a single position of FBR Member Customs.

According to the revamped structure of the Board, the FBR has suppressed Board's Officer Order of even number dated 30th June, 2009 regarding functional integration of tax administration, it has been decided to re-organise the structure of FBR as follows. The Federal Board of Revenue, headed by the Chairman shall henceforth, comprise of nine Members of BS-21 or BS-20 OPS of the FBR.

The following eight members shall be permanent Members of the Board:- Member Strategic Planning and Statistics (SP&S); Member Inland Revenue Service (IRS); Member Customs; Member Legal; Member Enforcement and Accounting (E&A); Member (Taxpayers Audit); Member (Administration) and Member Facilitation and Taxpayer Education (FATE). The post of Member Reformed General Sales Tax (RGST)/Expeditious Refunds Payment System (EPRS) will continue till first of January, 2012, only.

Under the previous set-up, 12 Members who had directly reported to the FBR Chairman, included FBR Member Enforcement and Accounting, FBR Member Direct Tax Policy, FBR Member Indirect Tax Policy, FBR Member Customs Operations, FBR Member Customs Policy, FBR Member Domestic Operations North, FBR Member Domestic Operations South, FBR Member Taxpayer's Audit, FBR Member Legal, FBR Member Administration, FBR Member Strategic Planning and Statistics along with FBR Member Taxpayer Education and Facilitation.

Following implementation of new structure, the new set-up would cover FBR Member Inland Revenue, FBR Member Enforcement and Accounting FBR Member Customs, FBR Member Taxpayer Audit, FBR Member Legal FBR Member Administration, FBR Member Strategic Planning and Statistics and FBR Member Taxpayer Education and Facilitation. There is no change in the number of support FBR members.

Sources said that the major change under the new organisational structure of the FBR is the abolition of the posts of FBR Member Domestic Operations North and FBR Member Domestic Operations South. The FBR Member Enforcement and Accounting would solely deal with the issue of enforcement and compliance at the level of field formations.

The FBR Member Domestic Operations (North) was responsible for supervising domestic tax operations of northern field offices. The DGs of RTOs Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Peshawar, Sialkot, Gujranwala, Abbottabad and LTUs Islamabad and Lahore were required to report to him. He was also doing the job of monitoring revenue collection and ensuring achievement of revenue targets by northern field offices. Any other duties assigned by Chairman FBR. The FBR Member Domestic Operations (South) was responsible for supervising domestic tax operations of southern field offices. The DGs of RTOs ie Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Multan, Faisalabad, Quetta and LTU Karachi were required to report to him. He was also monitoring revenue collection and ensuring achievement of revenue targets by southern field offices. Any other duties are assigned by the FBR Chairman.

Under the new organisational structure of Inland Revenue, all domestic taxes including income tax, sales tax and federal excise duty are covered under Inland Revenue. The FBR Member Direct Tax Policy and FBR Member Indirect Tax Policy have been merged into FBR Member Inland Revenue.

After merger of posts of the Member Customs Operations and FBR Member Customs Policy, only FBR Member Customs would deal with all the customs related matters. When the FBR had appointed 12 members in the past, it was considered to be major change under the restructuring process to separate the policy and operational side to ensure integration of direct and indirect taxes. Under the new administrative restructuring of the FBR, the number of Members directly reporting to the FBR Chairman has been reduced from 12 to nine, sources added.

Source:
Top Stories - New administrative restructuring of FBR

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When you have to shoot, shoot. Don't talk. ~ The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

PMS officers reject Punjab govt’s rightsizing move

* Doubt transparency of government plan

* Allege move aimed at hindering their promotion

Staff Report

LAHORE: The Provincial Management Officers (PMS) Association Punjab on Monday rejected the policy of “downsizing” and “rightsizing” adopted by the Punjab government.

A meeting of the association held under the chairmanship of its President Rai Manzoor Nasir and attended by all 50 members of the executive committee and all vice presidents representing all divisions of Punjab alleged that the move was launched by the District Management Group (DMG) to block the promotion of PCS officers in Punjab.

The participants said the PMS association had held eight meetings with chief secretary, services secretary and CM’s adviser Zulfiqar Khosa during the last 20 days. If it all was transparent, why did they not discuss it with the PMS association, they asked.

They termed the claims of saving Rs 6.1 billion through downsizing totally false and wrong. The government had not clarified whether this saving would be monthly, annual or one time.

They said sending officers to surplus pool was not understandable and questioned how can the cadre of an officer be changed.

The participants claimed that the PMS officers were due to be promoted in the meeting of promotion board scheduled for January 27. All the obstacles in the way of promotion of PMS officers, like the rule of minimum length of service, have been amended. They have got training from NIPA and NMC and were fully eligible for promotion. They alleged that move of rightsizing was initiated by the DMG to block their promotion.

The meeting was told that the PMS association had proposed a formula, which could save Rs 30 billion per annum. It was suggested that the DMG officers should be provided one vehicle according to their entitlement as against three to eight vehicles being used by them in violation of the rules. DMG officers spend millions of rupees on official residences in the name of repair, which should be stopped. Maximum size of an official house should not be more than one kanal. All non-APUG officers (customs, accounts, income tax, postal, railway etc) must be sent back to federal government, as Sindh High Court has declared their postings in the provinces illegal and unconstitutional.

The participants said all special packages for commissioner Lahore/project director of Ring Road be abolished. These measures could save a hefty sum, they added.

The PMS association requested the Punjab chief minister to give it time to explain its claims and assertion. It said it has already given a package of “revenue reforms” to the Punjab government, which was not implemented by the DMG.

Source:
Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan

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When you have to shoot, shoot. Don't talk. ~ The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

City administrator returns to office to clip DCO’s wings

KARACHI: City Administrator Fazlur Rehman has restricted District Coordination Officer (DCO) Muhammad Hussein Syed from taking any big decisions without prior permission from him.

The order has curtailed the DCO’s financial powers for any amount exceeding Rs200,000.

The order has opened a debate whether similar limitations would be imposed on executive district officers (EDO), district officers (DO), executive directors and deputy district officers of the City District Government Karachi (CDGK), who enjoy much greater discretion in terms of financial decision-making.
“The DDO’s financial powers are for millions but the DCO can’t sanction even Rs200,000,” commented an EDO. “It would now kick off a tug of war between the two senior bureaucrats.”

Some key officers of the CDGK have also tactfully maneuvered to show their loyalty to the DCO or, in some cases, the city administrator.

A CDGK spokesman told The Express Tribune that the administrator could not restrict the DCO from exercising his financial, legal and constitutional rights and powers. “The city administrator can’t go beyond the Sindh Local Government Ordinance-2001 (SLGO-2001), which also defines his limits,” he said.The administrator, who had been hospitalised for around a month, resumed duty on Saturday. The DO for Coordination, Syed Mukarram Sultan Bukhari, issued an office order DO(C)/CDGK/2011/138 to that effect.

Administrator Fazlur Rehman, who is a grade 20 officer from the district management group, soon after resuming office, issued his first official order of 2011, No Administrator/City/Secy/17/201, which drastically reduced the financial powers of the DCO. The order states that in exercise of the powers conferred upon the City Administrator under sections 18 and 20 of the SLGO-2001, he has issued directives to ensure strict financial discipline and help check expenditures in the CDGK with immediate effect.

According to the administrator’s orders, the DCO has been given the follow directions: Any cheque above Rs200,000 shall be countersigned by the administrator; All sanction exceeding Rs200,000 shall be obtained from the administrator; The approval and sanction of all development schemes and projects shall be sought from the administrator; All releases by the

Government of Pakistan and the Government of Sindh including the CDGK and the Annual Development Programme (ADP) shall be signed and issued by the administrator; and medical bills exceeding Rs30,000 shall be submitted for approval from the administrator.

The DCO told The Express Tribune that he would be able to comment on the situation on Saturday, once he has read through the order.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 29th, 2011.

Source:
City administrator returns to office to clip DCO

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When you have to shoot, shoot. Don't talk. ~ The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly