LAHORE, July 17: The Adhoc Public Accounts Committee of the Punjab Assembly opined on Wednesday that suspension of delinquent government officials with benefits was not a punishment. The practice, it said, needed to be reviewed.

The logic of suspending the government officials with benefits was questioned during discussion on the audit paras relating to the Local Government and Rural Development Department at the PAC meeting held at the Punjab Assembly chambers here with Prof Dr Khalid H Sheikh in the chair.

The issue came under discussion when the PAC was informed by the Dera Ghazi Khan district coordination officer and ex-officio director general of the defunct Dera Ghazi Khan Development Authority that most of the audit paras relating to the financial irregularities in the Authority could not be discussed because the officials concerned were under suspension and had stay orders from the courts restraining the Authority to proceed against them.

A PAC member said suspension with benefits was a kind of transfer rescinded in the event of reinstatement. He said there were instances when some officials had got themselves suspended from service on sensing a ‘danger’ and manouvered their reinstatement on feeling safe. He said the government officials challenging their suspension beyond 90 days were usually reinstated.

Mr Bhatti said suspension was no punishment and was only a way of stopping a delinquent official from destroying the evidence against him. A government officials was deemed to have been suspended from service the moment he was arrested in a criminal case. Suspension during departmental inquiries was a discretion of the department concerned.

For the purpose of an inquiry, he said, suspension was allowed for a maximum of 90 days. Permission of the competent authority was essential for extension in the suspension period beyond 90 days. But in most cases the inquiries were seldom concluded within the prescribed time, necessitating an extension.

A PAC member said the inquiries were not completed in time because either the inquiry officer was not aware of the duties of the official facing the inquiry or was too busy himself to conclude the probe. As inquiries dragged on indefinitely, he said, the government suffered as it continued to pay salaries to the officials under suspension besides paying the ones officiating in their place.

He said the Services and General Administration Department should study the problem in depth and come up with a solution. Prof Sheikh also stressed the need to examine the issue.

Responding to a question, Local Government Department special secretary Abid Saeed said the officials placed under suspension were paid a third of the salary in the beginning. Later on, it was decided to pay them half the salary. They were now being paid full salary in pursuance of a decision of the Federal Shariat Court.

The Dera Ghazi Khan DCO informed the PAC that the record of the defunct Dera Ghazi Khan Development Authority had been with the National Accountability Bureau for a long time.

He said a number of its officials facing inquiries had secured stay orders from courts restraining the authorities from proceeding against them. As a result, he said, the inquiries were at a standstill.

Prof Sheikh directed him to proceed with the inquiries. He said the courts had restrained the department from taking any adverse action against the employees and not from holding inquiries. Meanwhile, the NAB should be asked to return the record.

Mr Bhatti said the PAC should not be mentioned in the process against the delinquent officials as they could then argue that the action was prejudiced and malafide.

The DCO said a former assistant director of the Dera Ghazi Khan Development Authority, who had drawn a temporary advance of Rs220,000 for the construction of two roads against the rules, had expired. He said over Rs100,000 had been recovered from his salary during his lifetime. Dr Sheikh said payment of temporary advances to government officials for the construction of roads was a serious irregularity. He said since the deceased official had accepted the liability, the remaining amount should be recovered from his heirs.

Deputy director (Engineering) Obaidullah Rathore told the PAC during discussion on an audit para about installation of signboards displaying the names of the MNAs and MPAs sponsoring development projects, that it had been a common practice. Withdrawal of Rs480,000 from the exchequer for installation of 200 signboards in Gujranwala was one of the allegations against a suspended local government official.

Responding to questions about sub-standard construction of roads, he said the Local Government Department did not have the equipment to measure the thickness of a road base. He conceded that there was no provision for carpeting the roads without laying the sub-base on the brick-soling but the defunct Metropolitan Corporation of Lahore had carpeted many streets in this manner.

He said streets having insignificant traffic load could be carpeted in this manner without the fear of disintegration.

Mr Saeed said the Local Government Department had ceased to be the executing agency for development works. The Communication and Works and Housing and Physical Planning Departments were now executing the works. The Local Government officials, he said, were manning the tehsil municipal administration and working as district officers (Infrastructure).

He said a politician had got a girls’ college building constructed in Multan 16 kilometres away from the nearest settlement and turned it into his dera. An advocate got had a brick road built on his land by the Public Works Department and sued the department for payment of Rs15 million as cost of land. He had withdrawn the case when the department threatened to remove the bricks and restore his possession of the land.

COMMUNITY CENTRES: The Local Government director general, Lt-Col Shahbaz Ahmad (retired), informed the PAC that 465 community centres built on private land between 1987 and 1995 were disputed as the landowners were claiming ownership. He said each centre had been built at a cost of millions of rupees.