LAHORE, May 12: As many as 30 district circle offices of the Anti-Corruption Establishment in the Punjab have been working without their heads for a year. The provincial government had approved a proposal of appointing a deputy director of BPS-18 as head of a district office in all the 34 districts a year ago.

However, the ACE has so far managed to appoint deputy directors in only four districts — Sheikhupura, Kasur, Khushab and Rahim Yar Khan.

The ACE had sought the change in the set-up to cope with the problems it was facing in initiating inquiries against gazetted officers at district level as a BPS-16 officer who used to be an incharge of the office in the previous setup was not authorized to take action against officers of BPS-17 and 18.

Besides this, it wanted to provide relief to complainants who had to travel from their districts to file applications with their respective directorates.

There are eight ACE regional directorates located in Lahore, Gujranwala, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Sargodha, Multan and Bahawalpur.

In the absence of the new district set-up, the Lahore region continues to deal with the complainants of Okara, Sahiwal and Pakpattan, Gujranwala region with Narowal, Hafizabad, Gujrat and Mandi Bahauddin, Rawalpindi region with Attock, Jhelum and Chakwal, Faisalabad region with Toba Tek Singh and Jhang, Sargodha region with Mianwali and Bhakkar, Multan region with Khanewal, Vehari, Dera Ghazi Khan, Layyah, Muzaffargarh and Rajanpur, and Bahawalpur region with Bahawalnagar and Lodhran.

The Sialkot office is under a BPS-17 officer and the remaining 29 district offices are still under the officers in BPS-16 who are responsible to investigate inquiries.

In the previous set-up, a circle officer of BPS-16 was assisted by three constables and he was also the incharge of a police station.

However, under the new one, two assistant directors of BPS-17, three inspectors of BPS-16, five head constables, six constables and office staff assist a deputy director.

Official sources said the ACE had asked the S&GAD for sending officers for the posts on deputation but the latter refused owing to shortage of staff.

When contacted, ACE director-general Brig Aslam Ghuman (retired) said half of the DDs were being appointed through the Punjab Public Service Commission and the remaining would be hired on deputation.