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| December 11, 2005 | Sunday | Ziqa’ad 8, 1426 |
‘Illegal’ recruitments in Tevta
MULTAN, Dec 10: Frequent changes in the recruitment policy by the Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority have put a question mark over the legality of the appointment of hundreds of employees since August last year. Since its inception, Tevta has introduced four recruitment policies, and each time the new policy annulled the previous rules.
The authority chalked out its first recruitment policy on June 26, 2002, which was replaced by the new policy announced on July 16, 2003. Later, a new policy was enforced on March 3, 2004, which remained effective only for four months as it was dumped and new rules were framed on July 20, 2004, which are still being observed.
Under this policy, the respective appointing authority will recruit employees through the committees headed by it, and comprising three senior staff members. In case of recruitments in BS-1 to BS-12, the principal of the institution concerned will be the appointing authority if he or she is working in BS-17 or above, while Tevta’s district manager will be the appointing authority for appointments in BS-13 to BS-15.
If the institution head is in a grade lower than BS-17, he or she can be the appointing authority for BS-1 to BS-2 officials, while the DM concerned will appoint BS-6 to BS-15 employees. Appointments in BS-16 to BS-18 are in the purview of Tevta chairman under the existing rules, while recruitments in BS-19 and above are made by the chief minister.
The provincial government reportedly earmarked Rs300 million in 2004-05 budget for making fresh recruitments in Tevta and the institutions working under its umbrella. The authority has recruited around 600 officials in different grades till September this year.
Interestingly, all the recruitments were made under the abrogated policy of March 3, 2004, according to which Tevta District Boards of Management (DBoM) were the appointing authority for BS-18 employees, while the appointments in BS-19 are made through a committee headed by authority chairman/chief operating officer or his nominee from the members.
Official sources said the legal status of the recruitments, made in violation of the existing rules, was questionable. There were also complaints of gross violations of merit policy laid down for the recruitments, they added.
The inquiry committees constituted to look into the irregularities allegedly committed in Multan, Muzaffargarh, Bahawalpur and Lodhran districts had pointed out around 50 cases of blatant violation of merit policy. However, no action has so far been taken on the reports submitted by these bodies about three months back.
‘Instead, the ongoing inquiries in other Tevta zones have been stopped’, the sources maintained.
They said under the existing rules, Tevta chairman could only make appointments in BS-16 to BS-18, but through an order (Tevta/Admn./Ind./5/19-1) issued on Dec 17, 2004, the chairman appointed two associate professors in BS-19. One of the appointees had been earlier recruited as lecturer in BS-17 at the Government College of Technology, Sahiwal, and after a few months, he was appointed in BS-18 as an assistant professor at the Government College of Technology, Raiwand Road, Lahore.
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