PESHAWAR, Nov 27: Several officials are holding more than one post in different departments of the

NWFP government but at the same time others have been waiting for postings for the past couple of years, Dawn has learnt.

Sources said that more than a dozen officers of various cadres, including some in grade-19 and grade-20, were waiting for their postings.

Posting orders of employees from grades 1 to 16 are issued by the administrative heads of line departments while officers of grades 17 and above are governed by the Establishment Department.

The sources said that a grade-20 officer of the District Management Group was currently holding three posts — special secretary to the chief minister, secretary agriculture and director of a federal government’s project. The posts were given to him by the then MMA government.

Similar is the case of an officer from the information technology department who is simultaneously working against three posts, director

IT, senior economist reforms unit (finance department) and director computer cell of the finance department.

Officials in the establishment department told Dawn that additional charge was given in a situation when no suitable officer was available for the job.

They said that most of the district junior officers were working as district coordination officers because senior officers were reluctant to serve as DCOs.

They said that the post was no more considered a lucrative job in the post-devolution scenario.

However, a number of OSD officers argue that they have not been given the posts because they have no political backing.

Some senior officers, who have been serving as OSD for the last one to two years, said they had been sidelined not because they were incompetent, but the previous administration had rejected them on political basis and victimised them.

They said that although the provincial government had shortage of officers, it kept competent and senior officers on the sideline.

They expressed the hope that the caretaker government would give them a chance to serve their respective departments.