May 15, 2008	Thursday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 9, 1429

MUZAFFARABAD, May 14: In a clear violation of its own policy, the AJK government has “transferred and posted” a contractual employee from one project to the other with an added though unfair advantage.

The controversial order that raised several eyebrows in the official quarters was issued by none other than the Services and General Administration Department (S&GAD), which otherwise is supposed to ensure that no notification is brought out in contravention of law and relevant rules.

According to the notification, Raja Zulqarnain Khan, deputy director (monitoring) in the World Bank-funded Community Infrastructure Services Programme (CISP), has been “transferred and posted” as director (monitoring and evaluation) in the State Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Agency (Serra).

Interestingly, the contract appointment policy, released also by the S&GAD on July 29, 2007, categorically states that the contractual employees shall not be transferred from one project to the other.

“The contract appointment shall be post specific and non- transferable, contract employee shall not, under any circumstances, claim any right for transfer from one post to another,” reads the policy’s section VII.

Officials in Serra were also surprised over the notification, saying there was no precedence of transfer of contractual employees from one project to the other.

Even the transfer of contractual employees from one section to the other within the same project was subject to the approval of a committee, they maintained.

It could not be ascertained as to why the S&GAD had issued the notification in violation of its own policy.

However, when questioned by Dawn, the concerned section officer in the S&GAD admitted that the objection about the order “carried weight” but added that the notification was issued because the “higher authorities” had ordered for that.

The official had however not yet joined his new position in Serra, according to sources.

When contacted, a senior official in the CISP, which was to be completed by October, told that the transfer of the deputy director (monitoring) during the last stages of the project was upsetting for them as well because his successor could not grasp the working within such a short time.