July 04, 2008	Friday	Jamadi-us-Sani 29, 1429

PESHAWAR, July 3: The NWFP government has approved a uniform policy for employees in development projects, ending disparities in terms of salary and other perks and privileges existing in different establishments.

The new policy -- NWFP Policy Regulating Appointment to Posts in Development Projects – was notified here on Wednesday. The policy, however, will not be applicable to the staff already working in the projects.

The new policy will end the current disparities in terms of salaries and other incentives existing in projects fully or partially funded or controlled by the Frontier government.

“At the moment the wage structure varies from project to project, but now this disparity will no more exist because of the new policy,” said a senior official.

According to the pay package prescribed in the new policy, posts equivalent to Grade 21 will carry a fixed salary of Rs100,000, Grade 20, Rs80,000, Grade 19, Rs60,000, Grade 18, Rs40,000, Grade 17, Rs25,000, Grade 11 to 16, Rs15,000, Grade 5-10, Rs10,000, and Grade 1-4, Rs7,000. The policy explains that fixed pay package for the projects’ posts will be sanctioned at the time of approval of PC-I with reference to responsibilities attached with the post. Educational qualification, experience, age limit, scale of post, pay package, duration of appointment, responsibilities of each post will be prescribed in the PC-I.

According to the procedure for initial recruitment, the posts will be advertised in the print media and applications received will be scrutinised by a selection committee. For posts in Grade 17 and above, the administrative secretary concerned will be the appointing authority and the project director will exercise the powers of appointing authority for posts in Grade 1-16.

Staff to be appointed by initial recruitment in a project will not be entitled to pension or Contributory Provident Fund, because they will not be treated as civil servants.

The project employees will receive medial allowance as per medical attendance rules of the provincial government. Likewise, they will be entitled to Travelling Allowance or Daily Allowance in accordance with the rules of the provincial government.

In case the competent authority decides to fill a post by way of transfer of a regular civil servant on deputation basis, a demand will be placed with the lending department to place the services of the civil servant concerned at the disposal of the borrowing department.

Civil servants appointed against project posts on deputation basis will receive project allowance equal to one basic salary in lieu of deputation allowance, which will make serving in the projects attractive than regular government departments.

The initial period of deputation will be three years extendable by another two years.

According to the new policy, approval of the NWFP chief minister will be mandatory if the deputation of the administrative secretary or head of attached department to the project posts is involved. The policy also prescribes procedure for appointment of civil servants to project posts through competition, as the official can apply for a project post through proper channel.

The official, if appointed to the post in open competition will obtain ‘extraordinary’ leave before joining the project, provided he or she is entitled to such a leave as per the NWFP Civil Servants (Revised Leave) Rules, 1981.