October 15, 2008	Wednesday	Shawwal 15, 1429

PESHAWAR, Oct 14: The provincial government has devised a policy regarding deputation and appointments of civil servants to the donor-driven projects on merit to control brain drain from the government departments, sources say.

They said that it was decided in a meeting of the NWFP appointment to project posts policy, held under the additional chief secretary on September 30. The policy, sources said, had been adopted following the implementation of the new pay package for the project posts on August 12 by the Federal Ministry of Finance.

Sources said that the meeting was told that competitive pay packages were essential for civil servants to stem the tide of brain drain faced by the public sector presently due to the higher emoluments being offered by the private sector or projects under the control of the federal government and foreign donors such as WHO and UNICEF etc.

They said that disparity between the pay packages of the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) projects and the provincial policy was discriminatory and discouraging for qualified and trained people. It was decided to do away with the element of discretion from the postings on deputation of civil servants to the projects. The meeting recommended that a regulatory system based on proper selection criteria and forum should be determined.

The meeting said that officers once deputed to the projects remained there till completion of that particular project but there should be specific gap between two project posts so that this exposure was also availed by other civil servants equitably and the government got benefited from the experience of civil servants.

Appointments to these posts whether through recruitment or on deputation, should be linked to performance, it decided.

The committee recommended that the pay package for the directly recruited staff as well as civil servants deployed on deputation to projects, as approved by the Federal Ministry of Finance, might be adopted for all posts in the approved projects funded fully or partially or controlled by the provincial government with immediate effect.

The lump sum package for the fresh and directly recruited staff with an annual five per cent increment was also recommended. According to which, the BPS-22 civil servant will be entitled to get Rs1,50,000 to 200,000 per month, BPS-21 officer to get Rs1,25,000 to Rs1,50,000, BPS-20 officer will get Rs100,000 to 1,18,000, BPS-19 officer to get Rs75,000 to 90,000, BPS-18 officer to get Rs50,000 to 75,000, BPS-17 officer will get Rs45,000 to 50,000, BPS-16 officer will get Rs30,000 to 35,000, BPS-11 to BPS-15 will get Rs15,000 to Rs25,000, BPS-5 to BPS-10 to get Rs10,000 to 15,000 and BPS-1 to BPS-4 would be given Rs7,000 to 10,000 a month.

Furthermore, the civil servants on deputation to projects on full time basis will get salary in their own pay scale and allowances plus deputation allowance at the rate of 20 per cent of the basic pay subject to maximum Rs6000 per month. It also recommended project allowance of Rs50,000 for BPS-21 and 22, Rs40,000 for BPS-19, Rs30,000 for BPS-17 and PBS-18, Rs15,000 for BPS-16, Rs8,000 for BPS-5 to PBS-10 and Rs2,000 for BPS-1 to BPS-4.

The initial period of deputation, according to recommendation, would be three years extendable for another two years and a person shall not be considered for deputation to a project post till the passage of four years period from his last deputation.It said that there would be a Provincial Project Selection Committee and a Departmental Project Selection Committee for recommending deputation of civil servants to project posts strictly on merit keeping in view the job relevance, experience and service record.