December 22, 2008	Monday	Zilhaj 23, 1429

PESHAWAR, Dec 21: Lack of proper system of monitoring and evaluation of the employees coupled with the influence used by doctors, hundreds of doctors have been working on lucrative posts for more than a decade in violation of rules.

Under the governments’ rules, employees of the health department were required to remain on a same post for three years in ‘plain’ area, while the tenure for the employees was one year in ‘hard’ areas. But there are doctors even at the office of the Director General Health, who have been posted on vital posts for the last 10 to 15 years. Not only this, they have also been able to upgrade the posts on which they were posted over the years.

The directorate had about 250 staff; about 25 of them are doctors working as assistant directors, deputy directors, two directors and one director-general, but these employees were seldom transferred. Sources said that they had become ‘indispensable’ for the department.

“According to the laid down procedure, the director-general is to put up proposal of transfers and postings of certain employees to the health secretariat, but such a proposal aiming to get transferred the old stunts would irk them,” a source said.

There are about 100 doctors, who had been posted out of Peshawar during their 25 years length of services. They use their political connections and every government accepts them as their own men. In the process, the performance of the directorate, which is an implanting organ of the secretariat, had been reduced to a dormant body.

People working in ‘hard’ areas have long completed their tenures, but there is no one at the helm to listen to their woes and post them in settled areas.

The issue of the recent floods and internally displaced persons are glaring examples in which the health directorate has terribly failed in provision of healthcare needs. Even the health department didn’t bother to attend the health clusters meetings aiming to review progress and make plans for better health facilities to the affected population.

The problem of bird flu virus had been haunting the province since last year when the WHO confirmed human to human transmission, but the directorate of health remained unmoved and the problem could re-emerge and cause more potential threats to human.“No questions are asked.

The high-ranking doctors on administrative posts keep cordial relations with the government of the time and the vicious cycle goes on,” said one sources at the directorate. “These officers don’t go on field visits, according to their posts to carry out inspections and check presence of the staff in healthcare outlets, but prefer to sit in air-conditioned offices.”

According to a senior officer at the health secretariat, they don’t have a computerised system to identify who had completed his/her tenure to transfer them in case of completion of their tenure at one place. Secondly, even if someone moves an application that he had completed his tenure in a certain area and he should be transferred in line with the set rules. Then, the government looks his political connection and if he has none, he is asked to look out for his replacement.

Another criterion called Annual Confidential Report (ACR) has also become unworkable. Most of the ACRs are written positively because in case of adverse report, the officer who writes the ACR faces threats. A few months back, the government had set up a new section by the name of monitoring and evaluation cell that had been tasked to look into the working of different departments and suggest measures for improvement.

“At present the influential call the shots. They couldn’t be transferred. After the monitoring reports of their departments, they would be at least on the defensive,” said sources.

The introduction of the Local Government Ordinance (LGO) had played havoc with the health system and the government was yet to segregate the provincial administrative affairs from the districts. After the LGO, the directorate of health should have been made part of the health secretariat, they added.