LAHORE: Several junior accounts officers have been suffering at the hands of the Pakistan Post Office and Controller General of Accounts (CGA) departments over receiving 20pc audit allowance and their transfer/posting despite clear orders and notifications issued by the Islamabad High Court (IHC) and quarters concerned.

Some officers were also transferred to the field recently after they started demanding their rights, Dawn learnt.

According to a notification dated April 20 issued by the chief accounts officer (CAO) of the Pakistan Post Office Department (PPOD), services of all accounts officials were placed under the administrative control of the CGA.

“In pursuance of the CGA notification dated April 9, all accounts establishments i.e. assistant chief accounts officers, accounts officers, assistant accounts officers, junior accountants, senior and junior auditors and other staff dealing with departmental accounts either in the office of the director of accounts, PPOD (Lahore) or office of the PPOD’s director general, including field offices such as Postmasters General (PMG)/General Post Office (GPO), are placed under the administrative control of the CGA through CAO of the PPOD,” the notification read.

It further quoted a petition and orders passed by the IHC on April 17 that “officials in attendance submit that the order of this court has been complied with and have submitted a copy of the notification of April 9, 2015. Since the petition has borne fruit, the same is disposed of accordingly”.

The notification stated that the CGA had extended benefits of audit and accounts allowance at 20pc of the basic pay to the entire staff dealing with accounts at all levels in the directorate of accounts, PPOD and the directorate general of PPOD and field formations, as endorsed by the IHC. Therefore, implementation of the said orders could be ensured in letter and spirit. Earlier, the CGA department also issued a notification on April 9 with more or less the aforementioned information.

However, some officers who have yet to receive the allowance submitted a joint application to the postmaster general, requesting for the benefits with effect from when the IHC orders were issued. The officers who submitted application to the PMG included Rasheed Ahmad, Muhammad Rafique, Ashar Nadeem, Muhammad Imran, Mushtaq Ahmad, Abdul Majeed Khan, Chaudhry Muhammad Aleem, Bashir Ahmad, Abdul Rehman Hamid, Sajid Hussain, Rana Abdul Qayyum, Rana Shehbaz Ashraf, Ghulam Ali, Gulzar Ahmad, Muhammad Haroon and Syed Zafar Abbas.

Instead of providing relief, the authorities transferred account clerks Syed Zafar Abbas, Rana Abdul Qayyum, Sajid Hussain, Ashar Nadeem as sorters to various field offices and sorters Zulfiqar Ali and Hafiz Muhammad Wakeel to the accounts branch through a notification on Sept 15.

The PPOD’s CAO in a letter on July 15 once again clearly outlined the administrative control of the department’s accounts officials. The same information was circulated among all GPOs of Punjab.

“We went everywhere but no one is ready to own us. And when we mounted pressure for getting the allowance, we were transferred to field offices unlawfully,” said Sajid Hussain, an accounts clerk who was among those transferred recently as sorters.

He said the CGA granted 20pc allowance to all officers in Grade 16 and above only leaving those below this level. He demanded the CGA and PPOD heads resolve the issue in the light of the IHC verdict.

Talking to Dawn, Lahore GPO Divisional Superintendent Israrul Haq said, “The court had left the issue of allowance and administrative control to the prime minister to decide. But the CGA issued a notification wrongly that was rejected by the PPOD director general through a letter,” he explained.

He said the affectees were actually appointed as sorters, but continued working as account clerks.

“Since their appointment is not in accounts section, they will remain our strength and we can transfer/post them anywhere under the law,” he claimed.

He further said the CGA would decide about giving the allowance to these officials, adding that since the issue was yet to be resolved, the PPOD could not place their services at the disposal of CGA.

Senior officials of the PPOD’s accounts directorate who succeeded in getting allowances after being transferred to the CGA were unavailable for comment.

Published in Dawn, October 5th , 2015

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