LAHORE, May 23 Majority official reports indicating all is well in the previous government's 'Parha Likha Punjab Programme' have proved wrong and the ones being sent to the government from the field staff are stating otherwise. This was alleged when Chief Secretary Javed Mahmood inspected the literacy department here on Saturday, also renaming the programme's slogan as “Literate, Aware and Thriving Punjab.”

Secretaries of the education, services, regulation and implementation and coordination departments were also present on the occasion.

The chief secretary was reportedly told that almost all previous reports did indicate 100 per cent success of the programme with regard to the provision of missing facilities, faculty and enrolment of students.

But, with the change in the government, and field inspections by the chief secretary and other senior officials, the reports from the filed staff had started stating otherwise, lowering the success rate to a maximum 30 per cent all over the province.The reason behind this was stated to be the existence of vacancies, under-utilisation of development funds and administrative failures.

Officials said there was no mention of any action against those who sent the previous reports, if they were false, or as to how the current ones were correct.

The chief secretary reportedly indicated that the department could have Rs1 billion development budget next year which should be spent on opening schools in the poorest of the poor localities.

The department should run the adult education schools in league with Tevta, also giving education to its students learning different vocations, enabling them to become better citizens.

The chief secretary asked the department to recruit teachers on merit to ensure that it had excellent faculty. “Spend funds to get good faculty rather than wasting them on advertisements like the previous government did,” he remarked.

He asked the officials concerned to run all the informal and adult education schools in league with private sector and registered NGOs when he was told that opening up of another 300 institutions was on the cards.

No-one was able to tell the chief secretary the extent of corruption in the department because, he was informed, the department's deputy secretary planning, who was the main person responsible for everything, had managed to get him transferred and was now serving as education EDO somewhere in the province.

It was alleged that the Anti-Corruption Establishment used to call him for investigations but no-one knew the nature of the probe or its fate.

The chief secretary ordered an inquiry and said he would again visit the department to focus on the corruption aspect.

Earlier, he objected to the condition of the department's office in Shadman, asking the authorities concerned to provide it an alternate place. “Construct a good office at a better place for the department in the meantime,” he said.

While issuing the orders, he allowed the department to directly interact with foreign donor agencies and countries.