KARACHI, Sept 22: The Sindh government has decided to effect monitoring of all recruitments in public sector through the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to ensure observance of merit and transparency, it is reliably learnt.

Informed sources told Dawn that authorities had resorted to adopt the new policy following reports of violation of merit and transparency in appointments. The breach, they added, was also in contravention of the terms and conditions agreed upon by the provincial government with the World Bank with regard to the interest-free credit of US$300 million extended to it for structural adjustment.

The new policy of monitoring by the NAB came to fore through a communication under which the NAB has asked Education Department to explain the procedure to be followed in appointing teaching and non-teaching staff on vacant posts. The department plans to recruit some 7,000 people.

The NAB has sent to the department a questionnaire which appears to have been designed to ensure observance of merit and transparency in the recruitment in grade 1 to 16 which is not supposed to be carried out through the Sindh Public Service Commission.

The questionnaire seeks details like grade-wise number of vacancies, modus operandi of appointments, criteria, procedure to advertise the vacancies, processing and scrutiny of applications, short-listing of eligible candidates, etc.

The department has also been asked to provide information about officials to be involved in selection as well as their responsibilities and details of the selection process.

Even, details about the criteria of selection to be adopted by the individuals/institutions to be engaged for paper work, holding tests and checking answer sheets of candidates etc. have also been sought.

The NAB has further asked the department to submit with it the final list of candidates selected for appointment on any vacant seat.

The sources claimed that another reason for a strict monitoring of merit and transparency in recruitments was growing pressure from legislators and other influential people. Now when the provincial government is going to recruit more than 25,000 employees in various departments, it wants to ward off the pressure and emerge clean hands in this regard.

The government led by Ali Mohammad Mahar has been under tremendous pressure from different quarters ever since its inception over the lifting of a ban on recruitments. The ban has been causing unrest among hundreds of thousands of jobless people for seven years.