PESHAWAR: The health department has instructed the public sector medical teaching institutions to make immediate arrangements for grant of pension to their respective institutional employees in accordance with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pension Rules and Procedures.
The directives were issued by health department following complaints that the staffers, who became institutional employees after the enforcement of Medical Teaching Institutions Reforms Act, 2015, were not getting their pension after retirement as they were no longer civil servants and the provincial government did not maintain their accounts and service record.
A meeting held with Health Secretary Abid Majeed in the chair on May 30 expressed concerns over lack of pensions for the institutional employees and directed the hospital and finance directors of the MTIs to set up pension cell in their respective units and intimate the health department about the progress on implementation of the pension cases of such employees within one week.
Hospitals have already started documentation of staffers
The health department has enforced MTIRA, 2015 in nine hospitals and affiliated colleges in the province that are being run through Board of Governors.
The meeting pointed that Section 16 of the MTI Act gave an option to the employees to stay as civil servants or opt to be absorbed in the respective institution, provided their terms and conditions in their previous job as civil servants stood protected.
It said that the law also ensured that their services were pensionable as civil servants but after MTI enforcement, the accounts of those employees were neither maintained by health department nor by Accountant General Office.
A lot of such employees retired and were retiring but had not received pension due to ambiguity on the issue of pension authority, which necessitated to hold consultation with the relevant offices and ensured that the employees got respite and get their rightful dues.
Therefore, the secretary health department tasked the MTIs to process the cases of pension of their employees for which each of the MTIs would adopt KP Pension Government Rules and Procedures with minor amendments if required and Pension Sanctioning Authorities (PSA) would be notified in addition to creation of a small pension cell with two to three persons.
It has suggested that PSA should be headed by hospital director for employees up to BPS-19 and dean for the employees working in BPS-20.
The MTIs will establish a fund and invest the available finances for the purpose and increase the volume of pension fund. The MTI will start making payment of pension claims immediately, as these are long overdue, even from their own resources and move cases of share for government or other proportionate share to the finance department through health department. The latter will reconcile the contributions already deposited by government, if any and the release the same to the MTIs.
To facilitate the process, the health department will nominate an officer to handle such cases for speedy disposal and ensure the employees get their pensions without further delays.
Sources in the MTIs told Dawn they had already started documentation of the employees and would seek approval of their BoGs for establishment of pension cells and authorities to enable the employees to get their pensions immediately after retirement.
“The employees, who have opted to become institutional employees after MTI Act, were entitled to pension after retirement but there was no central authority to process their cases. Now, health department has resolved the issue,” said director finance at one of the MTIs, who attended the meeting.
Published in Dawn, June 4th, 2018
