LAHORE, May 25: More faults in the system of promotions of officers through the Provincial Selection Board have come to the fore, indicating wrong vacancy position of the Services and General Administration Department (S&GAD) which itself is supposed to know the exact number of available posts in all departments.

Chief Secretary Javed Mahmood had postponed the first-ever meeting of the board he had chaired after assuming charge of his office on Friday after declaring the body “a mere rubber-stamp forum clearing promotions without assessing eligibility of the candidates.”

Official sources informed Dawn on Sunday that the board had been concentrating on how many cases it was clearing for promotions rather than screening as to who was being promoted, thus, allowing even corrupt and inefficient persons to hold higher positions.

They said the S&GAD had been making agenda of the board meetings by exactly copying the working papers (lists of vacancies and the officers contesting for them) provided by all departments without examining whether their contents were true or false.

“One can’t say this is happening necessarily because of sheer negligence or mala fide of the officials concerned. In fact, it has become a common practice. In case of one department, for example, an officer was nominated for promotion whose years’ old inquiry was finalised only a few days ago. What was not assessed was why the inquiry lingered on previously and whether the officer was given any benefit by hastily completing it just a few days before the board meeting,” they cleared a point.

The officials said censure had been the maximum punishment awarded in 90 per cent of the inquiries of serious nature, so that the (accused) officers could still be considered for promotion. This was done with full knowledge that under the government policy censure could be disregarded. But, they said, the S&GAD, which was supposed to smell the rat, had been allowing promotions to such people without checking whether the nature of charges on which they were awarded censure were such that they could be allowed promotions.

The department had been just highlighting the faults which could not be swept under the carpet because the purpose was not to examine the eligibility. “This is not the agenda.”

Sources said the department proposed the name of an official for promotion against an available vacancy. But when asked that why it had not considered for promotion an official senior to the proposed one, the department changed the seniority list without caring that this could not be done at will.

When the officer who sent the promotion list was explained the procedure of changing the seniority list and the legal complications of making it a private property, he said: “Let me ask the section officer.”

The government, officials said, had now decided to allow promotions only after checking the nature of the vacancies and whether the officers proposed to be promoted against them were genuinely eligible for them.

For that purpose, it would check whether the proposed officers had handled the nature of the job required for the vacancy. It would also check which types of inquiries they faced no matter they were acquitted or not, their integrity and general reputation.