ISLAMABAD, Jan 6: Shortage of officers against the sanctioned posts has a paralyzing effect on the federal bureaucracy and the government seems in no hurry to fill the gap, Dawn has learnt through reliable sources.

Currently, several hundred positions are lying vacant in various departments and divisions of the federal government due to unavailability of officers, they said.

With each passing year, the number of vacant seats in the federal bureaucracy rises, thanks to successive governments’ failure to bring about much-needed reforms in civil services to make it an attractive career for talented students.

According to information gathered by Dawn from various sections, sanctioned posts in BPS 17 in federal bureaucracy stand at 469, of which 219 are occupied and rest of the seats are waiting for new appointments.

When it came to BPS 18, things are a bit better as compared to BPS 17. In BPS 18, approved strength of positions is 468, of which 300 are filled while rests are lying vacant.

There is a shortage of 50 officers to provide 100 per cent occupancy rate in the BPS 19, whose total sanctioned strength stands at 268. In BPS 20, there are 141 sanctioned posts, whereas 50 of them are unoccupied.

Though there isn’t any fixed number of positions in BPS 21 and 22 which could vary depending upon the requirement at the top level of bureaucracy, however, according to sources, 20-each seat are presently lying vacant in both these grades as far as their existing strength is concerned.

A number of factors have led to this acute shortage of officers in the federal bureaucracy. Over the last few years, Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC) could not find suitable candidates to fill vacant positions through highly competitive examination of Central Superior Services (CSS).

In 2007, the Establishment Division reported 299 vacancies to be filled on the basis of competitive examination in various occupational groups, but the commission could only find 189 appropriate candidates.

Whereas, 110 vacancies remained vacant that would be filled during this year.

Similarly, during the competitive examination of 2006, the FPSC had no option but to leave 47 vacancies unoccupied that were added to the following year.

Before that, in 2005, the situation was not much different and the commission failed in its search for appropriate candidates for the CSS, and 25 seats could not be filled.

Moreover, the service structure of civil services is abysmally poor as compared to the private sector that offers far better perks and privileges to potential candidates, which is also an important factor that had played an important role in making the CSS not so attractive for outstanding graduates, a young official at the establishment division told Dawn.

There is an urgent need of a whole range of transformation of civil services, otherwise, the present trend would continue and the civil establishment would suffer from quality public service managers.