LAHORE - The Punjab government has acquired the services of a London-based firm to measure the workload of bureaucrats, suggest steps to improve their performance and their eligibility to draw executive allowance.

E&Y, which is one of the ‘big four’ accounting firms and one of the largest professional services firms, will be paid Rs1 billion for the job, The Nation has learnt.

However, senior bureaucrats insist that the job could be performed by a committee of officers and there was no need for the government to spend the huge amount on a foreign firm.

A proposal in this regard was also floated during the tenure of former Chief Secretary Khizar Hayat Gondal. However, Chief Minister Shahbaz had asked how all the officers could be given equal allowances irrespective of their job nature. Thereupon the officers presented a B-Plan which also failed to convince the CM. He was advised that officers performing hard assignments in major departments could be given more allowance as compared to those working in small departments like Usher & Zakat.

“We were demanding a small part of the amount being given to the firm hired for the purpose of calculating work load, ” said the officer adding the E&Y had held meetings with the officers and collected data. “It will waste time and money to the loss of the competent officers” he feared.It is to be noted that the Punjab government notified an allowance of Rs 400,000 to the chief secretary, administrative head of the government, and Rs 375,000 for IGP other than their salaries.

Meanwhile, the executive allowance for other positions like  Senior Member Board of Revenue (SMBR), P&D chairman, additional chief secretary, administrative secretaries,  CMIT chairman, Anti-Corruption Establishment DG, director generals, additional secretaries, deputy secretaries Etc were to be given handsome allowances after the nod of the CM office. A handsome amount from Rs 45,000 to Rs 300,000 was to be given to officers falling in different scales.

A proposal was moved to the CM office after the senior officers showed concern over the appointment of junior officers in different projects who draw high packages. Moreover, government officers and private persons working at the helm of affairs in the Healthcare Commission, Higher Education Commission, Overseas Pakistanis Commission, Punjab Land Records Authority, Punjab Saaf Pani Company, Punjab Revenue Authority and many others were drawing huge sums of money. A grade-19 officer, Ahad Khan Cheema, was drawing over Rs 1.5 million in an energy project run by the province, Mujahid Sherdil, Capt (R) Zafar Iqbal and many others were also taking Rs 0.8 m or so while a BPS-22 chief secretary draws Rs 173,000 only.

Now that even the Chief Secretary and Inspector General Police have failed to get the superior executive allowance,  chances for other officers to get the same have dimmed.