LAHORE - Twenty senior officers in the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) have been working on audit department-doubted promotional posts, it has been learnt.
According to the document available with The Nation, these officers were working on the posts for which their promotions were declared ‘irregular’ by the audit department.
A departmental promotion committee (DPC) promoted six officers from grade 17 to grade 18 while 13 others were promoted from grade 16 to grade 17 in 2010. Munawar Khan, Saeed Anwar, Arshad Saleem, Shuja Ali Bokhari, Muhammad Javed and Syed Faraz Abbas were promoted from grade 17 to 18 while Aftab Ahmad, Tahir Saeed Anwar, Asif Raza Sheikh, Kaleem Ahmad Qureshi, Muhammad Bashir Ali, Uzma Shehzadi, Tariq Javed, Noor Aslam Khan, Nadeem, Dhareejo, Mirwaiz, Rashid Ahmad Tunio, Zakaullah, Sunbal and Muhammad Boota got promotions from grade 16 to 17.
But the audit department objected to the promotions in 2011. “In ETP Board, the DPC meetings were held on June 30, 2010 and July 16, 2010 without the approval of department head, the chairman, when he was on leave,” the audit department cited.
“The acting chairman, who was given the mandate to look after the day-to-day affairs, convened these DPC meetings in violation of rules. Moreover promotions, appointments and any other disciplinary action did not come into the proviso of day-to-day work.
All promotions made in these DPC meetings in the absence of chairman were irregular and therefore, these meetings should be reconvened by the chairman himself and also ensured discontinuation of such a practice in future under intimation to audit,” the audit department reported.
In 2011, the Ministry of Minorities Affair Division took notice of the mater and wrote a letter to the ETPB chairman.
The ministry in its letter said that DPCs held under the vice chairman were irregular since the vice chairman was not competent (authority) to do so. The chairman was on leave and in his absence such DPCs cannot be convened.
The ministry directed the ETPB chairman to review the minutes of DPCs and convene a fresh moot. However after four years, no such meeting was convened and promoted officers were working against their new positions rather some of them had been promoted to next grade.
Despite repeated attempts, ETPB Chairman Siddiqul Farooq could not be reached for comment.