Under the cover of the presidential ordinance of 2009 on the reinstatement of sacked employees, the PPP government secretly and illegally appointed 242 persons in various educational institutions falling under the jurisdiction of the federal Directorate of Education (FDE).
Official documents available with Pakistan Today reveal that FDE reinstated as many as 407 employees in various educational institutions of the capital under the presidential ordinance for the reinstatement of all sacked employees who had been employed by Benazir Bhutto’s second government and were fired during Nawaz Sharif’s second term as the prime minister. The document says the Ministry of Education cleared the reinstatement of only 165 employees, while the remaining 242 had not met the criteria.
The Audit Report 2010-11 of the accounts of the Ministry of Education for financial year 2009-10, yet o be made public, says, “The presidential ordinance dated December 14, 2009, provided relief to persons who were appointed in a corporation service or autonomous or semi-autonomous bodies or in government service during the period from November, 1, 1993 to November, 30, 1996 and who were dismissed, removed or terminated from service between November, 1, 1996 to December, 31, 1998 and subsequently extended the period up to October, 12, 1999, shall be reinstated immediately in service one scale higher to their substantive scale of the post at the time of termination of service and report for duty to their respective departments and organisations.”
The report further says: “Audit noted that the Federal Directorate of Education, Islamabad reinstated 407 sacked employees with effect from August, 1, 2009 on the basis of data verified by the respective educational institutions. The data was submitted to the Ministry of Education for further scrutiny, which cleared only 165 of these employees as meeting the criteria for reinstatement. Audit was not in position to authenticate how many individuals were actually reinstated and whether the individuals reinstated met the eligibility criteria, as the relevant record was not provided to audit despite several requests. Audit holds that non-production of record limited the scope of audit and impeded the process of accountability and transparency.”
Audit authorities have also recommend that responsibility be fixed, disciplinary action be initiated against officials responsible for the lapse under relevant Efficiency and Discipline Rules as required under Section 14(3) of Auditor’s General (Functions, Powers and Terms and Conditions of Service) Ordinance, 2001 and record be provided to audit for review. In another audit objection, the federal audit authorities have pointed out gross irregularities in fresh appointments by FDE as it appointed as many as 171 teachers without following set rules and procedures. “The FDE advertised 280 vacant posts of teaching staff – 195 Matriculate Trained Teachers (MTT) and 85 Trained Under-Graduate Teachers (TUGT) in May 2009.
Walk-in interviews were held in June, 2009 to fill the vacant posts. The appointments were made in June and July 2009 in two phases. “The audit observed that the management actually recruited 451 teaching staff against the 280 advertised positions. However, the management did not provide the detailed record to audit for further scrutiny,” the report said.
