This is with reference to the advertisement by the State Bank of Pakistan, which appeared in national newspaper on 19th August, 2012 for the recruitment of Economic Analysts on scale OG-3. According to the best of my knowledge, in 2008 a similar advertisement was published to recruit Economic Analysts on scale OG-2. Thousands of candidates applied for those positions and after written examination followed by a panel interview, 17 candidates were selected across Pakistan. Some of those candidates were medal holders from the best institutions of the country. These analysts, selected on merit, were imparted 6 months comprehensive training at NIBAF, foreign trainings at IMF (USA and Singapore) and they now have an experience of 4 years.
However, after interviewing all existing economic analysts hired in 2007 and 2008 by SBP, the Chief Economic Advisor (Policy Development) found none of these analysts, who were hired after a proper procedure, suitable enough to handle the sectors of energy, automobiles and pricing/inflation. This is because the Chief Economic Advisor, who himself was appointed on ad hoc basis by the former governor, hired two analysts in 2010 and 2011 on a contractual basis without following the standard recruitment procedure which entails advertisement, examination and interviews. It seems that in order to regularize those two contractual analysts and to accommodate a third favorite candidate, the aforementioned advertisement has been published.
The pertinent question is: was the money spent on training and development of the hired-on-merit analysts a waste of public resources or did the Chief Economic Advisor just want to bestow his contractual favorites with not only a permanent position at the SBP but also a higher grade (OG-3)? Why is a single person with authority misusing his position by indulging in favoritism and nepotism at the cost of merit? Why is the Governor of State Bank not looking into this matter and allowing such alleged malpractices? For how long can a country afford to run its national institutions through the misuse of personal discretion?
S T HUSSAIN
Lahore
as per my knowledge, every vacancy must be advisertised for internal recruitment in SBP. Only after ascertaining that no suitable candidate is there within SBP (for promotion from an immediate lower grade), the vanacy is advertised.
It seems that these vacancies could not be either filled through the laid down procedure (since no suitable candidate could be found), or some other favourites are to be inducted, as alleged in the post.
If, as alleged, the two contractual officers are regularized, then this allegation materializes. Until then, this remains an allegation.
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