ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister (PM) Secretariat has withheld the grade 18 and below federal employees hiring allowance summary for two months. The summary recommended a 30 per cent increase in allowance of federal government employees.
According to information available with this scribe, the higher ups of PM secretariat had withheld the hiring allowance summary of grade 18 and below government officials.
Sources said that the Ministry of Finance had recommended 30 per cent increase in hiring allowance of grade 18 or below government officials. Earlier, the Ministry of Housing and Works had submitted a summary with the prime minister to increase rental ceiling of the federal government employees up to 70 per cent, they added.
Sources also said that the total amount of 30 per cent increase in the rental ceiling amounted to Rs 2 billion. We are entering election year and the government would most likely give a nod to this approval, however if the prime minister gave approval of 70 per cent increase, then the Ministry of Finance would have to arrange more than Rs 6 billion to please the employees, sources added.
Currently, grade 17 and 18 officers were getting Rs 19,000, grade 19 officers were getting Rs 25,000, grade 20 officers getting Rs 32,000, grade 21 officers getting Rs 38,000, and grade 22 officers were getting Rs 45,000 hiring allowance.
Sources informed that the real beneficiaries of this allowance were lower grade government employees, due to which higher officials at the PM secretariat were not entertaining the issue.
A PM secretariat officer, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that a summary of hiring allowance was pending with the finance or some other division as the Secretariat had cleared this summary many weeks ago.
Earlier, the rental ceiling for the government employees was increased up to 35 per cent during the year 2014-15, although the Ministry of Housing and Works had recommended a 100 per cent increase in the rental ceiling, while the division recommended 35 per cent increase.
Furthermore, one more summary was moved in May, 2015 for enhancement of remaining 65 per cent, which was not recommended by the Finance Division, but the PM Office had endorsed the recommendations of the division.
