CDA more generous with contract employees

[Salman]

CDA more generous with contract employees

ISLAMABAD, Jan 21: Capital Development Authority (CDA) is paying contractual employees well above the standard pay package set by the Finance Division, documents obtained by Dawn reveal.

Moreover, the CDA bosses are also pushing for regularisation of contractual employees and bypassing its own officials for promotions which have created much resentment within the civic body.

Project Management Office (PMO) was established to recruit managers to run the CDA along corporate lines. Project officials hired on posts equal to grades 1 to 17 were to be paid between Rs7,000 and Rs50,000. Those on appointments equal to grade 18 were to be paid up to Rs75,000 and were further eligible for a five per cent annual increment.

However, there are at least five project directors (equivalent to grade 18) who are drawing salaries of Rs158,000 a month each.

Government officials claim that paying these contractual project directors inflated salaries was unjustified as they were not producing results while drawing heft pay cheques.

A CDA official on the request of anonymity said: “The costs of most projects have gone up and they have not been completed within the stipulated time period. For instance, when the Zero Point Interchange (ZPI) project initiated in Sept 2008, its cost
was set at Rs2.27 billion but three years on it stood at Rs4.15 billion. Similarly, the cost of Lehtrar Road Project, started in 2009, jumped from Rs581 million to Rs1.27 billion.”

Given that the agency is cash-strapped and the contractual employees have not been able to bring about a major turn-around, for many government officers it is surprising that the CDA is pushing for regularisation of these directors and officials.

“The CDA high-ups recently sent a list with the names of the project directors to the Cabinet Division’s committee for regularisation of contractual and daily wage employees,” maintained the official.

However, as per the finance ministry’s laid down rules, “the project employees will be appointed on contract basis.”

“Instead of promoting its own officials hired on merit and through government business rules, contractual project directors are, instead, being considered for permanent appointments. These posts can only be filled in through advertisements in newspapers and not internally,” asserted a Legal Wing official of the authority.

He said: “Around 48 engineers are already working on current charge basis in grade 18 and around 11 engineers in grade 19 but the authority is ignoring their promotions. We have raised the matter in the High Court and a letter has been written to the Supreme Court over the issue.”

When contacted by Dawn, CDA Chairman Farkhand Iqbal said: “There are around 1,096 daily wage and contract employees including these project directors. They have not been regularised as the matter is pending before a parliamentary committee headed by Minister for Religious Affairs Khurshid Shah.”

When asked why the CDA was pushing for permanent induction given that they were not eligible, Mr Iqbal replied: “We need these project directors because if we don’t induct them we will lose them. Their demand is very high in the market.”

When pointed out that most of the project directors were drawing salaries in violation of the finance ministry rules, Mr Iqbal clarified: “Once these officials are inducted in the regular grades, they will be paid as per the government salaries so the issue will be resolved. I don’t see any issue with this move.”