PM Office slow, ministries slower in implementing DRS

ISLAMABAD: Despite directions and regular monitoring from the Prime Minister Office’s, no government official has yet been prematurely retired by any ministry, division or agency under the Directory Retirement scheme introduced early last year by the PTI government to weed out deadwood from the civil bureaucracy.

Apparently, the ministries and divisions are matching the Prime Minister Office’s own slow pace as the recommendations of a high-powered board for the early retirement of around two dozen BS-20 to BS-22 officers have been waiting for the premier’s approval for the last several months.

In April last year, rules were framed following which the Prime Minister’s Office issued a directive to all ministries and divisions to constitute retirement boards and a retirement committee, as provided in the rules, to start processing cases as per the law based on material evidence. For the purpose of implementing this new scheme, all the federal ministries and divisions were directed to maintain a list of civil servants who have completed a specified length of service and fall in the category of those fulfilling the grounds for retirement.

In many cases, the committees were constituted by the ministries/divisions, the process was initiated, and meetings held but their conclusions are still awaited. The PM Office, it is said, had set deadlines for the finalization of the process this year but the results are still awaited.

According to an official source, contrary to expectations that a very large number of inefficient and ill-reputed officers would be prematurely retired, those facing action would not be large in number.

The retirement board and retirement committee have already been notified. For premature retirement of BS 20 officers and above, there will be a retirement board consisting of the Chairman FPSC, who will be the head of the body, while its members will be secretaries of the Cabinet Division, Establishment Division, Finance Division, Law and Justice Division and Secretary/head of the division concerned.

For premature retirement of BS 20 officers and above, a retirement board called Directory Retirement Board was constituted consisting of the Chairman FPSC, who is head of the body, while its members include secretaries of the Cabinet Division, Establishment Division, Finance Division, Law and Justice Division and Secretary/head of the division concerned.

For the premature retirement of BS 19 and below officials, each ministry/division was to set up their own retirement committees to recommend to the competent authority Directory Retirement from service.

According to the rules, the retirement committee for BS 17 to 19 officers shall consist of a chairman, who will be an additional secretary or senior joint secretary of the division concerned; representatives of the Establishment Division, Finance Division, Law Division and head of the department or officer concerned.

The retirement committee for civil servants in BS 16 and below will consist of the chairperson, who will be a senior joint secretary or joint secretary of the division concerned, representatives of the Establishment Division, Finance Division, Law Division, and head of the department/office concerned.

Grounds for early retirement have already been notified and these include officers who: a) have received average performance evaluation reports (PERs), formerly known as ACR) or adverse remarks have been recorded in three or more PERs from three different officers; b) have been twice recommended for supersession by the Central Selection Board (CSB), Departmental Selection Board (DSB) or Departmental Promotion Board (DPB) or have been twice not recommended for promotion by the high powered Selection Board and such recommendations have been approved by the competent authority; c) have been found guilty of corruption or have entered into a plea bargain or voluntary return with NAB or any other investigating agency; d) have on more than one occasion been placed in category ‘C’ by the CSB, DSB or DPC under the Civil Servants Promotion (BS 18-21) Rules, 2019; and e) have been guilty of conduct unbecoming.

While the PM Office is pushing and setting deadlines for the ministries and divisions to complete the task for this year, the prime minister has yet to approve the recommendations of the high-powered Directory Retirement Board (DBR) that called for premature retirement of almost two dozen senior civil servants in April this year.

The government had convened a meeting of the Directory Retirement Board in the third week of April to consider the premature retirement of those officers considered deadwood. The Board continued its deliberation for three days and had recommended the retirement of over 20 officers.