Govt officer sent on compulsory retirement on inefficiency charges

ISLAMABAD: In a rare move, the federal government has sent a grade 19-officer from postal services group on compulsory retirement on the charges of inefficiency. However, the official concerned claims he is being victimized as the government took no action against 18 officials in the same case.

On September 18, 2019 the Secretary Postal Services issued orders of sending Rasheedullah Kundi, a grade-19 officer from postal services group on compulsory retirement. As per the official orders, Kundi has been found guilty of ‘insufficiency & misconduct’ and therefore he has been imposed major penalty of compulsory retirement from the service.

Kundi has been levelled nine allegations by the inquiry officer on the basis of which Secretary Postal Services has issued order of his compulsory retirement. These charges include inappropriate seating plan for the candidates during recruitment examination, no duty plan for the staff posted on examination duty, no account of blank answer sheets, and attendance of duty staff as well as candidates was not obtained for the second and third paper though it was obtained for the first paper.

In his order the Secretary Postal Services writes, “The Inquiry Officer investigated the allegations levelled against accused officer in the statement of allegations and after going through the relevant record, examining the witnesses etc. the authorized officer came to the conclusion that all allegations stand proved against the accused officer. After going though the facts of the case, findings of the Inquiry Officer and record of the disciplinary case, the authorized officer arrived at the conclusion that the accused have been found guilty of “inefficiency & misconduct” as discussed in detail in the charge sheet and inquiry report.

The charge sheet, a copy of which is available with The News says, “On the basis of press advertisement dated 09-11-2017, centralized recruitment examination was conducted in the KP Circle Peshawar under your supervision. However, you failed to get the job completed according to procedures and serious irregularities were pointed out which resulted unpleasant incident of firing between two groups of Union. You have been found guilty of the following poor management of the examination and recruitment process”.

i) The seating plan of the candidates was not prepared.

ii) No duty plan was prepared for the staff assigned duty for conducting examination.

iii) Each paper on conclusion was not counted with attendance sheet, not sealed in bag but taken over in custody by the Assistant Director (staff) uncounted for.

iv) Attendance of the duty staff as well as candidates was not obtained in the 2nd and 3rd papers

v) In 1st paper (oral reading addresses), the attendance was obtained on the award list in spite of the fact that each page of the list was signed by the Head examiner.

vi) Marks were given against the Roll Nos of the absent candidates.

vii) Absentees list was also not prepared.

viii) Disposal of answer sheets taken from the candidates not found.

ix) No account of blank answer sheets found maintained.

Talking to The News Rasheedullah Kundi said he has been victimized as there were 18 other officers who were charge sheeted in the same case. However, only he has been sent on compulsory retirement and no action has been taken against the rest of the 18 officers.

He said he was issued show-cause notice and he responded to the said notice. The Director General (DG) Postal Services called him for personal hearing on June 12, 2019. During this hearing he discussed the flaws in the inquiry report. The DG Postal Services was convinced and he promised to take action against the Inquiry Officer as there were no allegations of financial corruption against him. However, instead of giving him relief the Secretary issued orders of his compulsory retirement.

When contacted Secretary Postal Services Hamid Haroon said he gave ample opportunity to the accused to prove his innocence which he failed. After hearing him and going through the record I took this decision. This is in fact a favour to him that he has sent him on compulsory retirement so that he could avail the benefits including pension.

To a question about the status of other 18 officials who were involved in this case too, the Secretary said the Ministry is conducting an inquiry against those 18 officials. The authorities concerned will take action against those officials if they found guilty, said the Secretary.