Management cadre doctors and reported anomalies in promotions

KP Health Diary

PESHAWAR: The management cadre doctors have succeeded in getting approved their promotion from the Provincial Selection Board (PSB) despite reports of irregularities in induction and promotions that appeared at various forums.

Upset over the development, the general cadre doctors had sent a two-page application to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief secretary on August 26 last year. They had sought his attention towards the alleged irregularities in induction and promotion of the management cadre doctors. They never get any response.

The health management cadre was introduced as a separate cadre for doctors working in the Health Department on December 11, 2008.

The doctors complained the option policy wasn’t widely circulated and just one week time was given to them to make the choice.

A doctor said 14 doctors who were not qualified in 2009 and had taken degrees in July/August 2009 and 2010 were included in the new cadre.

He said the degrees were not verified. He said only one was verified due to some personal reasons and it also turned out to be a fake.

A group of general cadre doctors said that no condition of Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) and Higher Education Commission (HEC) recognition of degrees were put at the time of introducing the new cadre.

It merits mention that the condition of recognition by PMDC was unanimously agreed in a meeting held on November 13, 2009 in the Health Department under the chairmanship of the additional secretary health.

The doctors said at the time of creation of this cadre in 2009, the department didn’t call those who did post-graduation and Master’s in Public Health (MPH), thus depriving not only the qualified people of their due right but also wasting huge investment made by the government on human resource development.

Later all the doctors in the management cadre were directed to register their management degrees with the PMDC at the earliest and it was stated that any additional or higher qualification acquired by doctors will be considered ultra vires unless and until it was recognised by the PMDC.

All those who were qualified at the time or had improved their qualification after that should have been given a chance without any prejudice or discrimination, but surprisingly the posts of BS-19 advertised through the Public Service Commission since 2012 have been withdrawn by the department recently on the pretext of MTI Act 2015. No cut has been put on internal promotions again denying a chance to hundreds of eligible doctors.

Rule 8 states that private practice is prohibited for all those who have opted for this cadre, but to-date most of them are running clinics and hospitals, getting non-practicing allowance and also enjoying the lucrative posts of this cadre.

The appointment and promotions method given in Schedule-II of the rules has been misinterpreted as definition of the word “service” is given in the rules which means Health Management Service and the length of service required for promotion is five years for BS-20, seven for BS-19 and five for BS-18 after the notification of the cadre in late 2009 . This put a huge question mark on all the promotions made in this cadre so far.

All the subsequent promotions given in this cadre in 2012, 2013 and 2014 and recently the recommendations given by the PSB for BPS-18 to BPS-19 on July 27, 2016 are premature and in violation of these rules.

Most of the applications for this cadre were given after the last date of application, ie July 6, 2009.

Up to 170 out of the 187 doctors in this cadre either gave applications after the last date of the deadline or submitted dateless applications.

“Why such an irregularity has never been detected and noted? It is a general principle that once an option has been given for a new cadre, that person ceases the right of the previous cadre, but the most astonishing thing happened when 18-20 doctors who opted for management cadre on or before July 6, 2009 were given promotions from BS-17 to 18 in general cadre on September 10, 2009. Three more doctors of the same cadre were given promotion in general cadre on November 22, 2011 and then all those were promoted again in management cadre on March 6, 2013, October 21, 2013 and September 22, 2014 setting aside rules and regulations. Why knowingly this irregularity has been committed and never corrected,” one of the aggrieved doctors asked.

“Recently the Lahore High Court through a judgment demoted 40-45 senior superintendents of police to the rank of deputy superintendents of police because of getting out of turn/illegal promotions. Then why not these promotions be given in general cadre after exercising option for management cadre can be overturned,” he said.

It also needs to be mentioned here that Master of Public Health (MPH) tackles with the preventive aspect rather than the management aspect of health. How these degree holders were assigned the responsibilities in the management cadre?

The doctors want the chief secretary to play his role in view of the above facts. They seek all future promotions in health management cadre, particularly the current BS-18 to 19 stopped forthwith.

They also want seniority list to be brought back to the status of June 2009 as these promotions have been in violation of the rules.

They also want the recovery of all the received non-practicing allowance to be made from those doing private practice and disciplinary action taken against the violators of Rule 8.

They want that scrutiny/verification of post-graduation degrees/documents should be carried out of all those who have made it into the management cadre. Besides, they want dates of declaration of results or degrees of all those who are in management cadre to be verified to find out those who acquired degrees in 2010 or later to make it to the cadre which was closed on July 6, 2009.