CSB member seeks reformation in promotion system

ISLAMABAD: A member of the high powered promotion body for the civilian bureaucracy -- Central Selection Board -- has sought reforms in the flawed promotion system to avoid unnecessary litigation.

Former IG KPK Nasir Durrani, who has been member of CSB for the last three years and is presently member of Punjab Public Service Commission, in a recent letter written to Chairman FPSC and Secretary Establishment sought reformation in the promotion process. 

He recommended setting up of “Pre-screening board” to better assess and document the integrity, competence and repute of the officers before sending their cases to CSB.

He said, “There is a wide scope to improve the whole process for having better leaders who could play a strategic role in policy formulation and implementation and to avoid unnecessary litigation due to flaws in the selection process.”

Durrani said, in the letter, that besides examining Performance Evaluation Reports (PERs, commonly known as ACRs) two major aspects are given attention for recommending officers to the next grade. These are integrity and capability of the officers to hold senior positions.

For integrity, he said, the general procedure is to rely on intelligence reports and personal opinion of the board members. Theoretically it may be sufficient to come to the conclusion for dropping the officers from promotion on the basis of these two components but generally they are not sufficient to stand the test of trial in the court of law. Most of the officers thus manage to get stay orders from the courts on the ground that they have not been confronted with the allegations and the selection board does not have any substantial evidence about their credentials.

Similarly, he said, other officers are promoted to the senior ranks but later on they are not found suitable for holding policy-making assignments on account of their professional incompetency.

To overcome these problems, Durrani suggested, before formal CSB meeting a “prescreening board” should be held for all those officers who are eligible to be promoted to the next grade to look into the following aspects:

“1. Intelligence Report: It is a basic principle of natural justice that no one should be condemned unheard and this principle is also applied in the Armed Forces of Pakistan where officers are confronted by a high level Board with the allegations and on the basis of their explanation the Board makes its opinion about the officers. I am of the view that in civil officers’ cases too this pattern of the Armed Forces be followed. Officers must be confronted with the nature of allegations and must be given an opportunity of being heard and examined by a three-member Board having one member each from Establishment Division, the FPSC and the Department concerned.

“2. Integrity: As per Establishment Code all officers are required to submit annual statement of Assets and Liabilities of themselves and their dependents. They are further required to give complete details of annual expenditure on education of their children, foreign tours and other routine expenses etc. There is a need to have a Technical Board comprising Income Tax experts and departmental representatives to evaluate these declarations of the officers at the time of his/her joining service and the last submitted statement. The board may also recommend its opinion about the officers from expenditure incurred and the standard of his/her living.

“3. Competence: The eligible officers for promotion must be interviewed by a board of senior experts who should see the performance of the officers in tangible form from his past career and his ability to handle the future assignments.”

Durrani recommended that all these three reports/opinions must be placed before the CSB for debate and decision on the principle of collective wisdom. He believes that this process will not only improve promotion system but also remove the heartburning on account of discrimination and consequent litigation which hamper the whole process of career progression and badly affects the performance of the officers and their service delivery.