OMG officers decry proposed NES’s discontinuation

LAHORE: Office Management Group (OMG) officers have expressed reservations against the proposed discontinuation of OMG/SG in National Executive Service (NES). In a letter to Dr Ishrat Hussain, SAPM on Institutional Reforms, Prime Minister’s Office, they said that it would be a discrimination against the OMG/SG. In the recent proposal to create a National Executive Service (NES), it has been proposed that Office Management Group OMG/SG be discontinued in the future while the existing incumbents of OMG/SG continue to have current terms and conditions of service. They said that it would be a human right violation of the career progression of OMG officers who are the backbone of federal bureaucracy. All other groups/cadres have been allowed to exist unchanged in their respective domains. “It is not only against the established principles of justice but also ignores the contentious distribution of posts in the Federal Secretariat. The posts of deputy secretary, joint secretary, additional secretary and secretary are the legitimate career path of OMG/SG officers, which have been usurped by unconstitutional SROs 88 and 89 of 2014, unjustly skewed in favour of PAS,” the letter said.

“Due to this injustice, career prospects of over 1,000 OMG/SG officers have been compromised, and without the slightest gain in the policy performance of the Federal Secretariat,” it pointed out.

“The rightful posts of OMG/SG in Federal Secretariat have already been occupied by PAS; therefore, the assumption that posts for NES are being carved out of the share of PAS, is fundamentally false. OMG officers will be the most affected by this step, since they are primarily posted against federal secretariat posts. The proposal under discussion seems to be highly biased towards PAS, and discriminatory against OMG/SG.”

Keeping in view the apprehensions of the young officers of Pakistan Administrative Service, addition of new posts in Grades 20-22 has been proposed. Young OMG officers, most of whom have passed the same CSS examination as PAS officers, share the apprehensions of their PAS colleagues.

“It has been proposed with regard to existing incumbents belonging to OMG/SG that they can compete for the NES cadre or selection for Staff Officers or be appointed against other vacancies in the federal government. For this purpose, the posts of Staff Officers in Grade, 18, 19 and 20 would be created to assist deputy secretaries, joint secretaries and secretaries to promote horizontal rather than vertical hierarchy. This particular proposed treatment of OMG/SG is not only discriminatory, but also against the international best practices in governance and public policy.”

They demanded the government address these structural instances of discrimination on priority basis. They also suggested merger of OMG and Secretariat group into one and rename it as Pakistan Public Policy Service, since these officers are contributing significantly to national level policy matters. The designation of an OMG officer in both BS-17 and 18 is Section Officer, which is not only against the established principles of career progression, but also a demotivating factor for these young officers, they said and demanded that the BS-18 posts of Section Officer be re-designated / renamed as Assistant Secretary so that promotion to BS-18 may be a matter of pride and motivation for the young officers.