LAYYAH: The deputy commissioner (DC) has recommended that the School Education Department take appropriate action against the Layyah education authority chief executive officer (CEO) over her negligence in the lapse of the non-salary budget (NSB).

The lapse of NSB worth Rs551.811 million, allocated to the education authority for 1,486 primary, elementary and high secondary schools, was earlier reported by Dawn.

After the establishment of the district education authority months ago, the NSB was transferred to its account on April 12.

Layyah DC Wajid Ali Shah, in his letter to the school education secretary, stated the education department had sanctioned Rs551.811 million for school councils, which was transferred to the special drawing account jointly operated by the education authority CEO, Khalida Shaheen, and the secondary district education officer (DEO) on May 11. The CEO had referred the matter of disbursement of money to the DEO to issue cheques for school councils. The letter says the deputy finance director of the education authority did not initiate the necessary process. The CEO also did not refer the matter to the deputy finance director.

The DC says that after probing into the matter and interviewing the officials, he found that “the conduct of the CEO has been casual in dealing with other important assignment also; for instance, in all district review committee meetings held so far she delayed taking appropriate action against slow movers despite my repeated directions”.

She rarely attended her office, so she was advised to pay personal attention towards her office, the letter says. Similarly, she was issued a displeasure note on April 12 on her poor performance and delaying procurement of IT labs equipment and furniture.

The DC added the officers of education and district accounts put the school education department in an awkward situation because of dereliction of their duties.

The DC also wrote to the finance department to proceed against Deputy Finance Director Taj Muhammad, Deputy Accounts Director Muhammad Riaz and Senior Auditor Mehar Zafar for their inaction in the NSB matter.

Published in Dawn, July 12th, 2017