• The veterinary doctors were appointed on ad hoc basis in 2018, PAC meeting told
• Fisheries dept faces scrutiny over ‘illegal’ appointments

KARACHI: The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the Sindh Assembly was on Thursday informed that as many as 132 veterinary doctors, appointed on an ad hoc basis in grade-17 in the fisheries and livestock department in 2018, had been made permanent without their passing the Sindh Public Service Commission examination.

The PAC meeting, held with Chairman Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, was further told that an amount of Rs7.731 million had also been spent on the salaries of the permanent veterinary doctors.

The meeting was attended by Fisheries and Livestock Secretary Kazim Hussain Jatoi, Director General of Fisheries and Livestock Nazir Hussain Kalhoro, Director General of Audit Sindh and other officers, besides PAC members.

While examining the audit paragraphs of the department, it was revealed that the DG Audit had declared illegal the process of making permanent 132 veterinary doctors recruited on contract in 2015 without passing the SPSC exam.

It was also revealed that the ad hoc appointments of veterinary doctors were made without advertising the vacancies in the newspapers.

The fisheries and livestock secretary and director general informed the PAC that appointments of veterinary doctors as pointed out by Audit were actually made on contract basis by the competent authority.

They said that the contractual employees were regularised in 2018 with the approval of the chief minister being the competent authority after the passage of law by the Sindh Assembly.

The fisheries and livestock department officials said that all the relevant record of appointment of 132 veterinary doctors was available.

PAC Chairman Nisar Khuhro inquired from the officials as to why the fisheries and livestock department had not so far got the record of appointment verified from the Audit department, if the services of the veterinary doctors were regularised in accordance with the law passed by the provincial assembly.

He made it clear to the officials of the fisheries and livestock department that the audit para regarding the regularisation of services of contractual employees would not be settled without the verification of the entire record by the audit department.

PAC member Qasim Soomro said that the Sindh High Court had already ruled that the services of the contractual employees could not be regularised without passing the SPSC examination.

PAC Secretary Muhammad Khan Rind remarked that the Supreme Court had also ordered that the appointments on ad hoc basis or contract could not be made without advertising the vacancies in newspapers.

Responding to a question raised by the PAC chairman, the DG of fisheries and livestock department said that there were 850 veterinary doctors against the 1,000 sanctioned posts across the province.

Mr Khuhro ordered to issue directions to all provincial departments to get their respective audit paragraphs verified from the audit department before submitting them before the PAC.

He also expressed displeasure over the failure of the provincial departments in presenting the verified audit papers before the PAC.

It was also revealed in the PAC meeting that the fisheries and livestock department failed to spend the allocated and sanctioned funds on development schemes, leading to lapse of funds.

When asked for the lapse of funds, the director general of the department informed the PAC that the delayed release of funds was one of the major reasons behind the lapse of funds. Giving an example, he said that once Rs250 million were released on June 13 during the drought in Thar, while the closing date was June 15 and it was not possible to utilise the funds within the span of mere two days.

The PAC adjourned the meeting on fisheries and livestock department for 10 days, directing the department to present verified audit paragraphs in the next meeting.

Published in Dawn, November 8th, 2024