Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The country’s top bureaucrats have thrown the Transport Monetisation Policy into the proverbial dustbin.

The Daily Times learnt Fawad Hassan Fawad, Tahir Shahbaz, Nadeem Hassan Asif, Shahid Ashraf Tarar, Tariq Bajwa, Tariq Mahmood Pasha, and Yousaf Naseem Khokhar are violating the policy.

Currently, 94 officers of BS-22, 178 of BS-21 and 555 of BS-20 are using the monetisation policy despite having cars in their possession; asserting it was required for protocol or general duty.

The government is providing Rs 95,910 to a BPS-22 officer for car allowance, Rs 77,430 to a BPS-21 officer and Rs 65,960 to a BPS-20 officer if they choose not to use official vehicles.

According to the estimates, the Accountant General Pakistan Revenues (AGPR) is paying Rs 59.405 million per month to 827 officers in this regard.

Sources added that around 544 BPS-20 officers and above bought the allocated cars on a depreciated price after the approval of policy in 2012. Currently, there are 42 divisions and 32 ministries in the federal capital. Curiously, 100 percent of the officers are making use of the monetisation policy.

“Secretaries, joint secretaries, and additional secretaries are also enjoying the privilege of official vehicles that have a government number plate,” sources added.

The monetisation policy was approved by the federal government for civil servants of grade 20 and above to cater for their maintenance expenditures. It eliminates the possibility of misusing official vehicles that have a green government number plate. No doctors, teachers, and professors are entitled to these as per the policy rules.

In the policy, it is mentioned in XXIII that each ministry, division, or department will prepare and submit to the cabinet division and finance division every month a report on the expenditures relating to CNG, POL and maintenance of the operational and general duty vehicles.

A Ministry of Finance official said that no monthly report has been made for the past two years and there is no check and balance on this policy.

The ministry had prepared a report on the policy two years ago when parliament asked for details on this, sources added.

The officer also said the policy has failed to limit the expenditures of CNG, POL and the maintenance of the operational and general duty vehicles.

The government has around 72,000 employees at present and the total expenditure of petrol and maintenance was Rs 700 million in 2010-2011. Now, it stood at Rs 1.29 billion in 2015-2016.

Sources in the Establishment Division said that previously the expenditures on account of transport, maintenance of vehicles and petrol of officers in BS-20, 21 and 22 alone was about Rs 180 million yearly.

Accordingly Rs. 712.87 million per annum was given to the 827 officers of grade 20, 21 and 22.

Grade 20 officers are getting Rs 36.607m, BS-21 are getting Rs 13.782m and BS-22 are getting Rs 9.01m per month. From 1st January 2012 to 1st January 2017, the officers receive a total of Rs 3.5643 billion.

If the authority had not introduced this policy then the expenditures on maintenance and patrolling would be 900 million for 5 years (less than 1 billion rupees), from January 2012-2017.

Those in higher positions claim that the possible decline in expenditures are actually due to the visible fall in the prices of petrol. In 2011-12, petrol prices per litre were Rs 114-118, curiously, now the petrol price per litre is Rs 66.27 which was about 60 rupees in 2016 – almost 68.4 percent less.

The principal accountant officer (PAO) is responsible for rendering a certificate about the detail of vehicles allocated to the officers of BPS-20 and above.

Similarly, the PAO also awarded a certificate which stated that all the entitled officers working under them, who have opted to retain the vehicles as per the policy against the depreciated price, are not using any project vehicle, departmental operational, general duty vehicle or any other vehicle of another organization in their ex-office capacity.

Despite all these rules, after purchasing the cars at a depreciated price, the officers are enjoying official rides as well as receiving handsome allowances.