Federal, provincial employees: Secretaries’ committee unhappy over disparity in pays

ISLAMABAD: The top bureaucracy of the Cabinet is unhappy at the disparity in pays of federal government employees compared to provincial governments’ employees, NAB, FIA, Parliament and judiciary.

These concerns were discussed at a special meeting of the secretaries’ committee presided over by Sardar Ahmad Nawaz Sukhera, the Cabinet Secretary.

Sukhera apprised that secretaries’ committee was mandated to discuss important policy matters pertaining to attracting best H.R. to the federal government’s career progression, service structure and terms and conditions of civil servants; and resolved to firm up recommendations in cases wherein two or more divisions have different points of view.

Cabinet Secretary, at least once in a quarter, has to present before the Cabinet a resume of the decisions and recommendations made by the secretaries’ committee. It was crucial for the secretaries’ committee to exhibit its significance to the Federal Government, since the forum provided an opportunity to bring about new ideas and put forward important proposals that required collective wisdom of the senior most officers in the federal bureaucracy.

The Committee took up the following agenda: (i) progress report on the decisions of secretaries’ committee regarding “disparity in pay packages between Provincial Secretariats and Federal Secretariat;” (ii) briefing on salary component of budget (FY 2021-2022) for Government Employees (BS 1-22) and Impact of taxation measures an salaries/allowances /deductions and; (iii) special performance allowance/ honoraria.

The Cabinet Secretary apprised the forum that the issue of disparity in the pay packages between the Provincial Secretariats and the Federal Secretariat had been deliberated upon in various meetings of the Secretaries Committee under the directions of the Federal Cabinet. A sub-committee was constituted on the matter and in the light of the report of the sub- committee, its minutes were sent to the Finance Division to process the case on priority.

These recommendations were also shared, through a written communication, with both the former as well as present Ministers for Finance and Revenue, and the Secretary, Finance Division. Two budgets had already passed since these recommendations were made but no feedback has been given as yet to the secretaries’ committee.

He said it seems that nothing substantial had been worked upon to address the issue of disparity. He further highlighted the fact that the officers lacked willingness to work in the Federal Government since they get higher and better pay-packages in the Provincial Governments, and better housing facilities.

The Finance Secretary stated that the total strength of the Federal Government employees was 1,384,534 which included 639,607 civilian employees and 744,927 Armed Forces’ personnel. Within the Federal Government , disparity in salary packages ranged from 100-170% and was due to grant of additional allowances, e.g. judicial allowance, risk allowance, health allowance, investigation allowance, house allowance, fixed 20 DAs, utility allowance etc.

The meeting was informed that beneficiary organizations included Judiciary, NAB, FIA, IB, Naya Pakistan Housing Authority (NPHA), President and PM Secretariats, NA. and Senate Secretariats, etc. The difference between Federal & Provincial Secretariats ranged from 40-85%. This disparity was due to grant of additional allowances and higher rates, e.g. higher rates of secretariat allowance, executive allowance, utility allowance and these allowances had been granted in the provinces since the year 2009 onwards.

He further apprised the members regarding the disparity reduction measures of the Federal Government where Pay & Pension Commission was constituted for holistic review of Government’s pay and pension structures. Disparity Reduction Allowance (DRA) @ 25% of basic pay 2017 was granted to the Federal Government Employees in BPS 1-19 which was now extended to the officers in BPS 20 & above with effect from July 01, 2021. Over 300,000 employees were beneficiaries of DRA while more than 58 organizations were excluded from benefit of DRA as identified “not eligible for DRA”.

Moreover, Rs 160 billion had been allocated in the budget for salary purpose where Rs 124 billion constituted the salary bill for the Federal Government employees, while the remaining would be subsequently issued in August and September to further reduce the disparity in their salaries. He agreed that officers from the Provinces were not attracted to work in the Federal Government due to lesser perks and privileges in terms of salaries, housing etc. He suggested that the members bring ideas for subsequent discussion on the matter.

The Secretary Establishment highlighted that the basic issue was that the take home salary of the Provincial Secretariat employees was much higher than that of Federal Secretariat employees. In addition to low salaries, they also face the issue of accommodation in the federal government and had no other privileges as provided in the provinces. He compared the work of the staff of the Federal Secretariat and that of other organizations such as Judiciary, NAB, FIA, salaries.

The Secretary Power reiterated that disparity amongst Federal & Provincial Secretariats and within Secretariat & other federal departments has actually become an HR issue for the government. Moreover, disparity within the Federal Government between the Federal Secretariat Employees and other organizations existed due to grant of additional allowances to these organizations which were approved by the Finance Division since they presented their case on solid grounds. The Federal Secretariat needed to hold its ground on this issue if it desired to resolve the disparity in the best interest of the civil servants.

The Secretary Finance then briefed the members on the relief measures in salary/allowances granted to the Federal Government Employees in the Budget 2021-22 which are as follows: (i) 10% Ad hoc Relief Allowance for serving and pensioners; (ii) 25% Disparity Reduction Allowance (BPS 20-22); (iii) Orderly allowance enhanced from Rs14,000 to Rs 17,500 and; (iv) integrated allowance for BPS 1-4 from Rs450 to Rs 900 Same tax rates would be applicable to the above mentioned allowance as were imposed earlier. However, with the addition of above mentioned measures, tax liability will slightly increase as above allowances were taxable.

The Cabinet Secretary suggested that the Orderly Allowance of Rs 17,500 is below the new minimum wage of Rs 20,000 set in this Budget, and it may be reviewed by the Ministry of Finance.

One of the members highlighted that the employees of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, working in the embassies, did not benefit from any allowance since it was notified every time that these allowances were admissible to those working within Pakistan. It was clarified that MOFA employees posted abroad get “foreign allowance” based on UN index in their respective countries of posting. Another member pointed out that the Provincial Governments have quantified their seats with a risk factor or based it on nature of work and had granted additional allowances to those seats only.

Secretary Finance noted that as per the decision of the Federal Cabinet, “Secretaries committee shall devise a comprehensive policy detailing measurable parameters for grant of performance allowance/honoraria for the officers/employees of each Ministry/Division and furnish its recommendations to the Cabinet at the earliest.” Finance Division submitted broad parameters for honorarium policy in December, 2018 and October, 2020 to the secretaries’ committee. Since, terms of reference of the Pay & Pension Commission includes review of honorarium /reward regime of Federal Government, and the Pay & Pension Commission had constituted a Committee for recommendations on honorarium/reward therefore, Finance Division recommended deferring consideration of the honorarium policy till the final recommendations of the Pay & Pension Commission were received.

The Cabinet Secretary pointed out that in the previous meeting of the secretaries’ committee on 30 June, 2021, it was proposed that a sub-committee be constituted to review previous recommendations of the secretaries’ committee on the disparity issue, and give fresh proposals/recommendations for the Pay and Pension Commission.

The Secretary Establishment further proposed that the recommendations of the secretaries’ committee might also be shared with the Prime Minister and the Federal Cabinet.

The secretaries’ committee unanimously agreed on constitution of the sub- committee, to deliberate on the issue of disparity in pays between Federal and Provincial Governments employees, and grant of honorarium to the Federal Government Employees.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021